What Does Psalm 68:34 Mean?
Give strength to God; his height is over Israel, and his strength is in the clouds.
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
Ascribe ye strength unto God: his excellency is over Israel, and his strength is in the clouds.THE KEY
The verb rendered “ascribe” means “give,” making recognition an act of placing strength with God.
THE MEANING
God is the source of the strength named here; his majesty is over Israel, and his strength is in the clouds. The verse holds that strength as a covering over the people and a presence in the heights above them.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that the strength sustaining you has to originate in you.
THE ROOT
עֹז
ʿōz
GROWS FROM
עָזַז
ʿāzaz
To be strong, mighty, or prevail.
The strength named here belongs to a family of words for active might and force. The verse recognizes where power resides, then pictures it over the people and in the clouds above them.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāzaz: To be strong or prevail.
עָזַז
The verb shares the root consonants and shows strength as active might.
ʿāzûz: Mighty, powerful.
עָזוּז
This related form preserves the root consonants and carries their sense of force into a description of might.
תְּנוּ
tenû
GROWS FROM
נָתַן
nātan
To give, set, or place.
“Give” in this verse is tenû. The command translated “ascribe” grows from the Hebrew verb for giving or placing. The verse presents recognition as assigning strength to God, the one whose majesty is over the people and whose strength fills the clouds.
ALSO GROWS
nātûn: Given, set in place.
נָתוּן
This form carries the same give-and-place root into the state of something assigned.
nĕtînâ: Giving, donation.
נְתִינָה
The same root consonants appear in this noun for the act of giving.
THE PATTERN
Strength is named as God’s gift and presence, sustaining people under his care.
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.Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the grip of his strength.THE THREAD
The LORD is their stronghold, and he is a stronghold of deliverance for his anointed one.Psalm 28 uses the same Hebrew noun עֹז (ʿōz, strength) when it calls the LORD the people’s strength. Psalm 68 carries that strength over Israel and into the clouds, joining care for the people with reach across the heavens.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us