Read
Psalm 119:109
My soul is continually in my hand, yet I won’t forget your law.
107I am afflicted very much. Revive me, LORD, according to your word.
108Accept, I beg you, the willing offerings of my mouth. LORD, teach me your ordinances.
109My soul is continually in my hand, yet I won’t forget your law.
110The wicked have laid a snare for me, yet I haven’t gone astray from your precepts.
111I have taken your testimonies as a heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart.
Notice
A life held in the hand is a life exposed to danger, and the resolve to remember God’s law comes from within that danger.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What does the word “yet” reveal about the relationship between danger and faithfulness here?
Write on thisWhat would remembering God’s law look like in a situation where you feel vulnerable?
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Where else Scripture says this
12 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.
This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Hebrews 12:5You have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children, “My son, don’t take lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are …Both passages concern remembering God’s instruction under hardship, though Hebrews speaks of chastening and the psalm speaks of danger.
Judges 12:3When I saw that you didn’t save me, I put my life in my hand, and passed over against the children of Ammon, and the LORD delivered them into my hand. Why then …Both use the image of life in the hand to speak of danger; Judges recounts Jephthah risking his life in battle.
1 Samuel 19:5for he put his life in his hand and struck the Philistine, and the LORD worked a great victory for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced. Why then will you sin …Both describe life held in the hand, an image of mortal danger applied in Samuel to David’s fight against the Philistine.
Job 13:14Why should I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand?Both use the image of life in the hand, though Job voices a question where the psalm declares resolve.
Psalm 119:16I will delight myself in your statutes. I will not forget your word. GIMELBoth declare a refusal to forget God’s instruction, with delight named in verse 16 and danger in verse 109.
1 Corinthians 15:31I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.Paul describes death as a daily reality, sharing the psalm’s sense of life under constant threat.
Psalm 119:141I am small and despised. I don’t forget your precepts.Both insist on remembering God’s instruction despite hardship: danger to life in one, being small and despised in the other.
1 Samuel 20:3David swore moreover, and said, “Your father knows well that I have found favor in your eyes; and he says, ‘Don’t let Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved;’ …David’s statement that death is only a step away shares the psalm’s awareness of a life exposed to danger.
2 Corinthians 11:23Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself.) I am more so: in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, …Paul’s account of repeated brushes with death shares the psalm’s sense of ongoing danger to life.
Psalm 119:152Of old I have known from your testimonies, that you have founded them forever. RESHBoth concern remembering God’s instruction; one stresses resolve amid danger, the other longstanding knowledge that God established his testimonies forever.
Psalm 119:83For I have become like a wineskin in the smoke. I don’t forget your statutes.Both pair distress with a refusal to forget God’s instruction, using images of threatened life and a wineskin in smoke.
Romans 8:36Even as it is written, “For your sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”Both describe ongoing exposure to death in lives directed toward God, without suggesting that faith removes the danger.
Where this verse fits
Fear for the future. illness or diagnosis. anxiety or panic.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
The speaker’s danger has not passed when he makes this resolve. God’s law remains his guide while his life is still at risk.
Now put it in your words.
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).