What Does Psalm 119:120 Mean in the King James?
My flesh trembleth for fear of thee; and I am afraid of thy judgments.
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
God’s judgment is not met as an abstraction here: it reaches the flesh as a shudder.
THE MEANING
When God’s judgments meet you, the verse gives your flesh a voice: it shudders. The response holds dread and awe together; the body is included in the encounter with God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that reverence must stay inside the mind: the verse names the flesh itself as trembling.
THE ROOT
מִפַּחְדְּךָ
mippachadkha
GROWS FROM
פחד
Dread or terror; to tremble with fear.
The verse uses מִפַּחְדְּךָ (mippachadkha, from your dread) for the fear that makes the flesh tremble. Paired with יָרֵאתִי (yareti, I stand in awe), it holds visceral dread and awe before God together.
ALSO GROWS
paḥad: Dread or terror, as a noun.
פַּחַד
It names the dread that the verse says reaches the flesh.
pāḥad: To dread or tremble in fear, as a verb.
פָּחַד
The verbal form makes fear an active response, echoed here by the flesh’s trembling.
יָרֵאתִי
yareti
GROWS FROM
ירא
To fear, revere, or stand in awe.
The KJV’s “afraid” comes from ירא (y-r-ʾ), a root that also expresses awe. Here, the fear directed toward God carries reverence as well as trembling.
ALSO GROWS
yir’ah: Fear or awe.
יִרְאָה
This noun shares the root of “I am afraid,” showing that the verse’s response is also awe before God.
nora: Awe-inspiring or fearsome.
נוֹרָא
This form describes what evokes awe, illuminating the force of God’s judgments in the verse.
מִמִּשְׁפָּטֶיךָ
mimmishpateikha
GROWS FROM
שפט
To judge, decide, and administer justice.
The root שפט (sh-p-t) links judgments to the act of judging and to the judge who makes a decision. The flesh trembles before God’s judgments as acts of discernment and justice.
ALSO GROWS
shaphat: To judge or decide.
שָׁפַט
This verb shows the action held within the judgments that the verse names.
shofet: A judge.
שֹׁפֵט
The related noun links judgment to the one who makes the decision.
THE PATTERN
Encounter with God’s presence or word can reach the body as trembling.
Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.THE THREAD
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.The Hebrew “afraid” in Psalm 119:120 and “fear” in Proverbs 9:10 share the root ירא (y-r-ʾ), which carries the sense of awe before God. Proverbs links that awe to wisdom’s beginning, opening the psalm’s trembling as a response with a path toward understanding.
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