Bible Strands
Psalms 143:2
Do not bring Your servant into judgment, for no one alive is righteous before You.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — David addresses the LORD in a moment of desperate pursuit, asking God to hear his prayer before his enemy crushes his life to the ground. He pleads for mercy as he faces the crushing weight of his enemy's attack.
The words — The phrase תָּב֣וֹא בְ֭מִשְׁפָּט (ta.Vo' Ve./mish.pot) literally renders "you go into judgment," framing the plea as a request to avoid divine scrutiny. The verb יִצְדַּ֖ק (yitz.Dak) means "he is righteous," establishing the basis for David's appeal that no living person meets that standard.
The thread — This theme of universal human unrighteousness before God echoes in Ecclesiastes 7:20 and Job 25:4, and is later clarified in Romans 3:20 as the law's function to reveal sin rather than justify.
Why it lands — The text demands the reader acknowledge that standing before God requires mercy, not self-justification, since no one alive meets the standard of righteousness. It asks the reader to abandon reliance on personal merit and rest solely on divine faithfulness.
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
And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.
Cross-references
- Ecclesiastes 7:20 Surely there is no righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.
- Job 25:4 How then can a man be just before God? How can one born of woman be pure?
- Romans 3:20 Therefore no one will be justified in His sight by works of the law. For the law merely brings awareness of sin.
- Psalms 130:3 If You, O LORD, kept track of iniquities, then who, O Lord, could stand?
- 1 John 1:10 If we say we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar, and His word is not in us.
- Job 15:14 What is man, that he should be pure, or one born of woman, that he should be righteous?
- Galatians 2:16 know that a man is not justified by works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
- Job 14:3 Do You open Your eyes to one like this? Will You bring him into judgment before You?
- Job 4:17 ‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God, or a man more pure than his Maker?
- Exodus 34:7 maintaining loving devotion to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers on their children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”