What Does Psalm 4:1 Mean in the King James?
To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm of David. Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer.
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 Hebrew gives distress the shape of a narrow place, and God’s answer the shape of room opening.
THE MEANING
You name God as the source of your alignment and remember being given room in distress. You ask for favor and for your prayer to be heard now; the verse holds remembered widening and present need together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A tight circumstance does not mean there is no room for you.
THE ROOT
הִרְחַבְתָּ
hirchavta
GROWS FROM
רחב
To be broad or make wide.
This verb’s root also appears in מֶרְחָב (merchav), a wide-open place, as in Psalm 118:5. English “enlarged” can sound like increased size; the root gives the rescue a spatial shape: room opens where distress had narrowed life.
ALSO GROWS
merchav: A broad or open place.
מֶרְחָב
Psalm 118:5 uses this word for the large place God gives the one who calls in distress.
Rehoboth: Broad places; room.
רְחֹבוֹת
In Genesis 26:22, this name accompanies the words “the LORD hath made room for us,” carrying the same root’s image of space opening.
בַּצָּר
batsar
GROWS FROM
צרר
To bind, press in, or make narrow.
The word evokes being in a tight, constricted place, not distress as an abstraction. The next verb answers with the opposite shape: what is pressed in becomes wide.
ALSO GROWS
tsar: Narrow, tight, or constricted.
צַר
This close form makes the spatial image beneath “distress” visible.
Mitsrayim: Egypt; heard through the image of the two narrows.
מִצְרַיִם
The name carries the wider scriptural image of constriction that gives this personal distress its place in the movement toward spaciousness.
צִדְקִי
tsidqi
GROWS FROM
צדק
Rightness, justice, or alignment.
“righteousness” in this verse is tsidqi. The speaker names God as “the God of my alignment,” placing the appeal for room and favor in a relationship of rightness. The verse joins inward alignment with widening in distress, rather than treating them as separate needs.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: Rightness, justice, alignment.
צֶדֶק
It gives “my righteousness” the concrete sense of being in right relation.
tsedaqah: Justice or right action; alignment expressed in conduct.
צְדָקָה
This branch shows alignment extending into the way a person stands and acts.
THE PATTERN
Scripture pictures relief as room opening where distress has narrowed life.
I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.THE THREAD
And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the LORD hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.“Made room” carries the same רחב (rachav) root as “enlarged” here. Genesis gives that opened space the name Rehoboth, making room itself the verse’s answer to constriction.
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