What Does Psalm 26:7 Mean?
That I may make the voice of outstretched hands heard, and recount all your wonders.
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
That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works.THE KEY
Thanksgiving here becomes audible, then becomes an account of the particular works that inspire it.
THE MEANING
Here, gratitude enters shared hearing instead of remaining an unspoken feeling. You recount particular works, giving wonder names and details without exhausting what makes them wondrous.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that gratitude is only an inward feeling dissolves here: the verse joins thanksgiving to a voice and to named acts.
THE ROOT
לְהַשְׁמִיעַ
lehashmi'a
GROWS FROM
שמע
Hear or listen; in this verb form, cause to hear, make heard.
“make ... heard” in this verse is lehashmi'a. The word translated “publish” carries the sense of making something heard. Thanksgiving is voiced into another person’s hearing, where it can become shared testimony.
ALSO GROWS
shama: Hear, listen
שָׁמַע
The root joins the act of speaking with the hearing that receives it.
shemu'ah: Report, news
שְׁמוּעָה
A report is something heard and passed on, echoing the verse’s movement from voiced thanks to testimony.
וּלְסַפֵּר
ulesapper
GROWS FROM
ספר
Count, recount, relate.
“recount” in this verse is ulesapper. The root behind “tell” also carries the sense of counting or recounting. The verse’s testimony takes shape by naming the works one by one, as a record rather than a vague impression.
ALSO GROWS
sefer: Book, written record
סֵפֶר
A spoken account and a written record share the root’s sense of recounting what happened.
mispar: Number, count
מִסְפָּר
This branch makes the counting sense visible: telling can mean attending to each work in turn.
נִפְלְאוֹתֶיךָ
nifla'otekha
GROWS FROM
פלא
Be extraordinary, marvelous, beyond the ordinary.
“wonders” in this verse is nifla'otekha. The word marks works that exceed the ordinary. The verse holds two things together: these works can be named and recounted, yet their wonder is not used up by the telling.
ALSO GROWS
pele: Wonder, marvel
פֶּלֶא
This noun carries the same sense of what is extraordinary in the works being recounted.
nifla: Wonderful, extraordinary
נִפְלָא
This related form shows that the verse names the works by their quality of surpassing the ordinary.
THE PATTERN
Gratitude becomes witness when praise is voiced and the works behind it are named.
To the chief Musician upon Muthlabben, A Psalm of David. I extend my hands to the LORD with my whole heart; I recount all your wonders.And let them slaughter the sacrifices of extended hands, and recount his works with rejoicing.But Jesus did not allow him, and said to him, "Go to your house, to your own, and tell them how great things the Lord has done for you, and has had compassion on you."THE THREAD
To the chief Musician upon Muthlabben, A Psalm of David. I extend my hands to the LORD with my whole heart; I recount all your wonders.Psalm 9:1 uses the same Hebrew word for “all thy marvellous works” as Psalm 26:7 uses for “all thy wondrous works.” Read together, the verses show the recounting of those works as the way praise becomes audible.
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