What Does Psalm 108:4 Mean in the King James?
For thy mercy is great above the heavens: and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Faithful love rises beyond the heavens, and truth reaches the clouds: neither has an edge the reader can see.
THE MEANING
God’s faithful love exceeds the highest expanse the reader can picture, and God’s truth reaches the cloud-heights. These are steady qualities of God, present to the reader now. The sky gives the verse a measure for what surpasses its limits.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that God’s love or reliability runs out at the edge of what the reader can see.
THE ROOT
חֶסֶד
chesed
GROWS FROM
ח־ס־ד
ḥ-s-d
To show loyal kindness; faithful love expressed as steadfast care.
The verse places this faithful love above the heavens, beyond the highest boundary the reader can picture. The word carries the sense of enduring loyalty, not only a moment of mercy.
ALSO GROWS
ḥasad: To show kindness or loyal care.
חָסַד
This verb shows the root as an action, making mercy something expressed through steadfast care.
ḥasid: A faithful, loyal, or devout person.
חָסִיד
The same root can describe a person marked by loyalty, revealing the enduring character within the verse’s mercy.
אֱמֶת
emet
GROWS FROM
א־מ־ן
ʾ-m-n
To be firm, steady, and reliable.
The verse’s truth reaches to the cloud-heights: it is more than a correct statement; it is reliability with no visible limit. The root’s family connects truth with what can be trusted and leaned upon.
ALSO GROWS
emunah: Steadfastness, trust, or faithfulness.
אֱמוּנָה
This branch links truth to the steadiness a person can rely on, not merely to information.
amen: Truly; a firm affirmation.
אָמֵן
This familiar affirmation shares the root’s sense of firmness, echoing truth as something dependable.
THE PATTERN
Faithful love and truth exceed the created horizon and meet human life.
For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds.Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.THE THREAD
Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.Psalm 85:10 repeats the pair חֶסֶד (chesed, faithful love) and אֱמֶת (emet, truth and reliability). Here, what reaches beyond the heavens and cloud-heights meets together, revealing the bond beneath their separate images.
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