What Does Psalm 31:23 Mean?
O love the LORD, all his faithful ones; the LORD keeps the steady ones, and repays in full the one who acts with a lifted head.
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
O love the LORD, all ye his saints: for the LORD preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer.THE KEY
What the KJV calls the LORD’s preservation is active guarding of the steady, while prideful action receives its full answer.
THE MEANING
You are addressed among the LORD’s devoted ones: the LORD watches over the steady and repays the one acting in pride. The verse holds care and consequence together now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that prideful action goes unseen or unanswered: the verse says the LORD repays the one who acts in pride.
THE ROOT
שֹׁמֵר
shomer
GROWS FROM
שׁמר
shamar
To guard, watch over, or keep.
“keeps” in this verse is shomer. The Hebrew word carries the sense of watchful keeping beneath “preserveth.” The verse presents the LORD’s care as active guarding of those who are steady.
ALSO GROWS
shamar: To guard, watch, or keep.
שָׁמַר
This verb is the seed behind the LORD’s keeping in the verse.
mishmeret: A charge, watch, or custody.
מִשְׁמֶרֶת
This branch makes the root’s sense of continued watchfulness visible.
אֱמוּנִים
emunim
GROWS FROM
אמן
aman
Firm, steady, dependable.
“steady ones” in this verse is emunim. The word points to people who are firm and steady. Its family includes trust that leans its full weight and the affirmation “Amen,” linking trust with firmness rather than a claim of flawlessness.
ALSO GROWS
emunah: Trust, leaning your full weight on; also steadfastness.
אֱמוּנָה
This branch shows the lived trust associated with being steady.
amen: Firm, true, established.
אָמֵן
The familiar affirmation shares the root’s sense of firmness.
וּמְשַׁלֵּם עַל־יֶתֶר
u-meshallēm ʿal-yeter
GROWS FROM
שׁלם
sh-l-m
To be complete, make whole, or bring to completion; in this form, to repay or recompense.
“repays in full” in this verse is u-meshallēm ʿal-yeter. The verb translated “rewardeth” carries the sense of repayment brought to completion. Its root also forms shalom (שָׁלוֹם), meaning wholeness, so the verse’s language of repayment shares a word-family with the language of wholeness.
ALSO GROWS
shillem: Repaid, compensated, or recompensed.
שִׁלֵּם
This branch makes the repayment sense of the verse’s verb explicit.
shalom: Wholeness, well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
This branch shares the root’s sense of completion and fullness.
THE PATTERN
The LORD keeps the steady, while prideful action meets a full answer.
Perceive therefore that the LORD your God is God, the steady God, who guards the covenant and faithful love for those who love him and guard his commands to a thousand generations.You who love the LORD, hate evil. He guards the living souls of his faithful ones; he snatches them out of the hand of the wicked.But he gives greater favor. Therefore it says, God sets himself against those who lift themselves high, and gives favor to those made low.THE THREAD
The LORD watches over you from all harm; he watches over your living soul.The Hebrew verbs behind “preserveth” here and “shall preserve” in Psalm 121:7 share the root שׁמר (shamar), meaning to guard, watch, or keep. Psalm 121 repeats that keeping for “thee” and “thy soul,” making the watchful care in this verse personal and direct.
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