What Does Psalm 150:2 Mean?
Praise him for his strong deeds; praise him according to the abundance of his greatness.
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 him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness.THE KEY
Praise answers both what God does in strength and the abundance of greatness those acts reveal.
THE MEANING
The reader encounters strength in what God does and a greatness that exceeds any single deed. Praise holds the visible acts together with the immeasurable greatness behind them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that God’s greatness can be measured by one dramatic act.
THE ROOT
גְּבוּרֹתָיו
gevurotav
GROWS FROM
גבר
gābar
To be strong; to prevail.
“for his strong deeds” in this verse is gevurotav. The word for mighty acts belongs to a family of strength and prevailing force. Praise attends to deeds in which that strength becomes visible.
ALSO GROWS
gābar: To be strong; to prevail.
גָּבַר
The verb shows the force carried in the acts being praised.
gibbōr: A mighty one; a warrior.
גִּבּוֹר
This branch carries the same strength into a person known for might.
גֻּדְלוֹ
gudlo
GROWS FROM
גדל
gādal
To grow; to become great; to increase.
The phrase rendered “according to his excellent greatness” sets praise by the abundance of his greatness. The root connects greatness with growing beyond a fixed measure, so no single act exhausts what is being praised.
ALSO GROWS
gādal: To grow; to become great.
גָּדַל
The verb reveals the root’s movement toward increase.
gādōl: Great; large.
גָּדוֹל
This adjective shows the same root describing magnitude.
THE PATTERN
Praise holds together deeds that can be told and the greatness that no single deed can exhaust.
Who can speak the strong deeds of the LORD? Who can make all his praise be heard?They speak of the strength of your awe-stirring deeds, and I recount your greatness.And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty; aligned and true are your ways, King of the nations.THE THREAD
They speak of the strength of your awe-stirring deeds, and I recount your greatness.Psalm 150’s גֻּדְלוֹ (gudlo, “his greatness”) and Psalm 145’s גְּדֻלָּתֶךָ (gedullāteka, “thy greatness”) come from גדל (gādal, “grow; become great”). Psalm 145 pairs that shared root with speech about mighty acts, making the two dimensions of Psalm 150’s praise audible together.
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