What Does Psalm 144:9 Mean?
God, a new song I will sing to you; upon the harp, and upon the ten-stringed one, I will sing praises to you.
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
I will sing a new song unto thee, O God: upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee.THE KEY
The “new song” binds renewal to audible praise: renewal is heard as a changed voice.
THE MEANING
The verse gives the reader a voice for a renewed song directed toward God. Sung voice and stringed sound meet in one act of praise, making renewal audible rather than abstract. Its movement is from renewal into expression.
THE ROOT
חָדָשׁ
chadash
GROWS FROM
ח־ד־שׁ
ḥ-d-sh
To be new or renew.
“a new song” in this verse is chadash. Chadash carries the sense of becoming new and renewing; its word family includes chodesh, “month” or “new moon.” That link lets “new” suggest renewal’s returning rhythm, so the song’s freshness is more than novelty.
ALSO GROWS
chodesh: Month; new moon.
חֹדֶשׁ
Its place in the same word family connects newness with a recurring renewal.
chiddesh: Renewed; made new.
חִדֵּשׁ
This form makes explicit the renewing sense carried by “new.”
אֲזַמְּרָה
azammerah
GROWS FROM
ז־מ־ר
z-m-r
To sing or make music.
The verb translated “sing praises” belongs to the same word family as words for psalm and music. Praise here takes musical form: voice and instrument join in a single expression.
ALSO GROWS
mizmor: Psalm; song.
מִזְמוֹר
A psalm shares the root of the verse’s musical act of praise.
zimrah: Song; music.
זִמְרָה
This branch makes the musical sense within “sing praises” audible.
THE PATTERN
Renewal becomes audible as a new song voiced toward God.
He sets a new song in my mouth, praise to our God. Many see and stand in awe, and lean their weight upon the LORD.Sing to the LORD a new song, and his praise from the edge of the earth, you who go down to the sea and all that fills it, the coastlands and those who settle in them.And they sing a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to untie its seals, for you were slaughtered and bought us for God with your blood, out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.THE THREAD
He sets a new song in my mouth, praise to our God. Many see and stand in awe, and lean their weight upon the LORD.Psalm 40:3 uses the same Hebrew pairing, שִׁיר חָדָשׁ (shir chadash, “new song”). Here the song is placed in the mouth, opening Psalm 144’s image of renewal as praise made audible.
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