What Does Psalm 17:15 Mean?
As for me, I gaze upon your face in alignment; I am filled when I wake with your form.
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
As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.THE KEY
The verse locates lasting satisfaction in awakening to God’s likeness.
THE MEANING
You behold God’s face in alignment; the seeing is encounter, not distance. When you awaken to God’s likeness, you are filled to satisfaction. The verse locates fullness in what you behold.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that you must acquire something more before you can be satisfied: here, fullness is found in beholding God’s face and likeness.
THE ROOT
אֶחֱזֶה
ehzeh
GROWS FROM
חזה
To see, behold, or perceive.
“gaze upon” in this verse is ehzeh. The root can describe seeing in a vision, and its related words name both the seer and the vision. Here, beholding God’s face is an encounter, not merely an idea about God.
ALSO GROWS
chozeh: Seer
חֹזֶה
The related word names a person by the act of seeing, bringing out the encounter held in “behold.”
machazeh: Vision
מַחֲזֶה
This branch shows that the root’s seeing can be a vision received, widening the sense of beholding beyond ordinary looking.
אֶשְׂבְּעָה
esbe’ah
GROWS FROM
שבע
To be sated or filled to satisfaction.
“filled” in this verse is esbe’ah. This root describes fullness, not just a passing pleasure. The verse places that fullness at awakening to God’s likeness, joining satisfaction to what is seen.
ALSO GROWS
sāvēaʿ: Satisfied, full
שָׂבֵעַ
This related form describes the state the speaker reaches: being filled rather than left wanting.
śōvaʿ: Satiety, fullness
שֹׂבַע
The noun makes the root’s sense of being filled explicit, illuminating the completeness of the satisfaction in the verse.
בְּצֶדֶק
b’tsedeq
GROWS FROM
צדק
To be just or in accord with what is right; alignment.
“in alignment” in this verse is b’tsedeq. The verse binds beholding God’s face to alignment: the seeing happens “in righteousness.” The root’s family includes both a person who is just and acts of justice, so alignment is lived, not merely named.
ALSO GROWS
tsaddiq: A just or righteous person
צַדִּיק
This branch describes a person in alignment, echoing the posture in which the face is beheld.
tsedaqah: Justice, righteousness
צְדָקָה
This branch carries alignment into action, showing that the verse’s seeing belongs within a life ordered toward what is right.
THE PATTERN
Beholding God and sharing God’s likeness are joined with fullness.
You make me perceive the path of life; before your face is the fullness of joy, and at your right hand are sweetnesses forever.But we all, with uncovered faces, mirror the weight of the LORD, and are being reshaped into the same image, ever increasing in weight, even as from the breath of the LORD.Beloved, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made visible. We know that when he is made visible, we will be like him, for we will perceive him just as he is.THE THREAD
Beloved, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made visible. We know that when he is made visible, we will be like him, for we will perceive him just as he is.The psalm joins seeing God’s face with awakening to God’s likeness; John joins seeing God with being like him. Together, they reveal that the vision and the likeness belong to the same encounter.
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