What Does Psalm 52:9 Mean in the King James?
I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done it: and I will wait on thy name; for it is good before thy saints.
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 verse makes waiting an extension of praise: what God has already done lets you expect the goodness carried in God’s name.
THE MEANING
You praise because God has acted, and you wait with expectation on God’s name, God’s nature, because it is good among the faithful. What has already been done grounds what you are still awaiting.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Waiting does not mean goodness is absent; this verse grounds expectation in what God has already done and in the goodness of God’s nature.
THE ROOT
וַאֲקַוֶּה
va'aqavveh
GROWS FROM
קוה
qavah: to wait for, hope for, or look toward expectantly.
“wait” in this verse is va'aqavveh. The speaker does not merely endure time; the same root also names hope itself. Waiting is directed toward God’s name, God’s nature, so what has already been done becomes ground for present expectation.
ALSO GROWS
tiqvah: hope, expectation
תִּקְוָה
This noun comes from the same root, showing that the verse’s waiting is expectant hope rather than mere delay.
miqveh: a gathering or collection; also expectation or hope
מִקְוֶה
The same root’s sense of gathering gives waiting the shape of attention gathered toward what is expected.
חֲסִידֶיךָ
chasidekha
GROWS FROM
חסד
chesed: faithful, steadfast love.
The word rendered “saints” describes people marked by faithful loyalty. Their presence makes the goodness of God’s nature visible among a community shaped by that love.
ALSO GROWS
chesed: faithful love
חֶסֶד
This is the love named by the same root; the “saints” are characterized by that faithful love.
chasid: a faithful or loyal person
חָסִיד
This singular form names the kind of person described in the verse as one of God’s faithful ones.
THE PATTERN
Waiting is active expectation held in trust for what is not yet visible.
Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.THE THREAD
Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.Both verses use קוה (qavah, wait or hope), naming the same expectant posture. Psalm 52:9 makes its object especially intimate: God’s שֵׁם (shem, name as nature) is the goodness on which the speaker waits.
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