What Does Psalm 119:12 Mean in the King James?
Blessed art thou, O LORD: teach me thy statutes.
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 word translated “statutes” carries the image of an inscribed pattern, so the prayer asks to learn the shape already marked in God’s instruction.
THE MEANING
You can bless the LORD while remaining a learner; the verse holds reverence and openness together. The instruction is a pattern to be understood and received now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse dissolves the belief that honoring God requires already knowing the right path: the speaker blesses the LORD while asking to be taught.
THE ROOT
חֻקֶּיךָ
chuqqecha
GROWS FROM
חקק
ḥ-q-q
To cut or inscribe; by extension, to prescribe or decree.
“Statutes” comes from a word family carrying the image of something inscribed or prescribed. The prayer asks to be taught the pattern within God’s instruction, not merely handed a list of rules.
ALSO GROWS
choq: A statute, prescribed portion, or fixed measure.
חֹק
This branch shows that the instruction has a defined shape or measure.
chaqaq: To inscribe, engrave, or decree.
חָקַק
The act of inscribing reveals the image beneath “statutes”: instruction marked into a lasting form.
mechoqeq: A ruler or lawgiver.
מְחֹקֵק
This branch connects the inscribed decree to the one who establishes it.
לַמְּדֵנִי
lamdeni
GROWS FROM
למד
l-m-d
To learn or teach.
“teach” in this verse is lamdeni. The same root holds teaching and learning together: to ask to be taught is to enter the posture of a learner. The verse joins blessing with ongoing learning rather than treating them as separate acts.
ALSO GROWS
lamad: To learn.
לָמַד
The learner and the one being taught belong to the same word family.
talmid: A learner or student.
תַּלְמִיד
This branch makes visible the receptive side of the verb “teach.”
בָּרוּךְ
barukh
GROWS FROM
ברך
b-r-k
To bless; the root also names the knee and carries the image of bending.
“blessed” in this verse is barukh. The word for blessing shares its root with the word for knee, giving praise a bodily image of reverence. Here, blessing the LORD sits beside the speaker’s request to be taught.
ALSO GROWS
berakhah: A blessing.
בְּרָכָה
This is the noun branch of the same root used to bless the LORD.
berekh: A knee.
בֶּרֶךְ
The shared root gives blessing the image of a bent knee, a posture of reverence.
THE PATTERN
Blessing opens into teachability: receiving God’s instruction shapes the path a person walks.
Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths.And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.THE THREAD
Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths.“Teach” in both verses comes from למד (lamad), the root that holds teaching and learning together. Psalm 25:4 opens the request further: what the speaker learns is not only a statute, but a path to see.
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