What Does Psalm 118:4 Mean?
Let those in awe of the LORD now say, that 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
Let them now that fear the LORD say, that his mercy endureth for ever.THE KEY
Those who stand in awe of the LORD are given a voice that names his faithful love as what outlasts every age.
THE MEANING
When you stand in awe of the LORD, this verse gives your voice a sentence: his faithful love continues through every age. Its claim does not expire with the moment you are living in.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that the LORD’s love is only a passing reprieve: the verse names it as enduring through the ages.
THE ROOT
חַסְדּוֹ
chasdo
GROWS FROM
חסד
Faithful, committed kindness and love.
The word rendered “mercy” holds the sense of faithful love that remains. Its root also names the faithful person and the acts of that love, so what endures here is a relationship, not a single moment of pardon.
ALSO GROWS
chasid: A faithful or devoted person.
חָסִיד
The same root describes a person marked by the faithful love the verse says endures.
chasadim: Acts of faithful love; the plural form of chesed.
חֲסָדִים
The plural opens enduring love into many expressions, not one isolated act.
יִרְאֵי
yir'ei
GROWS FROM
ירא
To fear, revere, or stand in awe.
“in awe of the LORD” in this verse is yir'ei. “Those who fear” describes people characterized by awe of the LORD. The verse places that awe beside spoken recognition of faithful love: their response is to say what endures.
ALSO GROWS
yir'ah: Fear or awe.
יִרְאָה
This noun gives the inward stance named by “those who fear the LORD.”
nora: Awe-inspiring; fearsome.
נוֹרָא
This related form describes the quality that evokes awe, keeping the focus on the LORD whom they revere.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s faithful love remains when ages, circumstances, and even the created landscape change.
O extend your hands in thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his faithful love reaches to the ages.For the mountains will be moved, and the hills will totter, but my faithful love will not move away from you, nor will the covenant of my wholeness totter, says the LORD who has compassion on you.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
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,The word the KJV renders “goodness” here is חֶסֶד (chesed), the same Hebrew word behind “mercy” in Psalm 118:4. Exodus names this faithful love as part of the LORD’s self-disclosure; Psalm 118 lets those who stand in awe speak it aloud as enduring.
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