What Does Psalm 147:15 Mean?
He sends his utterance upon the earth; his word runs very swiftly.
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
He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: his word runneth very swiftly.THE KEY
God’s spoken word is sent into the earth already in motion.
THE MEANING
God’s utterance reaches the earth and moves swiftly. The verse presents the word as something sent into your world, not distant from it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that God’s word is only a distant command with no movement toward the earth.
THE ROOT
הַשֹּׁלֵחַ
hasholeach the one
GROWS FROM
שׁלח
Send out, release, let go.
“sends” in this verse is hasholeach the one. Shalach is the root behind “sendeth forth”: the word is released toward the earth. The next clause pictures it already running, carrying the motion of its sending forward.
ALSO GROWS
shaluaḥ: sent, dispatched
שָׁלוּחַ
The same root makes the word’s movement plain: what reaches the earth has been sent.
shaliaḥ: messenger, one sent
שָׁלִיחַ
A messenger carries what is sent; here the word itself is sent into the earth.
אִמְרָתוֹ
imrato his utterance
GROWS FROM
אמר
Say, speak, utter.
The Hebrew beneath “commandment” is imrato, his utterance, from amar, “to say.” The verse holds speech and dispatch together: what is sent is something spoken.
ALSO GROWS
amar: to say, speak
אָמַר
This verbal root shows the commandment as spoken utterance.
imrah: utterance, saying
אִמְרָה
The noun echoes the verse’s wording for what God sends forth.
דְּבָרוֹ
devaro his word
GROWS FROM
דבר
Speak, declare; a spoken word or matter.
Davar can mean both “word” and “matter,” while dibber means “speak” or “declare.” The word that runs is speech in motion, reaching into the world as an active reality.
ALSO GROWS
davar: word, matter, thing
דָּבָר
The word’s movement is also movement into the matter of the earth.
dibber: spoke, declared
דִּבֵּר
The spoken word in the first clause becomes the running word in the second.
THE PATTERN
What God speaks is sent into the world, where it reaches and performs its work.
He sends his word and heals them, and slips them free from their pits.So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what I delight in, and shall break through in the thing to which I sent it.For the word of God is living and working, and sharper than any two-edged sword, reaching through even to the dividing of living soul and breath, of joints and marrow, and it separates the inward movements and thoughts of the heart.THE THREAD
He sends his word and heals them, and slips them free from their pits.This verse repeats the same roots: shalach (שׁלח, send) and davar (דבר, word). Here the sent word heals and delivers, revealing its movement as release into wholeness.
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