What Does Psalm 87:3 Mean in the King James?

Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. Selah.

Psalm 87:3 · KJV

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 “glory” is weight: the Hebrew says weighty things are spoken of the city of God.

THE MEANING

You meet a city described through words that carry weight: the city of God is spoken of as honored and substantial. The verse locates its identity in belonging to God, then sets Selah beside the claim, a pause in which those words can land.

THE ROOT

נִכְבָּדוֹת

nikbadot

GROWS FROM

כבד

To be heavy or weighty.

The Hebrew word translated “glorious” grows from the root for weight. The verse holds more than brightness: the city is spoken of as carrying honor and substance.

ALSO GROWS

kavod: Weight, honor, glory.

כָּבוֹד

The same root often rendered “glory” shows why the verse’s “glorious” carries the sense of weight.

kaved: Heavy.

כָּבֵד

This branch gives the physical sense beneath the city’s honor: what is weighty has presence and consequence.

מְדֻבָּר

medubar

GROWS FROM

דבר

To speak; to communicate a matter.

“Spoken” in this verse is medubar. The city’s honor is voiced. In Hebrew, the word-family for speaking also includes davar, meaning a word or matter, so speech here carries content, not just sound.

ALSO GROWS

davar: Word, matter, thing.

דָּבָר

This branch links speaking with a substantive matter: the city is described through words that carry weight.

dibber: Speak.

דִּבֵּר

This verbal form names the act that gives voice to the city’s honored standing.

THE PATTERN

The Bible describes honor and glory as weight that can be recognized, rendered, or borne.

Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.

Psalm 29:2 · KJVThe verse uses the same Hebrew word-family for glory, presenting honor as something due to God’s name.

Wherefore the LORD God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the LORD saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.

1 Samuel 2:30 · KJVThe Hebrew root for honor echoes the weight in Psalm 87:3: to honor is to treat as weighty.

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

2 Corinthians 4:17 · KJVPaul makes the weight within glory explicit, joining the same images of honor and substance.

THE THREAD

Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.

Psalm 24:8 · KJV

“Glory” here comes from the same ⁨כבד⁩ (k-b-d) root family as the weighty things spoken of in Psalm 87:3. Psalm 24 names the LORD as the King of that glory, drawing the city’s honor back to the one to whom it belongs.

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