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Psalm 119:40

Behold, I long for your precepts! Revive me in your righteousness. VAV

38Fulfill your promise to your servant, that you may be feared.
39Take away my disgrace that I dread, for your ordinances are good.
40Behold, I long for your precepts! Revive me in your righteousness. VAV
41Let your loving kindness also come to me, LORD, your salvation, according to your word.
42So I will have an answer for him who reproaches me, for I trust in your word.
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← Psalm 119:39Psalm 119:41 →
Notice

Longing for God’s precepts leads straight into a plea for life, showing that love for his commands can coexist with a need for renewal.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

What would longing for God’s precepts look like in one choice facing you today?

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What part of your life would you bring to God with this plea for revival?

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What do you make of the appeal to God’s righteousness as the ground for renewal?

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Connect

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 119:37Turn my eyes away from looking at worthless things. Revive me in your ways.Both verses ask God to revive the speaker, linking renewed life with God’s ways and righteousness.
Psalm 119:20My soul is consumed with longing for your ordinances at all times.Both verses express longing for God’s instruction, with verse 20 describing that longing as consuming and constant.
John 10:10The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.The psalm asks God for renewed life; Jesus says he came so that people may have life abundantly.
Psalm 119:25My soul is laid low in the dust. Revive me according to your word!Both plead for revival, appealing to God’s word in verse 25 and his righteousness in verse 40.
Psalm 19:8The LORD’s precepts are right, rejoicing the heart. The LORD’s commandment is pure, enlightening the eyes.Both name God’s precepts: one expresses longing for them, while the other declares them right and a source of joy.
2 Corinthians 7:1Having therefore these promises, beloved, let’s cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.Both turn toward a life shaped by God’s will, expressed as longing for his precepts and pursuing holiness.
Philippians 3:13–14Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do: forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which …The shared thread is desire reaching beyond the present: Paul stretches forward, while the psalmist longs for God’s precepts.
Romans 7:18For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but I don’t find it doing that which is good.Both name desire for what is good; Romans also names the failure to put that desire into practice.
Romans 7:15For I don’t understand what I am doing. For I don’t practice what I desire to do; but what I hate, that I do.Both speak of desire, though Romans describes doing what the speaker hates while the psalm asks God for renewal.
1 Corinthians 15:45So also it is written, “The first man Adam became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.Life is the shared thread: the psalm asks God to revive, while Paul describes the last Adam as life-giving.
Ephesians 2:5even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—Both speak of life received from God: the psalm requests revival, while Ephesians describes being made alive with Christ.
Matthew 26:41Watch and pray, that you don’t enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”The psalm joins longing with prayer for renewal; Jesus acknowledges willingness and weakness while commanding watchfulness and prayer.
Where this verse fits

Feeling distant from God. wanting a steady prayer habit. sermon or Bible study notes.

What the Bible says about doubt →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Pray Psalm 119:40 aloud before your next Bible reading

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Encouragement

Your need for renewal does not make a desire for God’s commands false. The psalm joins that desire to a plea grounded in God’s righteousness.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 119:40. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

Keep goingPsalm 119 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms

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).