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Psalm 119:118
You reject all those who stray from your statutes, for their deceit is in vain.
116Uphold me according to your word, that I may live. Let me not be ashamed of my hope.
117Hold me up, and I will be safe, and will have respect for your statutes continually.
118You reject all those who stray from your statutes, for their deceit is in vain.
119You put away all the wicked of the earth like dross. Therefore I love your testimonies.
120My flesh trembles for fear of you. I am afraid of your judgments. AYIN
Notice
God’s rejection of those who stray gives this warning its weight: deceit offers no refuge from his judgment.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What might make deceit seem useful, despite this verse declaring it vain?
Write on thisHow do the surrounding pleas for God’s help shape your reading of this warning?
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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
Psalm 119:10With my whole heart I have sought you. Don’t let me wander from your commandments.The plea against wandering in verse 10 concerns the very departure from God’s commands that verse 118 warns against.
Psalm 119:21You have rebuked the proud who are cursed, who wander from your commandments.Both verses describe God’s response to those who wander from his commands: rebuke in verse 21 and rejection in verse 118.
Psalm 119:29Keep me from the way of deceit. Grant me your law graciously!Verse 29 asks for rescue from deceit and the gift of God’s law; verse 118 declares deceit vain.
Isaiah 63:3“I have trodden the wine press alone. Of the peoples, no one was with me. Yes, I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath. Their lifeblood is …Both portray God executing judgment, though Isaiah describes bloody trampling in wrath where the psalm speaks of rejection.
Ephesians 5:6Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience.Both connect deception with disobedience and God’s judgment, refusing to treat deceptive words as protection from his response.
Revelation 18:23The light of a lamp will shine no more at all in you. The voice of the bridegroom and of the bride will be heard no more at all in you, for your merchants were …Both connect deceit with judgment: the psalm names rejection, while Revelation describes extinguished light and silenced wedding voices.
Isaiah 44:20He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can’t deliver his soul, nor say, “Isn’t there a lie in my right hand?”Both expose deceit’s failure: it is vain in the psalm, and Isaiah’s deceived person cannot deliver his soul.
2 Timothy 3:13But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.Both associate deceit with wrongdoing; Timothy describes deceivers also being deceived, while the psalm declares their deceit vain.
Ephesians 4:22that you put away, as concerning your former way of life, the old man that grows corrupt after the lusts of deceit,Both treat deceit as bound up with a corrupt way of life, rather than as something harmless.
Luke 8:5“The farmer went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some fell along the road, and it was trampled under foot, and the birds of the sky devoured it.The connection is slight: the psalm speaks of God’s rejection, while Luke describes seed lost along a road.
Isaiah 25:10For the LORD’s hand will rest in this mountain. Moab will be trodden down in his place, even like straw is trodden down in the water of the dunghill.Both describe divine judgment: rejection of those who stray in the psalm, and Moab trodden down in Isaiah.
1 John 2:21I have not written to you because you don’t know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth.Both oppose deceit: the psalm declares it vain, and John states that no lie belongs to the truth.
Where this verse fits
Temptation. sermon or Bible study notes.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
The surrounding prayer asks God for help to remain faithful. You can take this warning with that prayer: deceit is in vain before God.
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).