What Does Psalm 136:4 Mean?
To him who alone does great wonders, 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
To him who alone doeth great wonders: for his mercy endureth for ever.THE KEY
The wonders are not detached displays of power; the verse roots them in faithful love that spans the age.
THE MEANING
Wonder meets you now as an act of God’s power, placed within faithful love. That love endures through the age; it is not exhausted by the extraordinary act.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that power and love are separate: here, enduring faithful love is the reason the wonders are done.
THE ROOT
נִפְלָאוֹת
nifla'ot
GROWS FROM
פלא
p-l-ʾ
To be extraordinary, beyond the ordinary; hence, a wonder.
The Hebrew word points to acts that exceed what is ordinary or readily grasped. The verse links these wonders to faithful love, so they are more than spectacle: they reveal the character behind the act.
ALSO GROWS
pele: A wonder or extraordinary deed.
פֶּלֶא
It shares the root פלא and shows that a wonder is something beyond the ordinary.
nifla: Wonderful, extraordinary.
נִפְלָא
This related form describes what bears the same quality as the wonders named here.
חַסְדּוֹ
chasdo
GROWS FROM
חסד
ḥ-s-d
Faithful love, loyal kindness expressed through action.
“for his faithful love reaches to the ages” in this verse is chasdo. The verse gives chesed as its reason for naming the wonders: extraordinary power is held within enduring faithful love. “Mercy” carries this meaning too, while chesed also brings out the word’s lasting loyalty.
ALSO GROWS
chesed: Faithful love, loyal kindness.
חֶסֶד
This is the same word in its base form; it names the enduring quality the verse gives as the reason for the wonders.
chasid: A faithful or loyal one.
חָסִיד
This related form describes one marked by the loyalty expressed in chesed.
לְעוֹלָם
le'olam
GROWS FROM
עולם
ʿ-w-l-m
Age, ages, or a long span of time.
The phrase le’olam is commonly rendered “for ever,” while olam carries the sense of an age or ages. The verse presents faithful love as spanning the age, giving its endurance a concrete measure of time.
ALSO GROWS
olam: Age or long span of time.
עוֹלָם
This is the noun within le’olam and gives the verse’s endurance its sense of duration.
olamim: Ages.
עוֹלָמִים
This plural form makes explicit the extended span carried by the verse’s promise of enduring love.
THE PATTERN
God’s wonders make divine power visible, while faithful love names the character within which that power acts.
Who is like you among the mighty ones, O LORD? Who is like you, majestic in being set apart, awe-inspiring in praises, doing wonders?You are the God who makes wonders; you make known your strength among the peoples.Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man shown forth by God among you through works of strength and wonders and signs, which God did through him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know.THE THREAD
Let the LORD God be blessed, the God of Israel, who alone does wonders.This verse uses the same root פלא for “wondrous things” and says God alone does them, echoing both the wonders and the aloneness in Psalm 136:4. Psalm 136 adds what lies beneath those wonders: faithful love that endures through the age.
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