What Does Psalm 71:22 Mean?
I extend my hands to you with the lyre, your truth, my God; I sing to you with the harp, O Set-Apart One of Israel.
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 also praise thee with the psaltery, even thy truth, O my God: unto thee will I sing with the harp, O thou Holy One of Israel.THE KEY
Praise here is the sound of recognizing God’s dependable truth and giving that recognition a voice.
THE MEANING
Your gratitude can take sound and form as you address God as the one whose truth is steady. Song becomes an embodied way of recognizing that truth, directed toward the One named as Israel’s set-apart God.
THE ROOT
אוֹדְךָ
ʾôdeḵā
GROWS FROM
ידה
y-d-h
Acknowledge, give thanks, praise.
“I extend my hands to you” in this verse is ʾôdeḵā. The Hebrew word for praise shares its root with thanksgiving and Judah’s name. Praise here carries the sense of naming what is true with gratitude, then giving that recognition a voice.
ALSO GROWS
todah: Thanksgiving, thanks.
תּוֹדָה
This branch shows that the praise in the verse includes gratitude, not only admiration.
Yehudah: Judah; the name is linked to praise or giving thanks.
יְהוּדָה
In Genesis 29:35, Leah connects Judah’s name with praising the LORD, showing praise can be carried in a name.
אֲמִתְּךָ
ʾămitteḵā
GROWS FROM
אמן
ʾ-m-n
Be firm, reliable, established.
English “truth” can sound like a correct proposition; emet belongs to a word family of firmness and reliability. The verse’s praise rests on God’s dependable character, a truth that can carry trust.
ALSO GROWS
emunah: Steadfastness, trust.
אֱמוּנָה
This branch shows how truth as reliability can become something the reader leans their full weight on.
amen: Firmly, truly; so be it.
אָמֵן
Amen answers what is true by affirming it as sure.
קְדוֹשׁ
qādôsh
GROWS FROM
קדש
q-d-sh
Set apart, distinct.
“Set-Apart One of Israel” in this verse is qādôsh. The title names the One set apart, distinct in relation to Israel. The song is directed toward this particular presence, rather than toward an abstract idea of holiness.
ALSO GROWS
qodesh: Set-apartness, sacredness.
קֹדֶשׁ
This branch clarifies the quality named in “Holy One”: distinctness and belonging to God.
miqdash: Sanctuary, a set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
The sanctuary grows from the same root, joining set-apartness with a place where that presence is encountered.
THE PATTERN
Recognizing God’s character gives praise a voice through shared, embodied song.
Give thanks to the LORD with the harp, and pluck for him on the psaltery and the instrument of ten strings.Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and songs of breath, singing and plucking the strings in your heart to the Lord.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
Sing to the LORD, you his faithful ones, and give thanks to the remembrance of his set-apartness.Psalm 30:4 uses the same root ידה (y-d-h), meaning acknowledge, give thanks, or praise, in “give thanks,” and joins that thanks to God’s holiness. It makes the connection explicit: praise in Psalm 71:22 is voiced recognition of the One set apart.
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