What Does Psalm 106:2 Mean?
Who can speak the strong deeds of the LORD? Who can make all his praise be heard?
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
Who can utter the mighty acts of the LORD? who can shew forth all his praise?THE KEY
The Hebrew asks who can make all the LORD’s praise heard, because even the fullest voice cannot exhaust the scale of his mighty acts.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s mighty acts exceed what you can fully utter; no single telling exhausts them. His praise becomes something made heard, carried outward by voices that testify to what cannot be counted.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that if you cannot find words for all the LORD has done, your praise has failed. The verse locates the limit in the boundless scale of his acts, not in your voice.
THE ROOT
יַשְׁמִיעַ
yashmi'a
GROWS FROM
שמע
shāmaʿ
Hear, listen, heed.
“make ... be heard” in this verse is yashmi'a. The verb is a causative form: to make heard. The verse pictures praise as something carried into hearing, so “shew forth” holds an audible force that the English phrase can obscure.
ALSO GROWS
shema: Hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
The same root makes hearing active; the LORD’s praise is not merely present but brought within hearing.
shemuah: Report, news.
שְׁמוּעָה
A report makes something heard by another, echoing the verse’s image of praise carried outward.
תְּהִלָּתוֹ
tehillato
GROWS FROM
הלל
hālal
Praise, celebrate, acclaim.
The word for praise grows from the root halal, to acclaim or celebrate. The verse asks who can make all this acclaim audible, linking praise to voiced recognition rather than a hidden feeling.
ALSO GROWS
tehillah: Praise, song of praise.
תְּהִלָּה
This noun shares the verse’s root and names praise as an expressed, shareable sound.
hallelu-yah: Praise Yah.
הַלְלוּיָהּ
This familiar call to praise carries the same root into a direct, spoken acclamation.
גְּבֻרוֹת
gevurot
GROWS FROM
גבר
gābar
Be strong, prevail.
“strong deeds” in this verse is gevurot. The LORD’s “mighty acts” come from a root of strength and prevailing. Their scale is precisely why the verse asks who could utter them all: the acts of prevailing exceed any one account.
ALSO GROWS
gibbor: Mighty one, warrior.
גִּבּוֹר
The same root names one whose strength prevails, giving the acts their sense of force.
gevurah: Might, strength.
גְּבוּרָה
This branch names the strength embodied in the LORD’s mighty acts.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s works exceed any single telling, so their greatness is carried through many voices and across generations.
Many are the works you make, O LORD my God, the wonders, and your plans toward us. They cannot be laid in rows before you. If I would recount them and speak them, they are more than can be numbered.One generation shouts of your works to another, and sets forth your strong deeds.Saying with a great voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and weight, and blessing.THE THREAD
Let every thing that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD.The Hebrew tehillah, “praise,” in this verse and halal, “praise,” in Psalm 150 share the same root. Psalm 106 asks who can make all the praise heard; Psalm 150 widens the answer until every living breath joins the sound.
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