What Does Psalm 66:3 Mean?
Say to God, How awe-filled are your works! Through the abundance of your strength your enemies cringe before you.
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
Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works! through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee.THE KEY
Even the enemies’ submission may be a mask: the Hebrew verb can mean to lie or feign, so power can force a posture without changing the heart.
THE MEANING
God’s works meet you now as awe-inspiring, beyond the measure of what you can control. The verse pictures opposition yielding beneath that power, while its Hebrew verb leaves open whether the yielding is sincere or feigned.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Visible submission is not the same as inward trust; power can produce a show of surrender without changing hostility.
THE ROOT
יְכַחֲשׁוּ
yĕkaḥăšû
GROWS FROM
כחש
to deny, lie, or dissemble; in this form, to feign submission
“cringe before you” in this verse is yĕkaḥăšû. The verb translated “submit themselves” also carries the sense of lying or feigning. That shade lets the verse hold two things together: enemies yield under overwhelming power, yet their posture does not by itself prove a change of heart.
ALSO GROWS
kāḥaš: to lie, deny, or act falsely
כָּחַשׁ
This root appears as “lying” in Hosea 4:2, keeping a note of deception inside the word used here for submission.
yĕkaḥăšû: they lie or feign
יְכַחֲשׁוּ
Psalm 81:15 uses this same form where the KJV says the LORD’s haters “should have submitted themselves,” exposing the tension between outward yielding and inward hostility.
נוֹרָא
nôrāʾ
GROWS FROM
ירא
to fear or stand in awe
“awe-filled” in this verse is nôrāʾ. The word carries the felt force of awe: these works are not merely impressive but confront you with what cannot be mastered. The verse gives that wonder a voice in the present.
ALSO GROWS
yārēʾ: to fear or stand in awe
יָרֵא
This verb shares the root and shows the response carried by “terrible” when the works belong to God.
môrāʾ: awe or dread
מוֹרָא
This related noun keeps both reverence and apprehension in view, giving “terrible” a depth beyond ordinary admiration.
THE PATTERN
Overwhelming power can produce outward acknowledgment even while resistance remains inward.
The moment the ear hears, they hear and respond to me; the strangers cringe before me.Those who hate the LORD would cringe before him, and their time would be for the ages.You trust that there is one God; you do well. The demons also trust, and shudder.THE THREAD
Those who hate the LORD would cringe before him, and their time would be for the ages.Psalm 81:15 uses the same Hebrew verb as Psalm 66:3 for the submission of people it still calls haters. The shared root lets “submit” hold both pressure and pretense: outward yielding can coexist with hostility.
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