What Does Psalm 118:21 Mean in the King James?
I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation.
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 turns being heard into an embodied answer: the One who hears becomes the deliverance itself.
THE MEANING
You are heard, and the LORD becomes your deliverance, opening a way from constriction into spaciousness. Praise rises as recognition that the answer is present in the One who hears you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that being heard leaves you alone with what constricts you: the One who hears becomes your deliverance.
THE ROOT
לִישׁוּעָה
lishu'ah
GROWS FROM
ישע
to deliver, bringing someone into spacious safety
English “salvation” can sound like an outcome; לִישׁוּעָה (lishu’ah, deliverance) names the way out itself. The verse says the LORD becomes that deliverance, moving you from constriction toward spaciousness.
ALSO GROWS
yasha: to deliver, bring into safety
יָשַׁע
The verb names the act that lishu’ah embodies: being brought out.
moshia: deliverer, one who brings out
מוֹשִׁיעַ
The same root names the one who delivers, so the verse can say the LORD himself becomes the deliverance.
עֲנִיתָנִי
ʿanitani
GROWS FROM
ענה
to answer, respond
“heard” in this verse is ʿanitani. The Hebrew verb says “you answered me,” making this more than reception: hearing takes the form of response. The sentence joins that answer directly to deliverance, the LORD’s response is the way out.
ALSO GROWS
ʿanah: to answer, respond
עָנָה
This verb is the seed of עֲנִיתָנִי (ʿanitani, “you answered me”), clarifying what the KJV renders “heard me.”
maʿaneh: an answer, response
מַעֲנֶה
This noun from the same root shows that the act of hearing carries an answering response.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s hearing becomes a personal answer that brings the caller into deliverance.
This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.THE THREAD
The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him.Exodus 15:2 uses the same root ישע (yasha, deliver) in יְשׁוּעָה (yeshu’ah, deliverance), and repeats this verse’s claim that the LORD becomes the speaker’s deliverance. Together, the verses reveal deliverance as the LORD himself, present in the act of bringing the speaker through.
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