What Does Psalm 90:15 Mean in the King James?
Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.
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 does not ask joy to erase the years of suffering; it asks gladness to meet them in proportion.
THE MEANING
The verse speaks as a present request: gladness meets the reader in proportion to days of affliction and years of witnessed evil. It names suffering without shortening its span or asking that it be denied. Its hope is gladness large enough to answer the whole span.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It loosens the belief that a joyful future requires erasing painful years: the verse names those years and asks that gladness be measured alongside them.
THE ROOT
שַׂמְּחֵנוּ
sammeḥēnū
GROWS FROM
שׂמח
To be glad or rejoice; in this form, to make glad.
“make us glad” in this verse is sammeḥēnū. The verb asks for gladness to be brought about in the people, not merely for them to feel glad on their own. The same root names both rejoicing and the gladness being asked for, joining the prayer’s answer to the sorrow it names.
ALSO GROWS
śimḥāh: Joy, gladness
שִׂמְחָה
This noun names the gladness that grows from the same שׂמח root.
wə-niśməḥāh: And we may rejoice; and we may be glad
וְנִשְׂמְחָה
The same root appears in Psalm 90:14, where the prayer asks for gladness all our days; here it asks that gladness answer days of affliction.
THE PATTERN
Scripture names the span of sorrow and shows joy as its timed answer or reversal.
For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them.Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.THE THREAD
O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.The same שׂמח root appears in “be glad” here and “make us glad” in verse 15. Verse 14 asks for gladness through all the days; verse 15 asks for it in measure with the days of affliction and years of evil.
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