What Does Psalm 118:1 Mean?
O extend your hands in thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his faithful love reaches to the ages.
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 give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: because his mercy endureth for ever.THE KEY
The verse grounds gratitude in chesed, faithful love that keeps its force through every age.
THE MEANING
The LORD is good to you now, and his faithful love continues through every age. Your present circumstances do not set an expiration date on that love.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that a difficult season means the LORD’s faithful love has run out.
THE ROOT
חַסְדּוֹ
ḥasdô
GROWS FROM
חסד
ḥ-s-d
Faithful, committed kindness and love.
Here chesed names more than a moment of mercy: it is faithful love, loyalty enacted in relationship. “For ever” extends that love through every age, making its constancy the ground of the thanks.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāsîd: A faithful or devoted person.
חָסִיד
The same word family describes someone marked by loyalty, giving chesed a relational shape.
ḥāsad: To act in kindness or loyal care.
חָסַד
This verbal form shows chesed as care expressed through action, not only a feeling.
הוֹדוּ
hōdû
GROWS FROM
ידה
y-d-h
To acknowledge, praise, or give thanks.
“extend your hands in thanks” in this verse is hōdû. The opening verb comes from a root whose range includes both giving thanks and acknowledging. Gratitude here is recognition spoken aloud: it names the LORD’s goodness and faithful love.
ALSO GROWS
tôdâ: Thanksgiving or a thanksgiving offering.
תּוֹדָה
This noun makes the root’s movement from acknowledgment into expressed gratitude visible.
yôdeh: One who acknowledges or gives thanks.
יוֹדֶה
This verbal form keeps gratitude active: it is the act of recognizing and naming what is true.
THE PATTERN
Gratitude rests on the LORD’s character: faithful love remains through every age and cannot be severed by circumstance.
O extend your hands in thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his faithful love reaches to the ages.And the LORD passed by before his face, and called out, The LORD, The LORD God, compassionate and full of favor, slow to flare, abounding in faithful love and truth,Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Jesus the Anointed One, our Lord.THE THREAD
It is by the faithful love of the LORD that we are not used up, for his compassions do not run out.“Mercies” here comes from chesed, the same word behind “mercy” in Psalm 118:1. “Endureth for ever” and “fail not” reveal the shared claim: the LORD’s faithful love persists.
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