What Does Psalm 17:4 Mean in the King James?
Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer.
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 from God’s lips keeps watch in you against the one who breaks through by force.
THE MEANING
God’s spoken word gives you a boundary to keep, and you take part in guarding your own steps. The threat is the route of the violent breaker, so protection also means not taking on that route’s pattern. The word steadies your discernment before you enter it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that protection only means being rescued after harm arrives: here, the word keeps you from walking the destroyer’s route in the first place.
THE ROOT
שָׁמַרְתִּי
shamarti
GROWS FROM
שמר
shamar
to watch over, guard, or keep
“Kept” carries the sense of watchfulness, not mere avoidance: the speaker guards their steps under the word from God’s lips. This same root can describe a watchman and a charge entrusted to someone’s care, making protection an active attentiveness.
ALSO GROWS
shomer: A watcher or guardian
שֹׁמֵר
The guarded path in this verse involves watchfulness over where your steps lead.
mishmeret: A duty, watch, or entrusted responsibility
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
Keeping yourself from the destroyer’s path is something held in care, not simply a lucky escape.
פָּרִיץ
parits
GROWS FROM
פרץ
parats
to break through, burst out, or make a breach
The word translated “destroyer” carries the sense of a violent breaker-through. Its paths are not just harmful destinations; they are routes shaped by forcing a breach through what should be respected.
ALSO GROWS
perets: A breach, break, or outburst
פֶּרֶץ
The root makes the destroyer’s character visible in the damage of a breach.
porets: A breaker or one who bursts through
פּוֹרֵץ
This branch shows the destroyer as someone defined by the way they force a path open.
דְבַר
devar
GROWS FROM
דבר
davar
to speak; as a noun, a word or matter
“Word” here is more than a private idea: it is speech coming from God’s lips, with the weight of something that directs a life. The same root can name both speech and a matter, joining what is said with what takes shape.
ALSO GROWS
davar: A word, thing, or matter
דָּבָר
The word that guards the speaker is presented as consequential, not abstract.
dibber: Spoke or uttered
דִּבֵּר
This verbal branch echoes the verse’s image of words proceeding from God’s lips.
THE PATTERN
God’s word guards a life by turning it away from destructive paths before they become its way.
I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word.Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men.I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.THE THREAD
The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.The Hebrew verb translated “preserve” is שָׁמַר (shamar, guard or keep), the same root behind “kept” in Psalm 17:4. Psalm 17 shows that guarding at the level of the routes you take; Psalm 121 widens that protection to your whole life.
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