What Does Psalm 34:9 Mean?
O be in awe of the LORD, you his set-apart ones; for there is no lack for those in awe of him.
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 fear the LORD, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him.THE KEY
The verse names the LORD’s people both as “his set-apart ones” and as those who stand in awe of him, then binds that belonging to a promise of no lack.
THE MEANING
The verse names the LORD’s set-apart ones and those who stand in awe of him as the same people. It says that they have no lack.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that having a need means you are beyond the LORD’s care.
THE ROOT
יְראוּ
yirʾû
GROWS FROM
ירא
y-r-ʾ
to fear, revere, stand in awe
“be in awe” in this verse is yirʾû. The word includes reverence and awe alongside fear. This root appears first in the command and again in “them that fear him,” making awe the defining posture of those promised no lack.
ALSO GROWS
yirʾāh: awe, fear, reverence
יִרְאָה
This noun makes explicit the reverence held within the command to fear the LORD.
yārēʾ: one who fears or stands in awe
יָרֵא
This form names the person whose relation to the LORD is shaped by the same root.
מַחְסוֹר
maḥsôr
GROWS FROM
חסר
ḥ-s-r
to lack, be diminished
The word translated “want” means lack or need: מַחְסוֹר (maḥsôr, “lack”) grows from חסר (ḥ-s-r, “to lack”). The same root appears in the next verse, where lack becomes the contrast between hungry lions and those who seek the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāsēr: lacking, deficient
חָסֵר
This form makes clear that the root describes a state of having something absent.
yaḥserû: they lack
יַחְסְרוּ
This form appears in Psalm 34:10, where the verse says that those who seek the LORD will not lack any good thing.
קְדֹשָׁיו
qedoshav
GROWS FROM
קדש
q-d-sh
to set apart, consecrate
The Hebrew names the “saints” as קְדֹשָׁיו (qedoshav, “his set-apart ones”). The possessive ending points to belonging to the LORD, and the verse places this belonging beside awe and the promise of no lack.
ALSO GROWS
qādōsh: set apart, sacred
קָדוֹשׁ
This adjective carries the quality named in the verse’s “his set-apart ones.”
qōdesh: set-apartness, sacredness
קֹדֶשׁ
This noun shows the shared root behind the identity of those called the LORD’s own.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s care is joined to those who orient themselves toward him, so lack does not define them.
A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd; I do not come up short.But seek first the governance of God and his alignment; and all these things will be added to you.And my God will fill every need of yours according to his riches of weight, by Jesus the Anointed One.THE THREAD
The young lions go lacking and go hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.מַחְסוֹר (maḥsôr, “lack”) in this verse and יַחְסְרוּ (yaḥserû, “they lack”) in the next grow from חסר (ḥ-s-r, “to lack”). The next verse gives the root a vivid contrast: even young lions experience lack, while those who seek the LORD “shall not want any good thing.”
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