What Does Psalm 51:15 Mean?
Lord, open my lips, and my mouth sets forth your praise.
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 Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.THE KEY
The LORD opens the lips as a doorway, and praise is what passes through.
THE MEANING
The LORD opens the reader’s lips, and the mouth makes God’s praise known. The verse presents praise as speech that emerges through an opening received.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that praise begins in the speaker’s own power is reversed: the speaker asks the LORD to open the lips.
THE ROOT
תִּפְתָּח
tiftaḥ
GROWS FROM
פתח
pātaḥ
To open, unfasten.
The verb for “open” shares its root with פֶּתַח (petaḥ), an entrance, and מַפְתֵּחַ (maphtēaḥ), a key. The lips become an opened threshold: once the LORD opens them, praise can pass into speech.
ALSO GROWS
petaḥ: Opening, doorway, entrance.
פֶּתַח
The lips are pictured as an entrance through which praise becomes audible.
maphtēaḥ: Key.
מַפְתֵּחַ
The shared root links opening with what unlocks an entrance.
יַגִּיד
yagid
GROWS FROM
נגד
nagad
To make known, declare, set forth.
“sets forth” in this verse is yagid. The word translated “shew forth” comes from a root of making something known. Its family includes נֶגֶד (neged), “before” or “in front of,” and נָגִיד (nagid), “leader.” The mouth sets praise before others to hear.
ALSO GROWS
neged: Before, in front of.
נֶגֶד
The declaration brings praise into the open, before those who hear it.
nagid: Leader, ruler.
נָגִיד
This related word carries the sense of one who stands before others.
תְּהִלָּתֶךָ
tehillatekha
GROWS FROM
הלל
halal
To praise, laud.
The word for “praise” is תְּהִלָּה (tehillah), from halal. The same root appears in הַלְלוּ־יָהּ (hallelu-yah), “praise Yah,” tying this verse’s spoken praise to a familiar call of praise.
ALSO GROWS
tehillah: Praise, song of praise.
תְּהִלָּה
This is the noun expressed in “thy praise,” the utterance that follows the opening.
hallelu-yah: Praise Yah.
הַלְלוּ־יָהּ
The same root makes praise itself a spoken call.
THE PATTERN
Praise and witness emerge as given speech: what is placed in or opened at the mouth becomes public expression.
He sets a new song in my mouth, praise to our God. Many see and stand in awe, and lean their weight upon the LORD.And for me, that a word may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, so that I may make known with open speech the sealed thing of the gospel.Through him, then, let us always carry up a sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.THE THREAD
He sets a new song in my mouth, praise to our God. Many see and stand in awe, and lean their weight upon the LORD.Both verses use תְּהִלָּה (tehillah), “praise.” Psalm 40 shows what Psalm 51’s opened lips sound like: a new song placed in the mouth, which others see and that leads into trust.
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