What Does Psalm 48:1 Mean?

A Song and Psalm for the sons of Korah. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, his set apart mountain.

Psalm 48:1 · 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

A Song and Psalm for the sons of Korah. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.

THE KEY

Praise is not left as a private reaction: the verse gives the LORD’s greatness a shared address in the city and a set-apart height in the mountain.

THE MEANING

The LORD is great now, and praise belongs in the shared city of God. The mountain is set apart to him, so his greatness is voiced in a place that is both communal and sacred.

THE ROOT

מְהֻלָּל

mehulal

GROWS FROM

הלל

halal

praise, extol

The word translated “praised” belongs to the same root family as Hebrew words for praise and songs of praise. The city’s shared voice is not incidental: it gives the LORD’s greatness a public expression.

ALSO GROWS

tehillah: praise; a song of praise

תְּהִלָּה

This branch names praise itself, the shared response implied by the verse’s description of the LORD as praised.

hallelu: praise! (plural command)

הַלְלוּ

This form makes praise an action spoken to a group, fitting the verse’s setting in the city.

קָדְשׁוֹ

qodsho

GROWS FROM

קדש

qadash

set apart; mark as sacred

The word translated “holiness” shares its root with words for what is set apart and with the word for a sanctuary. The mountain’s holiness is not only an abstract quality: the mountain itself is named as set apart to God.

ALSO GROWS

qadosh: set apart; sacred

קָדוֹשׁ

This branch makes explicit the quality carried by “his holiness”: being set apart.

miqdash: sanctuary; sacred place

מִקְדָּשׁ

It shows the same root naming a place set apart, echoing the verse’s mountain.

THE PATTERN

The LORD’s set-apart greatness gathers praise into shared speech across worshiping voices.

But you are set apart, settling upon the praises of Israel.

Psalm 22:3 · SDVIsrael’s praises are joined to the presence of the holy God, bringing praise and holiness together as in Psalm 48.

And one called out to another, and said, Set apart, set apart, set apart is the LORD of hosts. The whole earth is filled with his weight.

Isaiah 6:3 · SDVThe repeated cry rises between voices, making the LORD’s set-apart nature a shared proclamation.

Each of them has six wings about him, and all around and within they are full of eyes. They do not rest day and night, saying, Set apart, set apart, set apart, Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.

Revelation 4:8 · SDVThe living creatures repeat the same acclamation, carrying the pattern of shared praise into the heavenly vision.

THE THREAD

But you are set apart, settling upon the praises of Israel.

Psalm 22:3 · SDV

The Hebrew word for “praises,” ⁨תְּהִלּוֹת⁩ (tehillot, “praises”), comes from the same root ⁨הלל⁩ (halal, “praise”) as “praised” here. Psalm 48 places praise in God’s city, while Psalm 22 pictures the holy God dwelling amid it.

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