What Does Psalm 62:11 Mean?
God speaks once; twice I hear this, that strength belongs to God.
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
God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God.THE KEY
The word for “power” shares its root with “stronghold,” so what belongs to God is strength that can shelter.
THE MEANING
God’s strength is the source named here, and the sentence reaches you as something heard twice over. Your own capacity sits within a larger reality whose strength belongs to God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that you must be the origin of every strength you need. This verse places strength’s source and ownership in God.
THE ROOT
עֹז
ʿoz strength or
GROWS FROM
עָזַז
ʿ-z-z
To be strong or mighty.
English can make “power” sound abstract, but עֹז (ʿoz) names strength or might. Its root also gives a word for a stronghold, joining strength with the idea of shelter.
ALSO GROWS
ʿaz: Strong, fierce, or forceful.
עַז
This branch shows that the root describes strength as a quality, not just an amount of power.
maʿoz: Stronghold or refuge.
מָעוֹז
This branch lets you hear strength as something that can shelter, not only as force.
שָׁמַעְתִּי
shamaʿti I heard
GROWS FROM
שָׁמַע
sh-m-ʿ
To hear or listen; in some contexts, to heed.
“I hear” in this verse is shamaʿti I heard. English gives you a completed mental event: “heard.” The Hebrew root can also reach hearing that heeds, though here the doubled hearing emphasizes recognition rather than issuing a separate command.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: Hear or listen.
שְׁמַע
The imperative form makes the root’s sense of listening direct and active.
mishmaʿat: Obedience or attentive hearing.
מִשְׁמַעַת
This branch shows how hearing can extend into heeding, a shade held within the root even when this verse stresses what is heard.
THE PATTERN
God’s strength is the source that reaches people at the edge of their own strength.
The LORD gives strength to his people; the LORD blesses his people with wholeness.He gives power to the faint, and to those without might he multiplies strength.And he said to me, "My favor is enough for you, for strength is carried to its end in weakness." Most gladly, then, I will boast all the more in my weaknesses, so that the strength of the Anointed One may pitch its tent over me.THE THREAD
The LORD gives strength to his people; the LORD blesses his people with wholeness.Psalm 29:11 uses the same Hebrew word עֹז (ʿoz, strength) and says the LORD gives it to his people. The shared root opens Psalm 62’s claim of God’s ownership into a picture of strength shared with people, alongside the promise of wholeness.
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