What Does Psalm 66:4 Mean in the King James?
All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee; they shall sing to thy name. Selah.
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 whole earth joins in one response: it bows, makes music, and directs its praise to God’s nature.
THE MEANING
The whole earth belongs in the response to God: it bows and sings. The song reaches God’s name, God’s nature, so praise answers who God is with both posture and sound. The reader stands within this living scene of praise.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that praise is only an inward human feeling: here the whole earth bows and sings.
THE ROOT
יִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה
yishtachaveh
GROWS FROM
שחה
shachah
to bow down, prostrate oneself
The verb names a bodily lowering, so worship here has a posture built into it. The whole earth’s response is not only voiced; it is a movement of bowing toward God.
ALSO GROWS
nishtachaveh: let us bow down
נִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה
This form makes the posture explicit: worship carries the body’s downward movement.
hishtachavayah: bowing down, prostration
הִשְׁתַּחֲוָיָה
This noun names the bodily act held within the verse’s word for worship.
יְזַמְּרוּ
yezammeru
GROWS FROM
זמר
zamar
to make music, sing praise
“sing” in this verse is yezammeru. The verb gathers musical praise into the earth’s response, not just words spoken aloud. A psalm belongs to this same root family, joining the verse’s singing to a shaped song offered to God’s nature.
ALSO GROWS
mizmor: psalm, song of praise
מִזְמוֹר
A psalm is praise shaped as a song, giving form to the music in this verse.
zemirot: songs, songs of praise
זְמִירוֹת
This plural form shows the root’s reach into songs offered as praise.
THE PATTERN
Creation’s response to God takes bodily and voiced form across the whole world.
Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.THE THREAD
O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.Psalm 95 uses the same Hebrew root for worship and makes its bodily posture visible in bowing and kneeling. It opens Psalm 66’s whole-earth praise as a response that bends toward its Maker.
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