What Does Psalm 71:15 Mean in the King James?
My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day; for I know not the numbers thereof.
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 uses the same root for “shew forth” and “numbers”: your mouth can recount deliverance while admitting it cannot count it.
THE MEANING
Your mouth keeps telling of God’s alignment and deliverance through the day, even while you do not know their full number. What exceeds your grasp remains speakable without becoming a complete inventory.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that you must understand the full measure of deliverance before you can name it.
THE ROOT
יְסַפֵּר
yesapper
GROWS FROM
ס־פ־ר
to count or recount
The verb translated “shew forth” comes from a root that carries both telling and counting. The verse echoes that root in “numbers,” holding together a mouth that recounts and a mind that cannot count the measure.
ALSO GROWS
sippur: account, story
סִפּוּר
A telling gives an account, as the mouth does here.
mispar: number
מִסְפָּר
This branch shares its root with the verse’s word for the uncounted measure.
תְּשׁוּעָתֶךָ
teshu‘atecha
GROWS FROM
י־ש־ע
to deliver, bringing from constriction into spaciousness
“salvation” in this verse is teshu‘atecha. The word names deliverance as movement out of constriction and into room. Set beside the line’s uncountable numbers, it suggests that deliverance is not a quantity the speaker can finish measuring.
ALSO GROWS
yeshuah: deliverance
יְשׁוּעָה
This noun names the same root’s movement into freedom.
moshia: deliverer
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This branch names the one who brings deliverance.
צִדְקָתֶךָ
tsidqatecha
GROWS FROM
צ־ד־ק
what is right, just, or aligned
“righteousness” in this verse is tsidqatecha. The verse places alignment alongside deliverance: what the mouth recounts is both God’s rightness and God’s bringing out. The English can make these sound like separate abstractions; here they are held together in one testimony.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: justice, what is right
צֶדֶק
It carries the root’s sense of rightness that the verse names.
tsaddiq: one who is righteous or aligned
צַדִּיק
This branch describes a person in relation to the alignment being recounted.
THE PATTERN
What exceeds counting can still be declared day after day.
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.Sing unto the LORD, bless his name; shew forth his salvation from day to day.But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:THE THREAD
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.The Hebrew verb translated “declare” is מְסַפְּרִים (mesapperim, recount), from the same root ספר as “shew forth” here. The image widens: the mouth joins a creation already recounting what cannot be exhausted.
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