Bible Strands
Psalms 119:142
Your righteousness is everlasting and Your law is true.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses God directly, contrasting his own lowly and despised condition with the unchanging nature of the divine character. This declaration occurs within a sequence of verses that acknowledge personal distress while anchoring the speaker's stability in divine instruction.
The words — The Hebrew צִדְקָתְךָ (tzidkatka) translates to "your righteousness," paired with לְעוֹלָם (le'olam), meaning "forever" or "everlasting." The phrase תוֹרָתְךָ אֱמֶת (toratekha emet) renders literally as "your law is truth."
The thread — This pairing of God's enduring character and reliable instruction appears in Psalm 119:151 and John 17:17, where divine word is identified as truth. Psalm 19:9 similarly links God's judgments with truth and righteousness, though it attributes endurance to the fear of the Lord rather than the judgments themselves.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to fix their attention on the permanent reliability of God's moral standard and instruction rather than their own circumstances. It demands a practical reliance on that standard when facing trouble or distress.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.
Cross-references
- Psalms 19:9 The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever; the judgments of the LORD are true, being altogether righteous.
- Psalms 119:151 You are near, O LORD, and all Your commandments are true.
- John 17:17 Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.
- Isaiah 51:8 For the moth will devour them like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool. But My righteousness will last forever, My salvation through all generations.”
- Isaiah 51:6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth below; for the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and its people will die like gnats. But My salvation will last forever, and My righteousness will never fail.
- Psalms 119:144 Your testimonies are righteous forever. Give me understanding, that I may live.
- Psalms 36:6 Your righteousness is like the highest mountains; Your judgments are like the deepest sea. O LORD, You preserve man and beast.
- Ephesians 4:21 Surely you heard of Him and were taught in Him—in keeping with the truth that is in Jesus—
- Daniel 9:24 Seventy weeks are decreed for your people and your holy city to stop their transgression, to put an end to sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy Place.
- 2 Thessalonians 1:6 After all, it is only right for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you,