What Does Psalm 138:6 Mean?
Though the LORD is lifted high, he sees the low ones, and the lofty he perceives from afar.
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
Though the LORD be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.THE KEY
The LORD’s height does not put the lowly beyond his sight, while the proud’s height leaves them at a distance.
THE MEANING
Your lowliness does not make you unseen by the LORD; he sees you. The one who raises himself above others is known from afar, so height does not guarantee nearness.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that being low makes you invisible to God, while elevation brings you nearer, dissolves here: the LORD sees the lowly and knows the proud from afar.
THE ROOT
שָׁפָל
shāphāl
GROWS FROM
שפל
To be low, or to lower and humble.
“low ones” in this verse is shāphāl. The word names an actual lowered position, like low terrain. Here that low place is exactly where the LORD’s seeing settles; it does not disappear beneath his height.
ALSO GROWS
shāphēl: Low or humble.
שָׁפֵל
This related form keeps the sense of lowliness as a position, not a failure to be seen.
shephelah: Lowland or low country.
שְׁפֵלָה
The same root describes low ground, giving the verse’s lowly person a spatial image.
גָּבֹהַּ
gāḇōah
GROWS FROM
גבה
To be high or rise up.
“lofty” in this verse is gāḇōah. The Hebrew word for proud also means high. The verse places this human height beside the LORD’s height, then marks the difference: the LORD sees the lowly, while the proud are known from afar.
ALSO GROWS
gāḇah: To rise or be high.
גָּבַהּ
This verbal form makes the image of elevation active.
higbīah: To raise or lift up.
הִגְבִּיהַּ
This related form carries the sense of height being lifted, echoing the proud person’s elevated position.
יֵדָע
yēdaʿ
GROWS FROM
ידע
To know or perceive through encounter.
“perceives” in this verse is yēdaʿ. The word keeps knowing tied to perception through encounter, not bare information. Beside “from afar,” it holds recognition and distance together: the proud are known, yet remain at a remove.
ALSO GROWS
yādaʿ: To know or perceive.
יָדַע
This is the root verb behind “knoweth,” carrying its sense of recognized knowledge.
daʿat: Knowledge or understanding.
דַּעַת
This noun from the same root shows knowing as a quality of perception.
THE PATTERN
God’s height is revealed in attention to the lowly, while human elevation remains at a distance.
For thus says the high and lifted one, who dwells in the ages, whose nature is set apart. I dwell in the high and set-apart place, and with the crushed and the low of breath, to revive the breath of the low, and to revive the heart of the crushed ones.who stoops to see in the heavens and on the earth?He has pulled the mighty down from their seats, and lifted up the low.THE THREAD
For thus says the high and lifted one, who dwells in the ages, whose nature is set apart. I dwell in the high and set-apart place, and with the crushed and the low of breath, to revive the breath of the low, and to revive the heart of the crushed ones.Isaiah uses שָׁפָל (shāphāl, low or humble) again for the humble spirit, then says the High and Lofty One dwells with the lowly. The shared root turns Psalm 138:6’s seeing into presence: the lowly are where divine attention becomes dwelling.
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