What Does Psalm 119:38 Mean?
Make your word stand for your servant, who is devoted to your awe.
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
Stablish thy word unto thy servant, who is devoted to thy fear.THE KEY
“Stablish” means “cause to stand”: the prayer asks for God’s spoken word to become firm within the servant.
THE MEANING
The prayer is alive wherever a promise feels unsteady: the servant asks God to make the spoken word stand firm. Its closing phrase binds that request to awe of God, joining reverence and steadiness in the same life.
THE ROOT
הָקֵם
haqem
GROWS FROM
קום
q-w-m
Rise, stand; in a causative form, make something stand.
“Make your word stand” in this verse is haqem. The prayer asks for more than a saying to be repeated: it asks for the utterance to take its stand in the servant’s life. Psalm 119:106 uses this same root for “perform,” connecting God’s word made firm with a vow carried through.
ALSO GROWS
maqom: Place, position
מָקוֹם
A place is where one stands; this branch echoes the root’s sense of standing and gives the prayer’s request a sense of firm ground.
va’aqayyemah: And I will perform or fulfill
וָאֲקַיֵּמָה
In Psalm 119:106, the KJV’s “perform” comes from this same root, revealing a link between making the word stand and carrying an oath through.
אִמְרָתֶךָ
imratekha
GROWS FROM
אמר
ʾ-m-r
Say, speak.
The Hebrew word here is a saying or utterance, keeping the prayer close to speech. The servant asks for what God has spoken to stand firm.
ALSO GROWS
ʾāmar: To say, speak
אָמַר
This verb is the root of the verse’s word for “word,” showing that the request concerns a spoken utterance.
ʾimrah: Utterance, saying
אִמְרָה
This is the noun at the heart of “thy word”; its spoken quality remains visible beneath the English rendering.
יִרְאָתֶךָ
yirʾatekha
GROWS FROM
ירא
y-r-ʾ
Fear, revere; when God is the one feared, awe.
“your awe” in this verse is yirʾatekha. The closing phrase joins the servant to awe of God. The word made firm and the life of reverence appear together in the verse.
ALSO GROWS
yare: To fear or revere; toward God, to stand in awe
יָרֵא
The verb clarifies the reverent sense carried by the verse’s closing phrase.
yirʾah: Fear, awe, reverence
יִרְאָה
This noun names the orientation that the KJV renders as being devoted to God’s fear.
THE PATTERN
God’s word stands firm, and that same steadiness establishes those who receive it.
So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what I delight in, and shall break through in the thing to which I sent it.Heaven and earth pass by, but my words do not pass by.But the Lord is steady, who will steady you and guard you from the one who works harm.THE THREAD
I swear, and I make it stand, to guard the judgments of your alignment.Both Hebrew verbs use קום (qum), meaning “rise” or “stand”: here God is asked to make the utterance stand; there the speaker says, “I will perform it.” English obscures the shared root, joining divine establishment with a vow carried through.
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