What Does Psalm 61:6 Mean?
You add days upon the days of the king; his years are as generation after generation.
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
Thou wilt prolong the king’s life: and his years as many generations.THE KEY
The Hebrew pictures the king’s life as addition: God places day upon day until his years reach across generations.
THE MEANING
Here, the king’s days are held in God’s keeping: one day is added to another, and his years reach across generation after generation. The verse presents continuity as a gift whose horizon extends beyond a single lifespan.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A ruler can secure his future by his own power alone; this verse locates his continuing life in God’s hands.
THE ROOT
תּוֹסִיף
tosif
GROWS FROM
יסף
y-s-f
add, increase, continue
The Hebrew verb means “you add,” from the root יסף (y-s-f), meaning “to add” or “increase.” The verse pictures God adding days to the king’s days, then lets that addition extend through generation after generation.
ALSO GROWS
Yosef: “He adds” or “may he add”; the name Joseph is connected with adding.
יוֹסֵף
This name carries the same root into a person’s name, echoing the psalm’s picture of life added by God.
musaf: An additional or supplementary offering.
מוּסָף
The same root describes something added alongside what is already present, illuminating the image of days placed upon days.
THE PATTERN
Scripture places life’s duration beyond human control, as a span held and extended by God.
The awe of the LORD adds days; but the years of the restless are cut short.He asks life from you, and you give it to him, length of days for ages and ages.Which of you, by being pulled apart, can add one forearm to his span?THE THREAD
The awe of the LORD adds days; but the years of the restless are cut short.The verb behind “prolongeth” is the same Hebrew form תּוֹסִיף (tosif, “you add”) found in this psalm. Proverbs says days are added under the LORD; this verse carries that same addition into years spanning generations.
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