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Psalm 119:70
Their heart is as callous as the fat, but I delight in your law.
68You are good, and do good. Teach me your statutes.
69The proud have smeared a lie upon me. With my whole heart, I will keep your precepts.
70Their heart is as callous as the fat, but I delight in your law.
71It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes.
72The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of pieces of gold and silver. YODH
Notice
The callous heart belongs to people who have spread lies, while the speaker’s delight in God’s law shows what still matters under their contempt.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What makes delight a striking response to the lies described in the preceding verse?
Write on thisWhen others treat you with contempt, what happens to your delight in God’s word?
Write on thisConnect
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 17:10They close up their callous hearts. With their mouth they speak proudly.Both passages describe callous hearts, with Psalm 17 also naming the proud speech that accompanies such hardness.
Acts 28:27For this people’s heart has grown callous. Their ears are dull of hearing. Their eyes they have closed. Lest they should see with their eyes, hear with their …Both describe a callous heart; Acts expands the picture with ears and eyes closed to hearing and understanding.
Psalm 73:7Their eyes bulge with fat. Their minds pass the limits of conceit.Both use fat in a description of people’s inner condition, connecting bodily imagery with callousness or conceit.
Matthew 13:15for this people’s heart has grown callous, their ears are dull of hearing, and they have closed their eyes; or else perhaps they might perceive with their …The callous heart appears in both passages, with Matthew describing its connection to failures of hearing, seeing, and understanding.
Psalm 119:16I will delight myself in your statutes. I will not forget your word. GIMELBoth verses express delight in God’s instruction, and Psalm 119:16 joins that delight to a resolve to remember his word.
Isaiah 6:10Both use the image of a fat heart for spiritual unresponsiveness, though Isaiah frames it within a command concerning the people.
Jeremiah 6:10To whom should I speak and testify, that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they can’t listen. Behold, the LORD’s word has become a …Both address delight in God’s word: the psalm’s speaker treasures it, while Jeremiah describes people who find no delight in it.
Romans 7:22For I delight in God’s law after the inward person,Both speakers express delight in God’s law, with Romans locating that delight in the inward person.
Psalm 40:8I delight to do your will, my God. Yes, your law is within my heart.”Both connect delight with God’s law, and Psalm 40 links that delight to doing God’s will.
Deuteronomy 31:20For when I have brought them into the land which I swore to their fathers, flowing with milk and honey, and they have eaten and filled themselves, and grown …Both use fat imagery when describing resistance to God; Deuteronomy names covenant-breaking after abundance, while the psalm describes a callous heart.
Deuteronomy 32:15But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. You have grown fat. You have grown thick. You have become sleek. Then he abandoned God who made him, and rejected the Rock …Fatness appears in both descriptions of people opposed to God, with Deuteronomy naming abandonment and the psalm naming callousness.
Leviticus 3:3He shall offer of the sacrifice of peace offerings an offering made by fire to the LORD. The fat that covers the innards, and all the fat that is on the …The shared word is fat: Leviticus describes an offering’s physical fat, while the psalm uses fat as a comparison for callousness.
Where this verse fits
Injustice and anger.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
The speaker has been slandered, yet still finds delight in God’s law. Other people’s callousness has not taken away the worth of God’s words.
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).