What Does Psalm 103:20 Mean?
Bless the LORD, you his messengers, mighty in strength, who do his word, hearing and responding to the voice of his word.
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
Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.THE KEY
Here, strength reaches its fullest expression when hearing the LORD’s word becomes action.
THE MEANING
The verse presents the LORD’s messengers as mighty in carrying out his commands, hearkening to the voice of his word. It joins listening and doing in one movement: the word is received as something that can be enacted. Their strength is expressed through that responsive service.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that strength is proven by self-direction; here, the mighty are those whose strength answers the LORD’s voice.
THE ROOT
לִשְׁמֹעַ
lishmoa
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
To hear, listen, heed, and respond.
“hearing and responding” in this verse is lishmoa. The verse places hearing beside doing the LORD’s commands. The root carries responsive attention, so strength here is hearing that moves into action, not sound merely reaching the ear.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear!
שְׁמַע
This imperative opens the same root in Deuteronomy 6:4, where hearing is a direct call to attend and respond.
shemuah: A report, something heard
שְׁמוּעָה
This branch names a message that has been received by hearing, echoing the messengers’ attention to the voice of the LORD’s word.
בָּרֲכוּ
barakhu
GROWS FROM
ברך
b-r-k
To bless; the word family is associated with the knee and bending.
The verb belongs to a word family that also names the knee. That bodily echo gives “bless the LORD” a posture of honoring, while the rest of the verse shows that honor expressed through responsive service.
ALSO GROWS
berekh: Knee
בֶּרֶךְ
The shared consonants connect blessing with the bodily image of bending the knee in acknowledgment.
berakhah: Blessing
בְּרָכָה
This noun carries the same root as the verse’s command to bless the LORD.
דְּבָרוֹ
devaro
GROWS FROM
דבר
d-b-r
To speak; an utterance or matter.
“who do his word” in this verse is devaro. The verse speaks of the voice belonging to the LORD’s word, joining what is spoken with what is heard and carried out. The word family can name both speech and a matter, so the heard word arrives with something to be done.
ALSO GROWS
dibber: He spoke
דִּבֵּר
This verb from the same root makes the spoken quality of the LORD’s word explicit.
devarim: Words, matters
דְּבָרִים
This plural shows how the root can name both utterances and the matters they convey.
THE PATTERN
Hearing the LORD’s word reaches its expression in carrying it out.
But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.And Samuel said, Does the LORD delight in rising offerings and slaughtered offerings as much as in hearing and responding to the voice of the LORD? Behold, hearing and responding is better than a slaughtered offering; to prick the ear is better than the fat of rams.But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.THE THREAD
Hear and respond, O Israel. The LORD our God is one LORD.The opening word, שְׁמַע (shema, “hear”), comes from the same root as the “hearkening” in Psalm 103:20. The shared root links hearing with responsive attention: here, the messengers’ strength appears in carrying the LORD’s word into action.
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