What Does Psalm 71:8 Mean in the King James?
Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honour all the day.
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 praise a day-long fullness of speech, with God’s honour carrying the added sense of beauty and splendor.
THE MEANING
Your mouth is pictured as full of God’s praise and splendor throughout the day. What you say and what you recognize as beautiful in God meet in the same expression.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that praise belongs only to occasional moments: here the mouth holds it through the whole day.
THE ROOT
תְּהִלָּתֶךָ
tehillatekha
GROWS FROM
הלל
halal
To praise or celebrate.
The word for praise grows from halal, praise voiced with celebration. The verse pictures that praise filling the mouth, making it a sustained expression rather than a passing utterance.
ALSO GROWS
hallel: Praise; an act or song of praise.
הַלֵּל
This related form makes clear that the praise filling the mouth can take the shape of voiced celebration.
hallelu-Yah: Praise Yah.
הַלְלוּיָהּ
This familiar expression shares the praise-root, showing how the same seed can become a direct call to praise.
תִּפְאַרְתֶּךָ
tif'artekha
GROWS FROM
פאר
pa'ar
To beautify, adorn, or glorify.
The word translated “honour” also carries the sense of beauty and splendor. The mouth is filled not only with praise directed toward God, but with words shaped by the beauty those words name.
ALSO GROWS
pe'er: An ornament or headdress; also beauty.
פְּאֵר
This branch lets the sense of adornment show through: the splendor named by the mouth is something beautiful.
tif'eret: Beauty, splendor, or honor.
תִּפְאֶרֶת
This related form gathers the verse’s added shade of meaning: honour also carries the sense of visible splendor.
THE PATTERN
Praise becomes embodied speech, voiced continually through mouth, lips, and breath.
A Psalm of David, when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech; who drove him away, and he departed. I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.THE THREAD
And my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long.The word translated “praise” in both verses is תְּהִלָּה (tehillah, praise), from הלל (halal, to praise or celebrate). Psalm 35:28 also joins that same praise-word to “all the day long,” opening the mouth-filled image here into praise sustained across the day.
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