Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.
Parallel translations
- WEB Teach me your way, Yahweh. I will walk in your truth. Make my heart undivided to fear your name.
- BSB Teach me Your way, O LORD, that I may walk in Your truth. Give me an undivided heart, that I may fear Your name.
- NKJV Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name.
- NASB ¶Teach me Your way, Lord; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name.
- NLT Teach me your ways, O Lord, that I may live according to your truth! Grant me purity of heart, so that I may honor you.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
David asks God to teach him His way and to unite his heart to fear God's name. He prays for an undivided heart devoted to God.
Overview
This rich petition seeks both instruction in God's way and an integrated, wholehearted reverence, free from divided loyalties. It recognizes that a single-minded devotion is itself God's gift. It anticipates the new-covenant promise of a heart transformed by the Spirit to know and walk in God's truth, supremely revealed in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 27
- Jer 32:38–39And they shall be my people, and I will be their God:
- Ps 25:4–5Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths.
- Ps 5:8Lead me, O LORD, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before my face.
- Ps 119:33Teach me, O LORD, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end.
- Ps 143:8–10Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.
- Job 34:32That which I see not teach thou me: if I have done iniquity, I will do no more.
- Ps 25:12What man is he that feareth the LORD? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.
- Ps 27:11Teach me thy way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.
- Ps 26:3For thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes: and I have walked in thy truth.
- 2 Jn 1:4I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father.
- John 17:20–21Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
- Col 3:22–23Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God:
- Ps 119:73Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments.
- 3 Jn 1:3–4For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth.
- Col 3:17And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
- 1 Cor 10:21Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.
- Eph 4:21If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:
- Mal 2:6The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity.
- Ps 119:30I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid before me.
- Hos 14:8Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found.
- John 6:45–46It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.
- 1 Cor 6:17But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
- Matt 6:22–24The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
- Acts 2:46And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
- Zeph 1:5And them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops; and them that worship and that swear by the LORD, and that swear by Malcham;
- 2 Cor 11:3But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
- Hos 10:2Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty: he shall break down their altars, he shall spoil their images.
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 86:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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