What Does Psalm 109:1 Mean in the King James?
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise;
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
The verse holds praise and protest together: it calls God “my praise” while asking him to stop being silent.
THE MEANING
You call God the one your praise belongs to while asking him not to remain silent now. Praise and protest stand together in one prayer; devotion does not require you to pretend an answer is already audible.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that praise requires hiding the experience of divine silence: the speaker names the silence directly while still calling God “my praise.”
THE ROOT
תֶּחֱרַשׁ
taḥĕraš
GROWS FROM
חרשׁ
To be silent or keep quiet; in a related biblical use, to be deaf.
“hold not thy peace” in this verse is taḥĕraš. The word for silence shares its root with חֵרֵשׁ (ḥērēš), meaning “deaf” or “one unable to hear.” The silence named here is therefore more than an empty pause: it is experienced as the absence of a response.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāraš: To be silent or keep quiet.
חָרַשׁ
This is the root behind the plea: the speaker asks God not to remain silent.
ḥērēš: Deaf; a person unable to hear.
חֵרֵשׁ
This related use brings hearing into the word’s range, giving the silence the felt quality of no answer being heard.
תְּהִלָּתִי
tehillati
GROWS FROM
הלל
To praise, extol, or boast.
“My praise” grows from the same root as תְּהִלָּה (tehillah), “praise,” and הַלְלוּ־יָהּ (Hallelujah), “praise Yah.” The plea is still spoken from within praise: the speaker asks for an answer while addressing the God to whom that praise belongs.
ALSO GROWS
tehillah: Praise or a song of praise.
תְּהִלָּה
It shares the root of “my praise,” showing that praise is the ground of the speaker’s address.
Hallelujah: Praise Yah.
הַלְלוּ־יָהּ
This familiar call to praise grows from the same root as the speaker’s personal word for praise.
THE PATTERN
When silence threatens to swallow a plea or witness, the voice keeps making itself heard.
A Psalm of David. Unto thee will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.For we can not but speak the things which we have seen and heard.THE THREAD
A Psalm of David. Unto thee will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.Psalm 28:1 uses the same root, חרשׁ (charash), “to be silent,” and shows how much is at stake in the plea. Here silence is not abstract: the speaker fears being left to descend toward the pit without an answer.
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