Good and upright is the Lord: therefore will he teach sinners in the way.
Good and upright is Jehovah: Therefore will he instruct sinners in the way.
Good and upright is Jehovah, Therefore He directeth sinners in the way.
Good and upright is Jehovah; therefore will he instruct sinners in the way:
Psalms — The canon's longest book — 150 Psalms edited into five doxology-bookended books, composed across a millennium, attributed to David, Asaph, Korah's sons, Moses, Solomon, Heman, Ethan, and anonymous voices. A ''Torah of David''; the Bible's longest continuous liturgical-devotional corpus.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
Voices4
Mercy is customary with God; righteousness is his constant concern. Often, in fact, he obscures sin with a show of his goodness, and he does not submit individuals' behavior to harsh scrutiny; rather, when he sees some people persisting in their errors without amendment, he …
Theodore of Mopsuestia· COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 25:8, 428patristic
Good and upright is the Lord,....
John Gill· Exposition of the Entire Bible, 1771reformed
Ver. 8-10. These three verses are a meditation upon the attributes and acts of the Lord. He who toils in the harvest field of prayer should occasionally pause awhile and refresh himself with a meal of meditation. Ver. 8. Good and upright is the Lord: therefore will he teach sinners in the way. Here the goodness and rectitude of the divine character are beheld in friendly union; he who would see them thus united in bonds of perfect amity must stand at the foot of the cross and view them blended in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus.
Charles Spurgeon· The Treasury of David, 1892reformed
Upright - Holy and true, in all his declarations and offers of mercy to sinners. Therefore - He will not be wanting to such poor sinners as I am, but will guide them into the way of life and peace.
John Wesley (NT Notes)· Explanatory Notes upon the Bible, 1765evangelical
The Psalms were not written to be read silently. They were sheet music. David set aside whole families of Levites to lead the singing, and 1 Chronicles 23:5 counts four thousand of them praising the LORD with instruments David had made. Three great guilds carried the work — the sons of Asaph, of Heman, and of Jeduthun — and their names still sit at the top of psalms we sing today.
The little lines above many psalms are performance directions left in the text. "To the chief Musician" points to the worship leader. "Neginoth" means stringed instruments. "Selah," scattered seventy-one times, is most likely a musical pause or a swell. The temple had trumpets, harps, lyres, and cymbals, and the sound of them carried across the city.
Three times a year every Israelite family that could travel went up to Jerusalem for a feast. Psalms 120 through 134 are labeled Songs of Ascents — short, portable songs sung on the climb up to the city, which sits high in the hill country. Other groups had fixed places too: Psalms 113–118, the Egyptian Hallel, were sung at Passover, which is almost certainly the hymn Jesus and the disciples sang at the Last Supper.
Because the book grew over centuries, it carries the whole history of the nation inside it. Psalm 90 comes from the wilderness. Many psalms come from David's years running from Saul and reigning in Jerusalem. Psalm 137 was written by people sitting beside the canals of Babylon with their harps hung up in the trees. The hymnbook outlived the temple that first sang it.
For the first hearers, the Psalms were the words God gave them to say back to Him. A farmer who could not read still knew these songs by heart, because he had sung them at the feasts since he was a child. When his crops failed or his enemies closed in, he already had the language for it.
They also taught Israel that God could take honesty. Almost a third of the Psalter is lament — complaint, grief, even anger, brought straight to God instead of swallowed. The book teaches the worshiper to carry everything to the LORD and leave the settling of scores with Him, and then it ends with five straight songs of pure praise, so that the last word of the human heart is praise.
The walk8
Two steps out along the cross-reference floor, votes-ranked — destinations reached by more than one path rise (the text's own hubs). Every stop is a page, and every stop travels with its words.
Through
Psalms 32:8I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will give you counsel and watch over you.
leads to
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;
Surely the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear Him, on those whose hope is in His loving devotion
Good and upright is the LORD; therefore He shows sinners the way.
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Receive my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than pure gold.
Through
James 1:5Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
leads to
if you truly call out to insight and lift your voice to understanding,
If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
The whole web at once: see the Arc.
The verses this one reaches12
I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will give you counsel and watch over you.
Thus says the LORD your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you for your benefit, who directs you in the way you should go.
in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.
And whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: “This is the way. Walk in it.”
See if there is any offensive way in me; lead me in the way everlasting.
Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of distress; He cares for those who trust in Him.
Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God. May Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in your knowledge of Him.
If anyone desires to do His will, he will know whether My teaching is from God or whether I speak on My own.
The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.
45 more linked verses are grouped by book below ↓
Every other verse the study tradition links to this one, in the Bible’s own order. The first links in each book carry a line of their text; every reference opens its full verse page.
2 Chronicles2
Psalms11
Proverbs5
Isaiah5
Matthew4
Luke2
John3
Acts6
2 Corinthians1
Cross-reference data: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge; OpenBible.info (CC-BY).