What Does Psalm 70:4 Mean?
Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you, and let those who love your deliverance say continually, Let God grow great.
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
Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: and let such as love thy salvation say continually, Let God be magnified.THE KEY
The deliverance you love becomes the reason you keep declaring God’s greatness.
THE MEANING
You can seek God and rejoice in God at the same time; the verse holds longing and gladness together now. Love for God’s deliverance gives your speech a continuing refrain: God is magnified.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that seeking means you are too far from joy falls away here: the seekers themselves rejoice in God.
THE ROOT
יְשׁוּעָתֶךָ
yeshuʿatekha
GROWS FROM
ישע
y-sh-ʿ
To open out into spaciousness; to deliver into safety.
The word translated “salvation” carries the sense of deliverance from constriction into room and safety. Here, that deliverance is something the seeker loves, and it becomes the source of continual praise.
ALSO GROWS
yasha: Deliver, bring to safety.
יָשַׁע
This verb shows the movement held in the word: being brought out of danger and into safety.
moshiaʿ: Deliverer.
מוֹשִׁיעַ
This branch names the one who brings about the opening into safety that the verse calls God’s deliverance.
יִגְדַּל
yigdal
GROWS FROM
גדל
g-d-l
To grow or become great.
“grow great” in this verse is yigdal. The phrase asks that God be recognized as great in the words people keep saying. The praise does not make God larger; it brings God’s greatness into view.
ALSO GROWS
gadol: Great.
גָּדוֹל
The related adjective makes explicit the greatness named in the refrain.
migdal: Tower.
מִגְדָּל
This related word gives a concrete image of height and prominence, echoing the call to let God’s greatness stand out.
מְבַקְשֶׁיךָ
mevaqsheikha
GROWS FROM
בקש
b-q-sh
To seek or request.
“seek” in this verse is mevaqsheikha. This root can name both seeking and asking: a movement toward God that is also a direct appeal. The verse places that seeking alongside rejoicing, so longing and gladness can coexist.
ALSO GROWS
mevaqqesh: One who seeks or requests.
מְבַקֵּשׁ
This is the same seeker named in the verse, showing that seeking describes a continuing relationship, not just a moment of searching.
baqqashah: Request or petition.
בַּקָּשָׁה
The branch of asking highlights the directness of seeking: the seeker reaches toward God with a desire.
THE PATTERN
God’s deliverance turns into joy, and that joy gives praise a continuing voice.
But I have leaned my full weight upon your faithful love; my heart leaps in your deliverance.Look, God is my deliverance. I will lean my full weight and not tremble, for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song, and he has become my deliverance.And my breath has leapt in God, my Deliverer.THE THREAD
Look, God is my deliverance. I will lean my full weight and not tremble, for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song, and he has become my deliverance.Isaiah uses יְשׁוּעָה (yeshuʿah, deliverance), from the same root as Psalm 70’s יְשׁוּעָתֶךָ (yeshuʿatekha, your deliverance). The psalm shows people loving that deliverance; Isaiah shows it becoming trust and song, giving the refrain “Let God be magnified” its voice.
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