What Does Psalm 108:3 Mean?
I extend my hands to you in thanks, LORD, among the peoples; and I make music for you among the nations.
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
I will praise thee, O LORD, among the people: and I will sing praises unto thee among the nations.THE KEY
What English calls praise is two distinct acts here: acknowledging with thanks and making music, both carried among other peoples.
THE MEANING
Your praise takes voice among people: you acknowledge the LORD with thanks and carry that praise in song among the nations. The verse holds gratitude and music together as one expression that moves through shared human space.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that praise is only a private feeling; here it is spoken and sung among others.
THE ROOT
אוֹדְךָ
’odekha
GROWS FROM
ידה
y-d-h
Acknowledge, confess, give thanks, or praise.
“I extend my hands to you in thanks” in this verse is ’odekha. The Hebrew verb holds praise close to acknowledgment and thanksgiving. The verse’s first act is to name the LORD with gratitude; the second turns that acknowledgment into song.
ALSO GROWS
todah: Thanksgiving or praise.
תּוֹדָה
This noun from the same root makes explicit the gratitude carried within the verse’s act of praise.
Yehudah: Judah; a name associated with praise.
יְהוּדָה
In Genesis 29:35, Leah says, “Now will I praise the LORD,” and names her son Judah; praise becomes a name as well as an utterance.
וַאֲזַמֶּרְךָ
va’azammerkha
GROWS FROM
זמר
z-m-r
Sing or make music.
“make music for you” in this verse is va’azammerkha. This is not a repetition of the first Hebrew verb: yadah names thankful acknowledgment, while zamar gives it musical form. English uses “praise” for both and can conceal that movement from gratitude into song.
ALSO GROWS
mizmor: A psalm or song.
מִזְמוֹר
The same root names a kind of song, showing that the verse’s music belongs to the language of psalm-making.
zimrah: Song or music.
זִמְרָה
This related noun makes the musical quality of zamar audible: the praise is voiced as song.
THE PATTERN
Praise becomes shared expression when thankful acknowledgment is carried outward in song.
I extend my hand to you among the peoples, O Lord; I pluck the strings for you among the nations.Therefore I extend my hands to you among the nations, O LORD, and I sing praise to your name.Saying, I will bring back word of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to you.THE THREAD
And she conceived again, and bore a son, and she said, Now I will extend my hands to the LORD. Therefore she called his name Judah, Praise, and she stood from bearing.“Praise” in this verse and “praise” in Psalm 108:3 come from ידה (y-d-h), the root of acknowledging and giving thanks. In Genesis, that praise is compressed into the name Judah; here it is voiced among peoples and nations.
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