What Does Psalm 47:2 Mean?

For the LORD Most High is awe, a great King over all the earth.

Psalm 47:2 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

For the LORD most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth.

THE KEY

The Hebrew behind “terrible” comes from the same root as awe: the King’s greatness is something the whole earth stands in awe of.

THE MEANING

The LORD is higher than every power, and the whole earth lies within his kingship. His greatness fills the world with awe; no border or earthly throne contains him.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

This undoes the belief that the LORD belongs to one place or can be measured by any earthly throne.

THE ROOT

נוֹרָא

nora

GROWS FROM

ירא

y-r-ʾ

To fear, revere, or stand in awe.

The word translated “terrible” is ⁨נוֹרָא⁩ (nora), an awe-inspiring form of ⁨ירא⁩ (yare), “to fear or stand in awe.” The verse describes the LORD’s greatness as a presence that awakens awe across the whole earth.

ALSO GROWS

yare: To fear, revere, or stand in awe.

יָרֵא

This verb shares the seed of ⁨נוֹרָא⁩, showing that the LORD’s “terribleness” and the awe he evokes belong to one word-family.

yirah: Fear or awe.

יִרְאָה

This noun names the response carried by the root: the King’s rule reaches beyond what the mind can hold and evokes awe.

nora: Awe-inspiring, fearsome.

נוֹרָא

This is the form used here: the LORD himself is described as the one who evokes awe.

THE PATTERN

The LORD’s rule exceeds every rival and summons awe across peoples and creation.

The LORD reigns; let the peoples tremble. He sits between the cherubim; let the earth sway.

Psalm 99:1 · SDVThe LORD’s reign makes the earth tremble, echoing the awe stirred by his kingship over all the earth.

For the LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, the awe-inspiring, who does not lift up the face of any and does not take a bribe.

Deuteronomy 10:17 · SDVThe LORD is named great and terrible above every rival power, just as Psalm 47 places him over all the earth.

Who will not stand in awe of you, Lord, and give weight to your name? For you alone are set apart, and all the nations come and bow down before your face, for your judgments are made visible.

Revelation 15:4 · SDVAwe before the Lord reaches all nations, carrying the verse’s universal kingship into a vision of the whole world.

THE THREAD

Who is like you among the mighty ones, O LORD? Who is like you, majestic in being set apart, awe-inspiring in praises, doing wonders?

Exodus 15:11 · SDV

“Fearful” here is ⁨נוֹרָא⁩ (nora), from the same root ⁨ירא⁩ (y-r-ʾ) as “terrible” in Psalm 47:2. Both verses use that root to reveal the LORD as one whose unmatched nature awakens awe.

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