What Does Psalm 146:1 Mean?
Praise the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my living soul.
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
Praise ye the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul.THE KEY
Praise begins as the living self calling itself into praise.
THE MEANING
The verse gives your living self a voice: praise is spoken to the LORD, and your own soul is addressed as the one who praises. The repeated call makes this inward address part of the praise itself.
THE ROOT
הָלַל
hālal
GROWS FROM
הלל
Praise; to praise or celebrate.
The first call praises Yah, and the next turns that same praise toward the speaker’s own living self. The repetition shows praise as both an utterance and a direct address within the person.
ALSO GROWS
hallelu: Praise! (plural imperative)
הַלְלוּ
The opening “Praise ye” uses this form, sounding the call outward.
tehillah: Praise; a song or expression of praise
תְּהִלָּה
This related word shows praise as something voiced and carried in song.
נֶפֶשׁ
nefesh
GROWS FROM
נפש
Living self; a person as a living being.
“living soul” in this verse is nefesh. The speaker addresses the nefesh as the living self, not as an abstract part separated from life. Praise is voiced by the person and directed to that same living self.
ALSO GROWS
nefesh: Living being; person; self
נֶפֶשׁ
Here it names the living self being addressed.
nafash: Be refreshed; recover
נָפַשׁ
This related form links the living self with renewal, adding a shade of restoration to the address.
THE PATTERN
Praise begins in the self, gathers the whole living world, and becomes continual speech.
A Psalm of David. Bless the LORD, my living soul, and all my inward parts, bless his set-apart name.Let every thing that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD.Through him, then, let us always carry up a sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.THE THREAD
Let every thing that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD.Both verses use halal, the root of praise. Psalm 146 begins with one living self addressing its own soul; Psalm 150 extends that same praise to every living creature.
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