What Does Psalm 111:2 Mean?
Great are the works of the LORD, sought out by all who delight in them.
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
The works of the LORD are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.THE KEY
The LORD’s works are not only great to behold; delight turns them into something you keep searching out.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s works are great, and they remain worthy of close inquiry. Delight in them draws you to search them out, so wonder deepens as you look more closely.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the idea that delight means simply enjoying the LORD’s works from a distance; here, delight moves you to seek them.
THE ROOT
דְּרוּשִׁים
derushim
GROWS FROM
דרש
To seek, inquire, or investigate.
“sought out” in this verse is derushim. The Hebrew presents the LORD’s works as objects of pursuit, not merely things to admire from a distance. The next phrase ties that pursuit to חֵפֶץ (chephets, delight or desire): searching is desire in motion.
ALSO GROWS
darash: To seek, inquire, or investigate.
דָּרַשׁ
This verb names the active search expressed by “sought out.”
midrash: Inquiry or exposition.
מִדְרָשׁ
This related word shows how seeking can extend into close examination of what is being studied.
חֶפְצֵיהֶם
chephtsehem
GROWS FROM
חפץ
To desire, delight in, or take pleasure in.
“delight in them” in this verse is chephtsehem. The word rendered “pleasure” carries the sense of desire and delight. In this verse, that desire is paired with seeking: delight is not passive enjoyment but an inclination that draws attention toward the LORD’s works.
ALSO GROWS
chephets: Desire, delight, or pleasure.
חֵפֶץ
This noun gives the desire behind the people who seek out the LORD’s works.
chafets: To desire, delight in, or take pleasure in.
חָפֵץ
This verbal form shows delight as an active leaning toward what is valued.
THE PATTERN
What is treasured receives sustained attention and pursuit.
But his delight is in the instruction of the LORD; and over his instruction he murmurs day and night.If you seek her as silver, and dig for her as for hidden treasure.Again, the governance of the heavens is like a treasure hidden in a field, which, when a man has found, he hides; and in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.THE THREAD
But his delight is in the instruction of the LORD; and over his instruction he murmurs day and night.The Hebrew word translated “delight” in Psalm 1:2 comes from the same root חפץ (ḥ-p-ṣ, chafets: desire or delight) as “pleasure” here. In both verses, delight draws attention toward what is sought: instruction in Psalm 1, and the LORD’s works in Psalm 111.
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