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Psalm 119:96
I have seen a limit to all perfection, but your commands are boundless. MEM
94I am yours. Save me, for I have sought your precepts.
95The wicked have waited for me, to destroy me. I will consider your statutes.
96I have seen a limit to all perfection, but your commands are boundless. MEM
97How I love your law! It is my meditation all day.
98Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for your commandments are always with me.
Notice
A limit to even the best things you have seen can unsettle your sense of perfection, while God's commands exceed those familiar bounds.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
Where have you seen a limit in something you once considered perfect?
Write on thisHow does the word “boundless” challenge your view of God's commands?
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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 119:18Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things out of your law.Both passages regard God's instruction with wonder: one declares its boundless scope, and the other asks for eyes to see its wonders.
Matthew 24:35Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.Both contrast what has a limit with divine words: the psalm names boundless commands, and Jesus says his words will not pass away.
Ecclesiastes 2:11Then I looked at all the works that my hands had worked, and at the labor that I had labored to do; and behold, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and …Both speakers describe what they have observed: perfection has limits, and the Preacher's labor yields no lasting profit under the sun.
Matthew 5:18For most certainly, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not even one smallest letter or one tiny pen stroke shall in any way pass away from the law, …Both affirm the greatness of God's law: the psalm names its boundless scope, while Jesus insists that no smallest part will pass unaccomplished.
Matthew 5:28but I tell you that everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.The psalm describes God's commands as boundless; Jesus speaks of a command's reach into the heart's desire.
Matthew 22:37–40Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’The psalm praises the breadth of God's commands; Jesus describes love for God that encompasses the whole person.
Psalm 39:5–6Behold, you have made my days hand widths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath.” Selah.Both acknowledge limits in human experience: one sees an end to perfection, and the other measures a lifetime as a breath.
Ecclesiastes 1:2–3“Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”Both make sweeping observations about what falls short, though the psalm also contrasts those limits with God's boundless commands.
Psalm 19:7–8The LORD’s law is perfect, restoring the soul. The LORD’s covenant is sure, making wise the simple.Both praise God's instruction as surpassing human limits: one calls his commands boundless, and the other calls his law perfect.
1 Samuel 17:8He stood and cried to the armies of Israel, and said to them, “Why have you come out to set your battle in array? Am I not a Philistine, and you servants to …There is no clear shared claim: the psalm praises God's commands, while this scene records a Philistine challenging Israel to single combat.
1 Samuel 17:49–51David put his hand in his bag, took a stone and slung it, and struck the Philistine in his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face …The connection is slight: the Philistine's fall shows a warrior's limits, but the scene says nothing about the breadth of God's commands.
Romans 7:14For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin.Both distinguish God's law from human limitation, though Romans names bondage to sin and the psalm speaks of limits to perfection.
One step
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Encouragement
The limits you discover in things you admire need not become the measure of God's word. The psalm speaks from observed limits and declares God's commands boundless.
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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).