What Does Psalm 3:3 Mean in the King James?
But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.
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 LORD is not only the shield around you; he is the weight of your honor and the one lifting your head.
THE MEANING
The LORD is your protection, your weight and honor, and the one raising your head. Even when pressure bends your gaze downward, your dignity rests in the one who shields you and lifts you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that a threat can decide your worth, or that you must lift yourself before your dignity is real.
THE ROOT
כְּבוֹדִי
kəvōdī
GROWS FROM
כבד
k-b-d
To be heavy or weighty.
The word translated “glory” carries the sense of weight and substance. The LORD is the weight of your honor: your worth is not made flimsy by the pressure around you.
ALSO GROWS
kāvēd: Heavy, weighty.
כָּבֵד
This is the concrete sense beneath “glory”: what has weight is substantial.
kibbēd: To honor, treat as weighty.
כִּבֵּד
The same root links honor with giving something weight, so “my glory” holds both weight and honor together.
מֵרִים
mērîm
GROWS FROM
רום
r-w-m
To rise, be high, or raise up.
“Lifter up” belongs to a root of rising and height. The verse makes the LORD the one who raises your head; the lift is received, not self-produced.
ALSO GROWS
rām: High, exalted.
רָם
The raised head shares this root’s language of being brought to a higher place.
mārōm: Height, heights.
מָרוֹם
This branch makes the upward movement in “lifter up” visible: the bowed head is raised from below.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s protection surrounds the threatened person and restores the ability to trust with head raised.
And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD.The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.THE THREAD
And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD.Psalm 27:6 uses the same root רום (r-w-m, “rise” or “raise”) for the head lifted above enemies. The shared root ties the LORD’s shielding to a visible reversal: threat no longer determines whether your head can rise.
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