What Does Psalm 102:18 Mean?
This is written for the generation to come, and a people yet to be created praise the LORD.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the LORD.THE KEY
The future people are already named by the word they will speak: Hallelujah, praise Yah.
THE MEANING
This written word reaches beyond the readers alive today. A people still coming into being are pictured praising the LORD; the future is not empty of response. The verse lets you hear that praise carried forward.
THE ROOT
יְהַלֶּל־יָהּ
yehalel-Yah
GROWS FROM
הלל
Praise, acclaim.
The phrase יְהַלֶּל־יָהּ (yehalel-Yah, “will praise Yah”) uses the same root and divine name found in הַלְלוּ־יָהּ (hallelu-Yah, “praise Yah”): Hallelujah. The Hebrew wording holds that familiar shout inside the verse’s promise of future praise.
ALSO GROWS
halal: Praise or acclaim.
הָלַל
This is the root of “shall praise,” linking the future people’s words to the wider language of praise.
hallelu-Yah: Praise Yah; Hallelujah.
הַלְלוּ־יָהּ
The same root joins praise directly to Yah, the name voiced in this verse.
tehillah: Praise; a song of praise.
תְּהִלָּה
This related noun shows praise as something a people can voice and carry forward.
נִבְרָא
nivra
GROWS FROM
ברא
Create; bring into being.
“a people yet to be created” in this verse is nivra. נִבְרָא (nivra, “created”) comes from בָּרָא (bara, “create”), the root behind בְּרִיאָה (beri’ah, “creation”). The verse describes the coming people with the language of creation: their praise belongs to a people being brought into being, not only to a memory passed along.
ALSO GROWS
bara: Create; bring into being.
בָּרָא
This is the root verb beneath “created,” giving the future people the language of creation.
beri’ah: Creation.
בְּרִיאָה
This noun from the same root links the created people to the wider idea of something brought into being.
THE PATTERN
A people God forms become a voice of praise that carries beyond the present generation.
One generation shouts of your works to another, and sets forth your strong deeds.This people I have shaped for myself; they shall recount my praise.But you are a chosen lineage, a royal priesthood, a set-apart nation, a people made his own, so that you may tell out the excellences of the one who called you out of darkness into his wondrous light.THE THREAD
This people I have shaped for myself; they shall recount my praise.The word translated “praise” in Isaiah is תְּהִלָּה (tehillah, praise), from the same הלל (halal, praise) root as “shall praise” in Psalm 102:18. Isaiah also joins a people formed by God to their praise, revealing the same movement from being brought into being to becoming a voice.
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