What Does Psalm 117:1 Mean?
Praise the LORD, all you nations; shout for him, all you peoples.
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
O praise the LORD, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people.THE KEY
English repeats one word, but Hebrew gives the worldwide call two distinct verbs of praise.
THE MEANING
The call reaches every nation and every people now; no culture stands outside its horizon. You are included in the shared human response the verse names.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that praise belongs to one people alone: the verse addresses all nations and all peoples.
THE ROOT
הַלְלוּ
hallelu
GROWS FROM
הלל
h-l-l
to praise, acclaim
“Praise the LORD” in this verse is hallelu. The first call, הַלְלוּ (hallelu, praise), has branches such as תְּהִלָּה (tehillah, praise or a song of praise) and הַלְלוּ־יָהּ (hallelu-Yah, praise Yah). The verse’s second verb, שַׁבְּחוּהוּ (shabbeḥuhu, praise or commend him), comes from a different root, adding a second voice of acclaim.
ALSO GROWS
tehillah: praise; a song of praise
תְּהִלָּה
This branch shows praise as voiced expression, fitting the call for every people to join in.
hallelu-Yah: praise Yah
הַלְלוּ־יָהּ
The same imperative root appears in a familiar call that directs praise to Yah.
שַׁבְּחוּהוּ
shabbeḥuhu
GROWS FROM
שבח
sh-b-ḥ
to praise, commend, extol
“shout for him” in this verse is shabbeḥuhu. The second English “praise” translates a different Hebrew verb from the first. The parallel therefore enlarges the call through two expressions of acclaim, while the repeated “all” carries both across every people.
ALSO GROWS
shevaḥ: praise; commendation
שֶׁבַח
This noun makes explicit the commendation contained in the verb addressed to all peoples.
shibbeaḥ: he praised or commended
שִׁבֵּחַ
This verb shares the root of “praise him,” showing the call as an act of voiced acclaim.
THE PATTERN
Praise is voiced as a shared response that crosses peoples and reaches the world’s edges.
Let the peoples extend their hands to you, O God; let all the peoples extend their hands to you.Recount his weight among the nations; his wonders among all peoples.After this I see, and look, a great crowd that no one can number, from every nation and tribe and people and tongue, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, wrapped in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. And they cry out with a loud voice, saying, Deliverance to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!THE THREAD
My living soul makes its boast in the LORD; the bowed ones hear it and are glad.“Make her boast” translates a form of the same root, הלל (halal, praise), found in Psalm 117:1. Here the praise is heard by others and becomes their gladness, opening up the public, shared sound of the call to all peoples.
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