What Does Psalm 71:14 Mean?
But I keep waiting always, and add to all your praise.
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
But I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more.THE KEY
Hope remains continuous, while praise keeps receiving additions.
THE MEANING
Hope is present through time, and praise keeps growing around what is already seen of God. The verse holds both together: ongoing expectation and more praise still to come.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that praise must wait until hope is fulfilled: hope continues now, and praise is already being added.
THE ROOT
אֲיַחֵל
ʾăyaḥēl
GROWS FROM
יחל
wait, hope, expect
“I keep waiting” in this verse is ʾăyaḥēl. The Hebrew verb carries both waiting and hope, so this is more than wishing for a result: it is an expectation that continues through time. Its branches connect hope with expectation, giving “continually” the texture of sustained waiting.
ALSO GROWS
ʾăyaḥēl: I wait; I hope expectantly
אֲיַחֵל
The same verb appears in Psalm 130:5, where waiting and hoping are held together.
tōḥelet: hope; expectation
תּוֹחֶלֶת
This related noun makes explicit the expectation carried within the verse’s ongoing hope.
תְּהִלָּתֶךָ
tehillātekhā
GROWS FROM
הלל
praise, celebrate
“Thy praise” grows from the same root as the Hebrew call to praise, linking the praise already present with praise still to come. The verse describes praise as an enlarging expression, not a finished total.
ALSO GROWS
hallel: praise; celebrate
הַלֵּל
This verb shares the root with the noun for praise in the verse.
halelu-yah: Praise Yah
הַלְלוּ־יָהּ
Its opening word comes from this same praise-root, showing the shared language beneath both personal praise and the familiar call to praise.
וְהוֹסַפְתִּי
wehosaphti
GROWS FROM
יסף
add, increase, continue
“add to” in this verse is wehosaphti. The phrase translated “more and more” comes from a verb meaning to add. Praise here accumulates: each new expression is added to all that came before.
ALSO GROWS
vattōsef: she added; she continued, translated “again”
וַתֹּסֶף
The same root can express continuation, as in Genesis 4:2, where Eve “again” bears a son.
yōsēf: Joseph; “may he add”
יוֹסֵף
The name is tied to adding in Genesis 30:24, echoing the verse’s picture of praise receiving more.
THE PATTERN
Hope and praise can remain ongoing before circumstances are resolved.
A Psalm of David, when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech; who drove him away, and he departed. I bless the LORD at all times, and his praise is continually in my mouth.The LORD is my portion, says my living soul; therefore I wait for him.Through him, then, let us always carry up a sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.THE THREAD
I stretch myself taut for the LORD, my living soul stretches taut, and in his word I hope.The Hebrew word behind “hope” here shares the root יחל (yachal), meaning “wait, hope, expect,” with Psalm 71:14. This verse makes the texture clear: hoping continually is sustained waiting that still expects.
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