What Does Psalm 138:5 Mean?
And they sing in the ways of the LORD, for great is the weight of the LORD.
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
Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the LORD: for great is the glory of the LORD.THE KEY
The song rises because the LORD’s ways carry weight before anyone praises them.
THE MEANING
You encounter the LORD’s ways as a path that becomes song, because the LORD’s glory has weight already. Praise answers to what is substantial; it does not create that greatness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that the LORD’s worth depends on being noticed: the song follows because the LORD’s glory is already great.
THE ROOT
כָּבוֹד
kavod
GROWS FROM
כבד
k-b-d
To be heavy or weighty; by extension, to be honored as substantial.
Inside “glory” is kavod, weight: the substantial worth that is recognized. The song rises from that weight, rather than being decoration added to it.
ALSO GROWS
kāvēd: Heavy, weighty.
כָּבֵד
What carries weight has substance; the LORD’s greatness is more than outward display.
kibbēd: To honor, to treat as weighty.
כִּבֵּד
The singers’ response gives fitting recognition to the weight already present in the LORD’s glory.
דַּרְכֵי
darkhei
GROWS FROM
דרך
d-r-k
To tread or step; a path is a way made or known through steps.
The word for “ways” belongs to the root for treading: these are paths of movement, not merely ideas. The song arises within the LORD’s path, joining praise to lived movement.
ALSO GROWS
derekh: A way, road, or path.
דֶּרֶךְ
This is the singular form behind “ways,” making the LORD’s way a route one can travel.
dārakh: To tread, step, or march.
דָּרַךְ
This verb shares the root and shows the movement contained within the idea of a way.
THE PATTERN
When the LORD’s greatness is recognized, praise rises as its fitting response.
For the LORD is great, and greatly to be praised; he is to be held in awe above all gods.Sing to the LORD, for he has done what rises. This is known in all the earth.And every tongue should say the same aloud, that Jesus the Anointed One is Lord, to the weight of God the Father.THE THREAD
And one called out to another, and said, Set apart, set apart, set apart is the LORD of hosts. The whole earth is filled with his weight.The word translated “glory” here is the same Hebrew kavod, כָּבוֹד (kavod), meaning weight or honor. Isaiah pictures that weight filling the whole earth; Psalm 138:5 shows people answering it with song along the LORD’s ways.
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