What Does Psalm 40:5 Mean in the King James?
Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
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
God’s acts and intentions toward you exceed every way of arranging, telling, or counting them.
THE MEANING
God’s work and thoughts toward you are present in a fullness you cannot arrange into a complete account. Even when you speak of them, what you can name is smaller than what is there.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that if you cannot identify and measure what God is doing toward you, then nothing is being done.
THE ROOT
מִסַּפֵּר
missapper
GROWS FROM
ספר
s-p-r
Count, recount, tell.
The root can carry recounting as well as counting. What cannot be numbered also cannot be fully told: the verse’s speech runs up against the scale of God’s deeds and intentions toward us.
ALSO GROWS
sāpar: Count, enumerate.
סָפַר
This branch brings out the numerical limit: God’s works and thoughts exceed every tally.
sippēr: Recount, narrate.
סִפֵּר
The same root reaches verbal retelling, so the limit includes a complete telling as well as a final number.
וּמַחְשְׁבֹתֶיךָ
u-maḥshevōteḵā
GROWS FROM
חשב
ḥ-sh-b
Think, devise, reckon, calculate.
The word translated “thoughts” belongs to a root for devising and reckoning, so these are considered purposes toward us, not vague ideas. Its range of calculation also echoes the verse’s language of numbering: what God intends toward us outruns what we can account for.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāshav: Think, devise, reckon.
חָשַׁב
The root verb gives “thoughts” the sense of considered intention.
ḥeshbon: Account, calculation.
חֶשְׁבּוֹן
This branch links thought with accounting, echoing the verse’s limits of reckoning and number.
maḥăshāvāh: Thought, plan.
מַחֲשָׁבָה
This noun shows how the root can name both a thought and a formed purpose.
נִפְלְאֹתֶיךָ
nifla’otekha
GROWS FROM
פלא
p-l-ʾ
Be extraordinary, wondrous, beyond ordinary capacity.
“wonderful works” in this verse is nifla’otekha. The word describes acts that exceed ordinary human measure. The same root appears where something is called “too hard” for human capacity, making wonder here a matter of scale as well as beauty.
ALSO GROWS
pele: Wonder, extraordinary act.
פֶּלֶא
This branch names an act that exceeds ordinary expectation, like the works described in the verse.
nifla: Extraordinary, wondrous.
נִפְלָא
This form carries the same quality as the plural “wonderful works” in the verse.
THE PATTERN
God’s works and intentions exceed the limits of human description and measurement.
Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.Which doeth great things and unsearchable; marvellous things without number:And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.THE THREAD
O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep.The phrase “thy thoughts,” מַחְשְׁבֹתֶיךָ (maḥshevōteḵā, “your thoughts”), comes from חשב (ḥ-sh-b, “think, devise, reckon”), the same root as the thoughts in Psalm 40:5. Both verses place God’s works beside those thoughts, joining the scale of what is done to the depth of its intention.
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