What Does Psalm 136:24 Mean?
And tears us loose from those who press us, for 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
And hath redeemed us from our enemies: for his mercy endureth for ever.THE KEY
The word for “enemies” also carries the sense of being pressed in, so this verse describes deliverance as release from constriction.
THE MEANING
You are brought out from the grip of what opposes and constricts you. The LORD’s faithful love endures through every age; your release is held within care that does not expire.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The forces opposing you do not have the final claim on your life: you are brought out, and faithful love endures.
THE ROOT
צָרֵינוּ
tsareinu
GROWS FROM
צרר
ts-r-r
To bind, press in, or bring distress.
“those who press us” in this verse is tsareinu. The word translated “enemies” belongs to a word-family that also carries the sense of narrowness and distress. The verse’s release is movement out from under what presses in.
ALSO GROWS
tsar: Narrow, tight; also an adversary or oppressor.
צַר
It gathers the enemy and the feeling of being hemmed in under one word-family.
tsarah: Distress, trouble, adversity.
צָרָה
The pressure caused by an adversary and the distress it creates share this root’s sound and sense.
וַיִּפְרְקֵנוּ
vayifreqenu
GROWS FROM
פרק
p-r-q
To break off, tear away, or free from what is attached or gripping.
“tears us loose” in this verse is vayifreqenu. The verb translated “redeemed” can carry the image of something being broken loose. Scripture uses this root for breaking a yoke off a neck and stripping off earrings: here, the constricting hold is removed.
ALSO GROWS
upara'qta: “You shall break off” (Genesis 27:40).
וּפָרַקְתָּ
The same root pictures a yoke being broken from the neck, an image of release from an imposed burden.
wayyitparqu: “They broke off” or “stripped off” (Exodus 32:3).
וַיִּתְפָּרְקוּ
The root also describes detaching what is fastened on, giving “redeemed” a concrete sense of being freed from a hold.
חַסְדּוֹ
chasdo
GROWS FROM
חסד
ḥ-s-d
Faithful, steadfast kindness expressed through loyal care.
“for his faithful love reaches to the ages” in this verse is chasdo. The verse grounds release in enduring faithful love. This love is not a passing feeling: it is steady care that remains through every age.
ALSO GROWS
chesed: Faithful love, steadfast kindness.
חֶסֶד
This is the love named in the verse, enduring as the ground beneath its deliverance.
chasid: A faithful or devoted person; often rendered “godly” or “saint.”
חָסִיד
The related word describes a person by their devotion, echoing the loyalty carried by chesed.
THE PATTERN
The LORD brings people out of constriction, and enduring faithful love holds that release.
Therefore say to the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the loads of the Egyptians, and I will snatch you from their service, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments.The aligned cry out, and the LORD hears, and snatches them out of all their narrow places.Who brought us out of so great a death, and brings us out; in whom we hope that he will yet bring us out.THE THREAD
Then they cry out to the LORD in their narrowness, and he snatches them out of their narrow places.“Trouble” here uses the same tsar word-family that names the “enemies” in Psalm 136:24: both adversary and adversity carry the sense of being pressed in. Psalm 136 names the release; Psalm 107 lets you feel the constriction from within and then the way out.
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