What Does Psalm 138:3 Mean in the King James?
In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.
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 strength you receive is not only force added to you; it is your inner life being widened.
THE MEANING
When you cry, God answers by widening you from within. The strength reaches your living soul, opening room where pressure has narrowed your experience.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that strength means hardening yourself against pressure: here, strength comes as an inner widening.
THE ROOT
תַּרְחִיבֵנִי
tarchiveni
GROWS FROM
רחב
rachav
To be wide or broad; to make spacious.
The Hebrew verb behind “strengthenedst” is a causative form of רחב, “to make wide.” Strength here is pictured as capacity opening within you, not only force being added.
ALSO GROWS
rachav: broad, wide
רָחָב
This branch shows that the strengthening carries the sense of being made broad within.
merchav: a broad or open place
מֶרְחָב
The same root names spaciousness as a place one can be brought into, echoing the inner enlargement here.
נַפְשִׁי
nafshi
GROWS FROM
נפש
nephesh
The living self; the life of a living being.
The word rendered “soul” names the living self, not merely an abstract inner part. The widening reaches the whole living person.
ALSO GROWS
nefesh: living soul, self, living being
נֶפֶשׁ
This is the same word-family as “my soul,” keeping the verse’s strength rooted in the living person.
nafash: to refresh oneself, take rest
נָפַשׁ
This related verb connects the living self with renewed vitality, fitting the verse’s picture of strength reaching inward.
THE PATTERN
A cry met by an answer becomes inner spaciousness.
I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.THE THREAD
I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.The same Hebrew root רחב appears in “set me in a large place,” making the movement explicit: distress narrows, and the answered cry opens into spaciousness. Psalm 138:3 carries that same widening inward, into the living soul.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us