What Does Psalm 14:6 Mean in the King James?
Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the LORD is his refuge.
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 one whose counsel is mocked is already sheltered by the LORD.
THE MEANING
You see the poor person’s counsel dismissed as shameful, yet the LORD is that person’s refuge. The one treated as having no standing is not left without shelter; human contempt does not define the limits of the LORD’s care.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Poverty does not make a person’s counsel worthless or leave that person beyond God’s protection.
THE ROOT
מַחְסֵהוּ
maḥasehu
GROWS FROM
חסה
ḥ-s-h
To seek shelter or take refuge.
The word for “his refuge” comes from the same root as the verb “to take refuge,” linking the shelter with the act of seeking it. Here the LORD is named as the poor person’s shelter, while others shame that person’s counsel.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāsāh: To take refuge, seek protection.
חָסָה
The verb shares the seed of the noun “refuge,” connecting the person who seeks shelter with the shelter named in the verse.
maḥăseh: Shelter, refuge.
מַחֲסֶה
This noun from the same root names a place of protection; here the LORD is that shelter for the person whose counsel is shamed.
עָנִי
ʿānî
GROWS FROM
ענה
ʿ-n-h
To afflict, humble, or bring low.
The Hebrew word for “poor” is tied to being afflicted or brought low, naming more than a lack of money. Beside the refuge word, the verse holds the person’s vulnerability and shelter together: being brought low does not mean being abandoned.
ALSO GROWS
ʿānâ: To afflict or humble.
עָנָה
This verb shares the root and shows the condition of being brought low that the word for “poor” carries.
ʿŏnî: Affliction, misery, poverty.
עֳנִי
This noun from the same root names the hardship associated with the poor person in the verse.
THE PATTERN
Where human judgment diminishes the vulnerable, God remains their shelter and gives them standing.
I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?THE THREAD
I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.The word “refuge” in both verses comes from the same Hebrew root: in Psalm 14, the LORD is the poor person’s shelter; in Psalm 91, the speaker claims that same shelter as “my refuge.” The movement from “his” to “my” makes the shared root personal.
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