What Does Psalm 68:33 Mean?
To the one who rides the heavens of heavens, which were of old, look, he gives his voice, a voice of strength.
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
To him that rideth upon the heavens of heavens, which were of old; lo, he doth send out his voice, and that a mighty voice.THE KEY
The God who rides above every heaven gives a voice that is strength made audible.
THE MEANING
The one who rides over the highest heavens gives a voice of strength in the present. His rule reaches you as utterance, and the force in that utterance belongs to him.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that divine power is remote and wordless: the one above the heavens gives a voice whose sound bears strength.
THE ROOT
יִתֵּן
yittēn
GROWS FROM
נתן
n-t-n
give, set, place
“gives his voice” in this verse is yittēn. The Hebrew verb is “he gives,” from the root for giving, setting, or placing. Where the English pictures a voice sent outward, the Hebrew foregrounds the giving: the voice of strength is given in or with his own voice.
ALSO GROWS
nātan: give, set, place
נָתַן
The root verb shows that the voice is presented as something God gives.
mattānāh: gift
מַתָּנָה
The related word for gift keeps the act of giving within the same word family.
עֹז
ʿoz
GROWS FROM
עזז
ʿ-z-z
be strong, exert strength
The word translated “mighty” names strength itself. Its family holds both strength and being strong together, so the voice is not merely described as impressive; strength is what it carries.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāzaz: be strong
עָזַז
The verb makes explicit the active strength contained in the verse’s description of the voice.
ʿaz: strong, fierce
עַז
This related form shows the root’s range from strength to forceful intensity.
רֹכֵב
rokhev
GROWS FROM
רכב
r-k-b
mount, ride
“rideth” in this verse is rokhev. The same root names the act of riding and the chariot or vehicle associated with it. The verse places the rider above the heavens themselves, making the heavens his mount.
ALSO GROWS
rekhev: chariot, vehicle
רֶכֶב
The related noun keeps the rider’s action connected to the means of riding.
merkavah: chariot
מֶרְכָּבָה
This branch echoes the verse’s image of a sovereign riding above the heavens.
THE PATTERN
God’s voice carries the strength of the one who rules over creation.
The voice of the LORD is in power; the voice of the LORD is in splendor.By the word of the LORD the heavens are made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth.Who, being the radiance of his weight and the exact stamp of his foundation, carrying all things by the word of his power, when he had made the cleansing of shortcomings, sat down at the right hand of the Greatness on high.THE THREAD
The voice of the LORD is in power; the voice of the LORD is in splendor.Both verses turn on קוֹל (qol, “voice”): Psalm 68:33 calls it a “voice of strength,” and Psalm 29:4 says that voice is powerful. The second verse makes explicit the force Psalm 68 lets you hear inside the phrase.
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