What Does Psalm 113:1 Mean?
Praise the LORD. Praise, you servants of the LORD, praise the name of the LORD.
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
Praise ye the LORD. Praise, O ye servants of the LORD, praise the name of the LORD.THE KEY
The threefold call makes praise the servants’ work of voicing the LORD’s nature.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s name is the nature being praised, so the repeated call gives voice to who the LORD is. The servants’ service and their praise meet in that shared speech now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that serving the LORD is merely silent duty, with praise as optional ornament: the verse names praise as what the servants do.
THE ROOT
הַלְלוּ
halelu
GROWS FROM
הלל
to praise, to acclaim
The same root sounds three times: praise Yah, praise among the LORD’s servants, and praise the LORD’s name. That final call turns toward the LORD’s nature, which the name carries; praise reaches beyond a title to the one disclosed in it.
ALSO GROWS
tehillah: praise, a song of praise
תְּהִלָּה
This branch shows praise as something voiced and carried in song, echoing the repeated call in the verse.
hallelu-Yah: praise Yah
הַלְלוּיָהּ
The verse opens with this same root joined to Yah, making the name of the one praised audible from the first words.
עַבְדֵי
avdei
GROWS FROM
עבד
to serve, to work
The servants are named with eved, from the root avad, to serve or work. Its branch avodah means service or work, placing spoken praise within service itself rather than apart from it.
ALSO GROWS
eved: servant
עֶבֶד
This is the noun used for the LORD’s servants in the verse.
avodah: service, work
עֲבֹדָה
This branch links the servants’ praise with the work of serving.
THE PATTERN
Praise makes the LORD’s nature the center of a shared voice that gathers servants and reaches every kind of hearer.
Praise the LORD. Praise the nature of the LORD; praise him, you servants of the LORD.Let every thing that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD.And a voice comes out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all you his servants, and you who stand in awe of him, both small and great.THE THREAD
Praise the LORD, all you nations; shout for him, all you peoples.The opening “praise” is the same Hebrew root, halal, heard in Psalm 113. Here the call widens from the LORD’s servants to every nation and people, while its focus remains the LORD.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us