What Does Psalm 37:7 Mean?
Hush before the LORD, and wait for him in labor. Do not burn yourself because of the one who pushes through on his way, because of the man who makes schemes.
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
Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.THE KEY
The Hebrew sets דּוֹם (dōm, be silent) against מַצְלִיחַ (maṣlîaḥ, one who succeeds): another person’s headway need not become your inner weather.
THE MEANING
You watch someone advance with harmful designs, yet the verse places you in quiet before the LORD, waiting while the outcome remains open. Their visible success and the wrongness of their plans coexist; movement along a path does not make that path good.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this dissolves is that another person’s visible success proves their way is right, or that their progress must set your inner state on fire.
THE ROOT
דּוֹם
dōm
GROWS FROM
דמם
Be silent, be still, cease.
“hush” in this verse is dōm. דּוֹם is an imperative from דמם, a verb of becoming silent or still. Its root family gives words for silence and stillness, so the rest here has the texture of quiet before the outcome changes; the verse names waiting separately.
ALSO GROWS
dōmēm: Silent, still.
דּוֹמֵם
This participle shares the root’s consonants and describes a state of quiet, giving the command to rest an inner dimension.
demāmāh: Silence, stillness.
דְּמָמָה
This noun carries the same root consonants; it shows that the quiet of דּוֹם belongs to a word-family, not merely to a pause in activity.
מַצְלִיחַ
maṣlîaḥ
GROWS FROM
צלח
Advance, succeed, prosper; in a causative form, make succeed.
“pushes through” in this verse is maṣlîaḥ. מַצְלִיחַ is a Hiphil participle from צלח, describing someone who is succeeding or making headway. The word reports progress, while the verse still calls the person’s devices wicked: advancement by itself does not certify a path as good.
ALSO GROWS
ṣālaḥ: Advance, succeed, prosper.
צָלַח
This form shares all three root consonants and names the progress visible in the verse.
hiṣlîaḥ: Make succeed, cause to prosper.
הִצְלִיחַ
This causative form shares the same root consonants and clarifies the sense of bringing success about.
haṣlāḥāh: Success, prosperity.
הַצְלָחָה
This noun preserves the root consonants in a word for success, an outcome that still does not tell us whether the way producing it is good.
THE PATTERN
When wrongdoing appears to hold power, the text locates the response in waiting and entrusted judgment rather than envy or retaliation.
To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun, A Psalm of David. Only toward God is my living soul hushed. From him comes my deliverance.Do not kindle yourself because of evil men, nor burn with envy at the wicked.Who, when he was insulted, hurled no insult back; when he suffered, he threatened not; but handed himself over to the one who judges by alignment.THE THREAD
To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun, A Psalm of David. Only toward God is my living soul hushed. From him comes my deliverance.The Hebrew word rendered waiteth upon is דּוּמִיָּה (dumiyyah, silence or stillness), from the same root family as דּוֹם (dōm, be silent) in this verse. The shared root links waiting on God with becoming quiet before the outcome has changed.
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