What Does Psalm 40:7 Mean in the King James?
Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me,
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 speaker’s arrival is already held within the scroll: the one who comes is also the one the writing concerns.
THE MEANING
Here, the one who says “I come” stands inside the writing that speaks concerning him; the scroll and the living voice converge. As you read now, the verse presents written truth as something entering the present through a life, not remaining a distant record.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that sacred writing can only describe a life from a distance: here, the one who comes is the very one the scroll concerns.
THE ROOT
כָּתוּב
kātûv
GROWS FROM
כתב
k-t-v
to write or inscribe
The phrase “written of me” uses עָלַי (ʿālay, “upon me; concerning me”), letting the writing be heard as testimony focused on the speaker. The one who comes is not separate from the scroll’s subject; the living voice and the written witness meet.
ALSO GROWS
ketav: Writing or script
כְּתָב
It names the visible form of what the scroll contains, joining the speaker to words already committed to writing.
mikhtav: A message committed to writing
מִכְתָּב
This branch makes writing personal communication, echoing the verse’s testimony concerning the speaker.
מְגִלָּה
megillah
GROWS FROM
גלל
g-l-l
to roll or roll away
What the KJV calls a “volume” is a scroll, a text physically rolled. Its root also carries the motion of rolling away, so the image holds both what is rolled up and what can be removed.
ALSO GROWS
galal: To roll something or roll it away
גָּלַל
This is the action behind the scroll’s name, giving the written word a physical shape rather than leaving it as an abstraction.
Gilgal: A name associated with rolling
גִּלְגָּל
Joshua 5:9 links Gilgal with the LORD rolling away reproach, showing that this root can also describe something burdensome being rolled off.
THE PATTERN
What is written becomes present through a life that enters and embodies its testimony.
Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.THE THREAD
Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.Psalm 40:7’s “written” and Psalm 139:16’s “were written” come from כתב (k-t-v, katav, “to write”). Here the scroll concerns the speaker; there, the speaker’s unformed life is already present in the writing, so inscription and lived arrival meet across the two verses.
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