Key Verse Spotlight
Psalms 119:88 - Meaning and Application
Understand how this verse speaks to what you're facing and how to apply it today
Translation: World English Bible — Catholic Edition
" Preserve my life according to your loving kindness, so I will obey the statutes of your mouth. "
Psalms 119:88
Verse in Context
Understanding the surrounding verses prevents misinterpretation:
86 All of your commandments are faithful. They persecute me wrongfully. Help me!
87 They had almost wiped me from the earth, but I didn’t forsake your precepts.
88 Preserve my life according to your loving kindness, so I will obey the statutes of your mouth.
89 LORD, your word is settled in heaven forever.
90 Your faithfulness is to all generations. You have established the earth, and it remains.
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David is here careful to be found walking in the path of duty. His steady desire and purpose is to keep the testimony that comes from God’s mouth, to hold to it as his rule, and to cling to it as his confidence and lasting treasure. We must keep that, whatever else we lose.
He also prays for God’s grace to help him do this: “Give me life according to your faithful love, and I will keep your testimonies.” He means that without this help, he would not keep them. We cannot keep going in the good way, or remain in it, unless God gives us life and strength. So this verse teaches us to depend on God’s grace for power to do every good work, and to depend on it as grace, as something that comes only from God’s favor.
He had prayed before, “Give me life in your righteousness” (Psalms 119:40), but here he says, “Give me life according to your lovingkindness.” The surest sign of God’s good will toward us is his good work within us.
From This Chapter
Psalms 119:1
"Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the LORD’s law."
Psalms 119:2
"Blessed are those who keep his statutes, who seek him with their whole heart."
Psalms 119:3
"Yes, they do nothing wrong. They walk in his ways."
Psalms 119:4
"You have commanded your precepts, that we should fully obey them."
Psalms 119:5
"Oh that my ways were steadfast to obey your statutes!"
Psalms 119:6
"Then I wouldn’t be disappointed, when I consider all of your commandments."
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