What Does Psalm 147:7 Mean?
Answer the LORD with extended hands; make music to our God upon the lyre.
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
Sing unto the LORD with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God:THE KEY
Thanksgiving is voiced acknowledgment: the song makes gratitude audible, and the harp gives it music.
THE MEANING
You sing to the LORD with todah, a thanks that also carries acknowledgment and praise, and you sing with the harp before God. Gratitude takes audible shape in both voice and instrument.
THE ROOT
תּוֹדָה
todah
GROWS FROM
ידה
acknowledge, give thanks, praise, or confess
“with extended hands” in this verse is todah. Todah grows from yadah, whose meanings include giving thanks, praise, and confession. Thanksgiving here carries the depth of acknowledgment made audible in song.
ALSO GROWS
yadah: to give thanks, praise, or confess
יָדָה
This verb shows the act of acknowledgment held within todah.
modeh: one who acknowledges or gives thanks
מוֹדֶה
This form shows the same root can describe the one giving thanks, as well as the act.
זַמְּרוּ
zammeru
GROWS FROM
זמר
sing or make music
“make music” in this verse is zammeru. The verb translated “sing praise” comes from zamar, a word for singing or making music. Beside the harp, it joins verbal praise and instrumental sound in one musical act.
ALSO GROWS
mizmor: a psalm or song
מִזְמוֹר
This related word names a song, showing the musical field shared with zamar.
zimrah: song, music, or praise
זִמְרָה
This noun holds praise as music, echoing the verse’s joined voice and harp.
THE PATTERN
Praise turns acknowledgment into audible expression through voice and music.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with a clamor of praise; lift your hands to him, and bless his nature.Give thanks to the LORD with the harp, and pluck for him on the psaltery and the instrument of ten strings.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
Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with a clamor of praise; lift your hands to him, and bless his nature.Psalm 100:4 uses the same Hebrew word, תּוֹדָה (todah, thanksgiving), found here. It links the song of acknowledgment with entering God’s courts and blessing his name.
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