What Does Psalm 147:1 Mean?
Praise the LORD. For it is good to make music to our God; it is sweet, and praise is fitting.
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: for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely.THE KEY
Praise, music, and beauty move together here: what is good becomes audible and fitting.
THE MEANING
Praise is good now because it gives the voice a fitting expression toward God. Singing praise is pleasant, and praise itself is beautiful in its place with God.
THE ROOT
הַלְלוּ
halelu
GROWS FROM
ה־ל־ל
H-L-L
Praise, commend, celebrate.
“Praise the LORD” in this verse is halelu. Halelu comes from halal, the same root that gives תְּהִלָּה (tehillah, praise or a praise-song). The verse opens and closes with this family of words, presenting praise as both an utterance and a formed expression.
ALSO GROWS
tehillah: Praise or a song of praise.
תְּהִלָּה
This is the same root family as the opening command, linking the act of praising to the praise that takes shape.
hallelu-yah: A call to praise Yah.
הַלְלוּיָהּ
It carries the same praise-root into a familiar call, showing how halal becomes a voiced expression.
זַמְּרוּ
zammeru
GROWS FROM
ז־מ־ר
Z-M-R
Make music; sing or play with musical sound.
“make music” in this verse is zammeru. The Hebrew word for singing praises already carries the making of music. Beside halal, it shows praise becoming audible through song rather than remaining an inward idea.
ALSO GROWS
mizmor: A song or psalm, often intended for musical performance.
מִזְמוֹר
A mizmor gives musical form to praise, echoing the singing named in this verse.
zimrah: Song or music.
זִמְרָה
This branch makes the musical dimension of zamar explicit: praise here is voiced in song.
THE PATTERN
Across Scripture, praise takes voiced form as a fitting response to God, through song, psalm, and the fruit of the lips.
Ring out in the LORD, O you who are aligned; for praise settles well upon straight ones.Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth.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
But you are set apart, settling upon the praises of Israel.The word translated “praises” is תְּהִלּוֹת (tehillot, praises), from halal, the same root as “Praise ye” here. Psalm 147 calls praise good and fitting; Psalm 22 pictures those praises as a place God inhabits.
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