Limitless Word
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.
Psalms 86:11 · New Living Translation
Parallel translations
  • WEB Teach me your way, Yahweh. I will walk in your truth. Make my heart undivided to fear your name.
  • KJV Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy 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.

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 25:4–5Show me your ways, Yahweh. Teach me your paths.
  • Ps 5:8Lead me, Yahweh, in your righteousness because of my enemies. Make your way straight before my face.
  • Ps 119:33Teach me, Yahweh, the way of your statutes. I will keep them to the end.
  • Ps 143:8–10Cause me to hear your loving kindness in the morning, for I trust in you. Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul to you.
  • Job 34:32Teach me that which I don’t see. If I have done iniquity, I will do it no more’?
  • Ps 25:12What man is he who fears Yahweh? He shall instruct him in the way that he shall choose.
  • Ps 27:11Teach me your way, Yahweh. Lead me in a straight path, because of my enemies.
  • Ps 26:3For your loving kindness is before my eyes. I have walked in your truth.
  • 2 Jn 1:4I rejoice greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth, even as we have been commanded by the Father.
  • John 17:20–21Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who believe in me through their word,
  • Col 3:22–23Servants, obey in all things those who are your masters according to the flesh, not just when they are looking, as men pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God.
  • Ps 119:73Your hands have made me and formed me. Give me understanding, that I may learn your commandments.
  • 3 Jn 1:3–4For I rejoiced greatly, when brothers came and testified about your truth, even as you walk in truth.
  • Col 3:17Whatever you do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father, through him.
  • 1 Cor 10:21You can’t both drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You can’t both partake of the table of the Lord, and of the table of demons.
  • Eph 4:21if indeed you heard him, and were taught in him, even as truth is in Jesus:
  • Mal 2:6The law of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found in his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many away from iniquity.
  • Ps 119:30I have chosen the way of truth. I have set your ordinances before me.
  • Hos 14:8Ephraim, what have I to do any more with idols? I answer, and will take care of him. I am like a green cypress tree; from me your fruit is found.”
  • John 6:45–46It is written in the prophets, ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who hears from the Father, and has learned, comes to me.
  • 1 Cor 6:17But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.
  • Matt 6:22–24“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light.
  • Acts 2:46Day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart,
  • Zeph 1:5those who worship the army of the sky on the housetops, those who worship and swear by Yahweh and also swear by Malcam,
  • 2 Cor 11:3But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
  • Hos 10:2Their heart is divided. Now they will be found guilty. He will demolish their altars. He will destroy their sacred stones.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (2)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Psalms videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Psalms 86:11YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on PsalmsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

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

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.