What Does Psalm 13:6 Mean?
I will sing to the LORD, for he has dealt fully with me.
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
I will sing unto the LORD, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.THE KEY
The song begins when you recognize that the LORD has already dealt fully with you.
THE MEANING
You can sing to the LORD because his generous care is something you can recognize now, not only something you are waiting for. The song answers what he has already done without denying the ache you have known.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that sorrow makes gratitude dishonest: song can coexist with ache because it answers the LORD’s goodness.
THE ROOT
גָּמַל
gāmal
GROWS FROM
גמל
To deal fully with someone, including benefiting or recompensing them.
“dealt fully” in this verse is gāmal. The word translated “dealt bountifully” is גָּמַל (gāmal), a verb for how one deals with another. The same root is used for a child being weaned, a process brought to completion; here, the LORD’s dealing with you is presented as something already done.
ALSO GROWS
gemul: What is rendered in return; recompense or a dealing received.
גְּמוּל
This related noun keeps the focus on what has been done for someone, illuminating the verse’s reason for singing.
gāmal: To wean; to bring nursing to its completion.
גָּמַל
In Genesis 21:8 the same verb describes Isaac being weaned, adding the sense of care reaching a completed stage.
THE PATTERN
Remembered goodness turns recognition of the LORD into song that carries trust outward.
He sets a new song in my mouth, praise to our God. Many see and stand in awe, and lean their weight upon the LORD.Look, God is my deliverance. I will lean my full weight and not tremble, for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song, and he has become my deliverance.Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and songs of breath, singing and plucking the strings in your heart to the Lord.THE THREAD
Turn back, my living soul, to your settling place; for the LORD deals out good to you.“Hath dealt bountifully” repeats the same Hebrew verb, גָּמַל (gāmal), as Psalm 13:6. Here that recognition leads the living soul toward rest, opening the song’s gratitude as a return to settled trust.
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