What Does Psalm 87:1 Mean in the King James?
A Psalm or Song for the sons of Korah. His foundation is in the holy mountains.
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 city’s foundation rests in the set-apart, giving the holy a place and ground.
THE MEANING
His foundation is among the holy mountains. The city’s footing is rooted in ground marked as set apart. Its first truth is where it is established, before anything built above it is seen.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The holy is only an idea, without a place or ground.
THE ROOT
יְסוּדָתוֹ
yesudato
GROWS FROM
יסד
y-s-d
to establish, lay a foundation
The word for foundation carries the action of establishing: what stands above begins with something deliberately set in place. English can make “foundation” sound like a passive object, while the root holds the act of grounding within it.
ALSO GROWS
yasad: to establish, lay a foundation
יָסַד
The verb shows that the city’s footing is something established, not something that merely happens to be there.
mosad: foundation, established base
מוֹסָד
This related noun makes the hidden link between an established base and the stability it gives what rises from it.
קֹדֶשׁ
qodesh
GROWS FROM
קדש
q-d-sh
to set apart
“holy” in this verse is qodesh. The mountains are not simply elevated; they are set apart. The verse joins the city’s foundation to ground distinguished from what surrounds it.
ALSO GROWS
qadosh: set apart
קָדוֹשׁ
This adjective carries the same quality of distinction that marks the mountains where the foundation rests.
qiddesh: to set apart, consecrate
קִדֵּשׁ
The verb presents set-apartness as an act, illuminating the mountains as ground marked for a distinct purpose.
THE PATTERN
The place of divine presence is pictured as an established center rooted in what is set apart.
A Song and Psalm for the sons of Korah. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,THE THREAD
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.The Hebrew verb translated “I lay” is יָסַד (yasad), from the same root יסד (y-s-d) as “foundation” in this verse. Psalm 87 names where the foundation rests; Isaiah shows it being laid in Zion.
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