What Does Psalm 138:4 Mean?
All the kings of the earth extend their hands to you, O LORD, when they hear and respond to the words of your mouth.
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
All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O LORD, when they hear the words of thy mouth.THE KEY
Praise is shown as the fruit of hearing: every throne becomes a listening place before it becomes a praising one.
THE MEANING
When God’s words reach you, hearing becomes more than sound: it opens into acknowledgment. The verse imagines praise crossing every boundary of earthly power, because no throne stands outside the reach of what God says.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that power makes you self-sufficient or beyond response: even kings hear before they praise.
THE ROOT
יוֹדוּךָ
yôdûḵā
GROWS FROM
ידה
Give thanks, praise, acknowledge.
“extend their hands” in this verse is yôdûḵā. The verb can hold praise and acknowledgment together. The kings do not merely acclaim an idea; they acknowledge the LORD in response to what they hear.
ALSO GROWS
tôdāh: Thanksgiving; praise.
תּוֹדָה
This related word makes praise a voiced acknowledgment, not merely admiration.
môdeh: One who gives thanks or acknowledges.
מוֹדֶה
The same word family describes the praiser as an acknowledger, tying praise to recognition.
שָׁמְעוּ
shāmeʿû
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear, listen, heed.
“hear and respond” in this verse is shāmeʿû. The verse makes hearing consequential: the kings do not simply register sounds; hearing leads into acknowledgment. The root’s range of listening and heeding keeps reception joined to the response that follows.
ALSO GROWS
šĕmaʿ: Hear; listen; hear and respond.
שְׁמַע
It echoes the verse’s movement from receiving words to answering with praise.
šĕmûʿāh: A report, news, or what is heard.
שְׁמוּעָה
This related noun shows hearing as receiving a message that reaches beyond the ear.
THE PATTERN
When God’s words are heard, their truth draws acknowledgment across boundaries of rank and nation.
Guard them therefore and do them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, who will hear all these statutes and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.So shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths before him, for what was never recounted to them they shall see, and what they had not heard they shall discern.And when the Gentiles heard this, they rejoiced and gave weight to the word of the Lord, and as many as had been arranged for the life of the ages trusted.THE THREAD
And when the Gentiles heard this, they rejoiced and gave weight to the word of the Lord, and as many as had been arranged for the life of the ages trusted.Like this psalm, Acts joins hearing to a response that gives honor to the Lord: what is heard does not stop at the ear. The circle widens from earth’s kings to Gentile hearers, while the movement from received word to praise remains.
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