What Does Psalm 140:13 Mean?
Surely the aligned ones extend their hands to your name, and the straight ones settle before your face.
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
Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name: the upright shall dwell in thy presence.THE KEY
The “presence” here is literally God’s face: the upright remain before its gaze, and gratitude answers the nature carried in God’s name.
THE MEANING
The aligned give thanks to God’s name, the nature carried in the name. The upright dwell before God’s face, an image of direct, lasting nearness that speaks to the reader now.
THE ROOT
צַדִּיקִים
tsaddiqim
GROWS FROM
צדק
ts-d-q
to be right or just; alignment
“the aligned ones” in this verse is tsaddiqim. The word carries the sense of being aligned, not merely meeting a moral score. Here, that alignment opens into thanksgiving and dwelling before God’s face.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: rightness, justice, alignment
צֶדֶק
It names the right order the righteous embody.
tsedaqah: righteousness, justice, right action
צְדָקָה
It shows alignment extending into actions and relationships.
יֵשְׁבוּ
yeshvu
GROWS FROM
ישב
y-sh-b
to sit, settle, or dwell
“settle” in this verse is yeshvu. The verb can mean sitting as well as dwelling, giving the image a settled, enduring quality. The upright are pictured taking their place before God’s face.
ALSO GROWS
yashav: sit, settle, dwell
יָשַׁב
It holds together the act of sitting and the state of dwelling.
moshav: dwelling, settlement, seat
מוֹשָׁב
It extends the root’s image of a settled place to remain.
יְשָׁרִים
yesharim
GROWS FROM
ישר
y-sh-r
to be straight, level, or direct
“the straight ones” in this verse is yesharim. This root gives “upright” the image of straightness and integrity. Beside the root of “righteous,” it adds a second picture of a life aligned and held straight before God.
ALSO GROWS
yashar: straight, upright
יָשָׁר
It is the same root-image expressed in the verse’s description of the upright.
yosher: straightness, integrity
יֹשֶׁר
It shows how the root can describe integrity as a quality of what is straight.
THE PATTERN
Alignment expresses itself in thanksgiving and a life that remains before God’s face.
He who walks whole, works alignment, and speaks truth in his heart.Rejoice in the LORD, you who are aligned, and extend your hands in thanks at the remembrance of his set-apartness.Flourishing are the clean in heart, for they perceive God.THE THREAD
For the LORD is aligned, and loves the deeds of alignment; the straight gaze upon his face.Psalm 11:7 joins the righteous and the upright to the LORD’s countenance, the same face-image held inside “presence” here. Together, the verses show the upright before God’s face and God’s face beholding the upright.
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