Skip to main content
Psalmlog Logo
Read

Psalm 125:3

For the scepter of wickedness won’t remain over the allotment of the righteous, so that the righteous won’t use their hands to do evil.

1A Song of Ascents. Those who trust in the LORD are as Mount Zion, which can’t be moved, but remains forever.
2As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people from this time forward and forever more.
3For the scepter of wickedness won’t remain over the allotment of the righteous, so that the righteous won’t use their hands to do evil.
4Do good, LORD, to those who are good, to those who are upright in their hearts.
5But as for those who turn away to their crooked ways, the LORD will lead them away with the workers of iniquity. Peace be on Israel.
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →
← Psalm 125:2Psalm 125:4 →
Notice

The scepter represents wicked rule, and the concern about the righteous person’s hands names a danger of oppression: being drawn into the evil you live under.

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

Where does wickedness in those with power make doing right seem harder to sustain?

Write on this

What does the promise that the scepter “won’t remain” leave you hoping for while you wait?

Write on this

What might keeping your hands from evil look like under the pressure you face?

Write on this
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
1 Corinthians 10:13No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the …Both passages connect God’s protection with the danger of temptation and his people’s need to withstand it.
Isaiah 14:5–6The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers,Both passages use a scepter to picture wicked rule and declare that its power does not last.
Psalm 89:22No enemy will tax him. No wicked man will oppress him.Both passages promise protection from wicked power, though Psalm 89 speaks of one person and Psalm 125 of the righteous.
Proverbs 22:8He who sows wickedness reaps trouble, and the rod of his fury will be destroyed.The scepter that will not remain and the rod that will be destroyed both mark an end to wicked power.
Revelation 2:10Don’t be afraid of the things which you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested; and you will …Both passages place a limit on oppression while treating faithfulness under its pressure as a serious concern.
Isaiah 27:8In measure, when you send them away, you contend with them. He has removed them with his rough blast in the day of the east wind.Both passages describe limits within affliction, though Isaiah speaks of measured removal rather than the end of wicked rule.
Psalm 97:10You who love the LORD, hate evil! He preserves the souls of his saints. He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.Both passages connect God’s protection from the wicked with his people’s separation from evil.
1 Samuel 24:10Behold, today your eyes have seen how the LORD had delivered you today into my hand in the cave. Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, ‘I will …Both passages concern restraint of the hands under pressure, with the cave account showing a refusal to kill despite urging.
Psalm 66:9who preserves our life among the living, and doesn’t allow our feet to be moved.Both passages express confidence in God’s preservation of his people, with Psalm 125 naming the danger posed by wicked rule.
Psalm 16:5The LORD assigned my portion and my cup. You made my lot secure.Both passages speak of an allotted portion kept secure, with Psalm 125 specifying that wicked rule will not remain over it.
Isaiah 10:5Alas Assyrian, the rod of my anger, the staff in whose hand is my indignation!Both use symbols of ruling power, though Isaiah names Assyria as God’s rod of anger and Psalm 125 describes wicked rule.
Isaiah 9:4For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as in the day of Midian.Both passages describe the ending of oppressive power through the image of a ruler’s rod or scepter.
Where this verse fits

Injustice and anger. temptation. waiting.

What the Bible says about anger →What the Bible says about temptation →What the Bible says about patience →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Write a plan for refusing one pressure to do wrong

practicaloncelight
Encouragement

The psalm gives no date for the scepter’s removal. Yet wicked rule will not remain over the righteous, and God’s protection includes concern for what oppression might draw them into doing.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 125:3. 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 125 · 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).