What Does Psalm 105:5 Mean?
Remember the wonders he did, his signs, and the judgments of his mouth.
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
Remember his marvellous works that he hath done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth;THE KEY
The Hebrew root behind “remember” also carries the sense of mentioning, so memory here becomes a voiced witness to both God’s wonders and the judgments of his mouth.
THE MEANING
What God has done remains present to you as witness now. The verse holds extraordinary acts and the judgments from his mouth together, so wonder and discernment belong to the same record.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that what God has done belongs to a sealed past, with no bearing on what his mouth says to you now.
THE ROOT
זִכְרוּ
zikru
GROWS FROM
זכר
z-k-r
Remember, call to mind; in related forms, mention or cause to remember.
“Remember” in this verse is zikru. The verb is plural: this is a shared act of remembering. The root also branches into mention and reminder, so remembering can become voiced witness; the verse itself joins recalled works to judgments from God’s mouth.
ALSO GROWS
zikkārôn: Remembrance; memorial.
זִכָּרוֹן
A memorial keeps a remembered act in view, echoing the verse’s call to hold God’s deeds in mind.
hizkîr: To mention; to cause someone to remember.
הִזְכִּיר
This related form lets remembering become voiced mention, fitting the verse’s pairing of memory with judgments from God’s mouth.
נִפְלְאוֹתָיו
nifla’otav
GROWS FROM
פלא
p-l-ʾ
To be extraordinary or wondrous, beyond ordinary capacity.
“Marvellous works” in this verse is nifla’otav. The word marks these acts as extraordinary, beyond what ordinary measures account for. Their wondrous quality remains available as present witness, not merely as past spectacle.
ALSO GROWS
pele: Wonder; marvel.
פֶּלֶא
This noun names the wonder itself, showing how the many works express what is wondrous.
nifla: Wondrous; extraordinary.
נִפְלָא
This related form describes what exceeds the ordinary, preserving the force of “marvellous” in the works.
מִשְׁפְּטֵי
mishpetei
GROWS FROM
שפט
sh-p-t
To judge or decide a case.
“the judgments of his mouth” in this verse is mishpetei. These judgments are “of his mouth”: they are presented as decisions spoken from God’s own source. The verse places those declarations alongside wonders, making the divine voice part of what memory preserves.
ALSO GROWS
shofet: Judge.
שֹׁפֵט
The judge is the one who renders a decision, linking the judgments in the verse to an active voice.
mishpat: Judgment; decision; ordinance.
מִשְׁפָּט
This noun carries the sense of a rendered decision, illuminating the judgments as more than passing words.
THE PATTERN
Remembering carries God’s acts into present understanding instead of leaving them sealed in the past.
And you shall remember the whole road the LORD your God led you these forty years in the wilderness, to bend you low and to test you, to perceive what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.I remember the deeds of the LORD; surely I remember your wonders of old.And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, This is my body, given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.THE THREAD
I remember the deeds of the LORD; surely I remember your wonders of old.Both verses use פלא (p-l-ʾ, to be extraordinary or wondrous) for “wonders,” and Psalm 77:11 also repeats זכר (z-k-r, remember or mention) in both clauses. That pairing makes explicit what Psalm 105:5 holds together: remembrance is attached to named wonders.
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