What Does Psalm 117:2 Mean in the King James?
For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the LORD endureth for ever. Praise ye the LORD.
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’s “great” is a word of prevailing: the LORD’s faithful love has force and direction toward you.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s faithful love is strong toward you now; it prevails in your direction. The LORD’s truth remains firm through every age, so love and truth are not passing moods. Praise rises from what endures.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that divine love is fleeting or that truth cannot be relied on when circumstances change: the verse names faithful love as prevailing toward you and truth as enduring.
THE ROOT
חֶסֶד
ḥesed
GROWS FROM
חסד
ḥ-s-d
Faithful kindness; loyal love expressed in relationship.
“merciful kindness” in this verse is ḥesed. חֶסֶד (ḥesed, faithful love) names a bond expressed through action, not a passing tenderness. Its kinship with the word for a faithful one makes the LORD’s love here a durable way of being toward you.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāsad: To act with kindness or loyalty.
חָסַד
This verbal form shows faithful love as something enacted toward another.
ḥāsîd: A faithful or loyal one.
חָסִיד
This related word describes a person by the same quality of loyalty named in the verse.
גָּבַר
gāvar
GROWS FROM
גבר
g-b-r
To be strong; to prevail.
The “great” here is expressed by a verb of prevailing, so the line carries force and direction: his faithful love rises strong toward us. Its family words name strength both as a quality and as one who embodies it.
ALSO GROWS
gibbôr: Mighty one; warrior.
גִּבּוֹר
This word names a person marked by strength, showing that “great” carries the force of prevailing.
gevūrāh: Might; strength.
גְּבוּרָה
This branch names the strength contained in the verse’s claim that faithful love is great toward us.
אֱמֶת
ʾemet
GROWS FROM
אמן
ʾ-m-n
Firm, steady, reliable.
אֱמֶת (ʾemet, truth) carries firmness and reliability as well as veracity. Through אֱמוּנָה (ʾemunah, trust) and אָמֵן (ʾāmēn, truly; so be it), it points to truth as something steady enough to lean on, which the verse says remains through every age.
ALSO GROWS
ʾemunah: Trust; steadfastness.
אֱמוּנָה
Its shared root links truth with what can be trusted and relied upon.
ʾāmēn: Truly; so be it.
אָמֵן
This affirmation rests on what is firm and dependable.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s faithful love is joined to truth, and both reach beyond the passing moment.
And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,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.But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.THE THREAD
And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,The same pair appears here: חֶסֶד (ḥesed, faithful love) and אֱמֶת (ʾemet, truth). Psalm 117 compresses that declaration into two claims: his love prevails toward you, and his truth endures.
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