What Does Psalm 7:17 Mean?
I extend my hands to the LORD according to his alignment, and I sing to the nature of the LORD Most High.
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
I will praise the LORD according to his righteousness: and will sing praise to the name of the LORD most high.THE KEY
Praise takes its measure from God’s alignment and its voice from the LORD’s nature.
THE MEANING
God’s rightness gives your praise its measure. As you sing the LORD’s name, you voice the nature carried by that name; recognition and song meet in you now.
THE ROOT
צִדְקוֹ
tsidqô
GROWS FROM
צדק
ts-d-q
To be right or just; alignment with what is right.
The root carries rightness and justice as alignment, a fitting relation to what is right. Here, that alignment is the measure of praise: the character being praised also shapes the praise.
ALSO GROWS
tsaddiq: A righteous or just person.
צַדִּיק
This branch describes someone as aligned with what is right, giving personal shape to the quality named in the verse.
tsedaqah: Righteousness or justice.
צְדָקָה
This branch carries the same rightness into action and relationship, showing that the LORD’s character has a lived expression.
אֹודֶה
ʾōdeh
GROWS FROM
ידה
y-d-h
To give thanks, praise, or acknowledge; in another form, to confess.
“I extend my hands to the LORD” in this verse is ʾōdeh. This root holds praise and confession together: both are speech that acknowledges what is true. The verse’s praise has the texture of recognition, not mere acclaim.
ALSO GROWS
todah: Thanksgiving or an expression of thanks.
תּוֹדָה
This branch shows praise as gratitude voiced in response to what is recognized.
hitvaddû: They confessed or acknowledged.
הִתְוַדּוּ
This branch shares the root’s movement of acknowledgment, linking praise with bringing the truth into speech.
אֲזַמְּרָה
ʾazammerah
GROWS FROM
זמר
z-m-r
To sing or make music.
“sing to” in this verse is ʾazammerah. The KJV’s phrase “sing praise” follows a different Hebrew root from “I will praise”: the first verb carries acknowledgment, while this one makes it music. Together, they move from recognition into voiced song.
ALSO GROWS
mizmor: A psalm or song.
מִזְמוֹר
This branch names a song shaped by the same root that gives the verse its musical expression.
zimrah: Song or music.
זִמְרָה
This branch makes explicit the musical quality of the praise voiced here.
THE PATTERN
Praise gives voice to God’s character: God’s rightness supplies its measure, and song makes that character known.
And my tongue murmurs your alignment, and your praise, all the day long.The LORD is aligned in all his ways, and full of faithful love in all his works.And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty; aligned and true are your ways, King of the nations.THE THREAD
And my tongue murmurs your alignment, and your praise, all the day long.Both verses join צִדְקָה (tsedaqah, righteousness and justice) with praise. Psalm 35:28 makes the pairing explicit: the tongue speaks God’s rightness and praise together.
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