Read
Psalm 34:15
The LORD’s eyes are toward the righteous. His ears listen to their cry.
13Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking lies.
14Depart from evil, and do good. Seek peace, and pursue it.
15The LORD’s eyes are toward the righteous. His ears listen to their cry.
16The LORD’s face is against those who do evil, to cut off their memory from the earth.
17The righteous cry, and the LORD hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles.
Notice
The word “cry” leaves room for distress within a righteous life, while God’s eyes and ears speak of his attention to it.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What would you want to cry out about under YHWH’s attentive gaze?
Write on thisHow do the commands about truth and peace shape your reading of “the righteous”?
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
1 Peter 5:7casting all your worries on him, because he cares for you.Peter grounds bringing worries to God in his care; the psalm describes that care through eyes that watch and ears that listen.
James 5:16Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.Both passages connect righteousness with prayer, describing God’s attention to the cry and the effectiveness of a righteous person’s prayer.
1 Peter 3:12For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears open to their prayer; but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”Peter repeats the psalm’s words about the Lord’s eyes on the righteous and his ears open to their prayer.
2 Chronicles 16:9For the LORD’s eyes run back and forth throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. You have …Both describe the LORD’s eyes attending to people whose lives are turned toward him.
Psalm 34:17The righteous cry, and the LORD hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles.Verse 17 repeats the righteous person’s cry and the LORD’s hearing, then adds his deliverance from their troubles.
Matthew 6:6But you, when you pray, enter into your inner room, and having shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will …Psalm 34 speaks of God seeing the righteous; Jesus speaks of the Father seeing prayer offered in secret.
Psalm 33:18Behold, the LORD’s eye is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his loving kindness,Both psalms describe the LORD’s watchful eye, naming the righteous here and those who fear him in Psalm 33.
Psalm 40:1For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. I waited patiently for the LORD. He turned to me, and heard my cry.Psalm 40 recounts a cry the LORD heard, sharing Psalm 34’s assurance that he listens to the righteous.
Job 36:7He doesn’t withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne, he sets them forever, and they are exalted.Both passages speak of God’s eyes remaining on the righteous, with Job also describing their exaltation.
Psalm 18:6In my distress I called on the LORD, and cried to my God. He heard my voice out of his temple. My cry before him came into his ears.Psalm 18 describes a cry of distress reaching God’s ears, the same attentive hearing affirmed in Psalm 34.
Deuteronomy 11:12a land which the LORD your God cares for. The LORD your God’s eyes are always on it, from the beginning of the year even to the end of the year.Both use the LORD’s eyes to describe his attention, directed toward the land in Deuteronomy and the righteous in Psalm 34.
2 Chronicles 6:40“Now, my God, let, I beg you, your eyes be open, and let your ears be attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.Chronicles asks for God’s open eyes and attentive ears, while Psalm 34 affirms that he sees and hears the righteous.
Where this verse fits
Feeling distant from God. wanting a steady prayer habit.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
Distress does not place you outside the life described here: the righteous cry out too. YHWH’s eyes are toward them, and his ears listen to their cry.
Now put it in your words.
Start an entry on Psalm 34:15. 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 34 · 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).