What Does Psalm 15:1 Mean?
A Psalm of David. LORD, who may sojourn in your tent? Who may settle on your set-apart mountain?
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
A Psalm of David. LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?THE KEY
The paired verbs reveal two shades of belonging: to sojourn in the LORD’s tent and to settle on his holy hill.
THE MEANING
The question speaks now wherever you wonder what it means to remain near the LORD: it holds a sojourner’s stay beside a settled dwelling. Its parallel images place belonging in the LORD’s presence, pictured as a tent and a set-apart hill.
THE ROOT
יָגוּר
yāgūr
GROWS FROM
גור
g-w-r
To sojourn or reside as a guest or stranger.
“may sojourn in” in this verse is yāgūr. The verb can mean lodging as a sojourner, not simply occupying a place. Its root also names the resident stranger, giving “abide” a shade of temporary lodging within the LORD’s tent.
ALSO GROWS
gēr: Sojourner or resident stranger.
גֵּר
The related noun names someone who lives in a place without being native, sharpening the sense of abiding as lodging.
megūrīm: Sojournings or temporary residences.
מְגוּרִים
This related form carries the idea of a stay in a place, echoing the tent as a place of residence.
יִשְׁכֹּן
yishkōn
GROWS FROM
שכן
sh-k-n
To settle, dwell, or reside.
The root שָׁכַן (shākan, settle or dwell) also gives מִשְׁכָּן (mishkān, dwelling place) and שָׁכֵן (shākēn, neighbor). So the verb carries the seed of both habitation and someone who lives nearby; English “dwell” leaves those relations unheard.
ALSO GROWS
mishkān: Dwelling place or tabernacle.
מִשְׁכָּן
It shares the root of “dwell,” linking the act of settling to a place of habitation.
shākēn: Neighbor, one who dwells nearby.
שָׁכֵן
The same root connects dwelling with living near someone, adding a relational shade to settled presence.
דָּוִד
Dāwid
GROWS FROM
דוד
d-w-d
Beloved; the name is linked with the Hebrew word for beloved or kinsman.
The superscription names David, a name linked to דּוֹד (dōd, beloved). The question about dwelling arrives under a name carrying the language of belovedness, without making that name an answer to the question.
ALSO GROWS
dōd: Beloved or kinsman.
דּוֹד
This related word gives David’s name its association with belovedness.
dōdîm: Love or caresses.
דּוֹדִים
The plural form carries the same root into the language of affection.
THE PATTERN
Across Scripture, divine presence is described as God dwelling among people.
And let them make me a set-apart place, that I may pitch my tent among them.And the word became flesh and pitched a tent among us, and we beheld his weight, the weight as of the only-born from the Father, full of favor and truth.And I hear a great voice from the throne, saying, Look, the tent of God is with humankind, and he will pitch his tent among them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.THE THREAD
And let them make me a set-apart place, that I may pitch my tent among them.The verb “dwell” comes from שכן (shākan, settle or dwell), the same root behind מִשְׁכָּן (mishkān, dwelling place). Exodus makes the root’s image explicit: God’s dwelling is among people.
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