What Does Psalm 71:23 Mean?
My lips ring out as I sing to you, and my living soul, which you ransom.
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
My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee; and my soul, which thou hast redeemed.THE KEY
The Hebrew verb for redemption names a life released, and the verse lets that release reach the lips as song.
THE MEANING
Your nefesh, the living self, is the one God has redeemed, and your lips answer by singing to God. The Hebrew verb behind “rejoice” also means to ring out or cry joyfully, so the song gives the redeemed life a voice.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that redemption is only an inward status: here the released living self and the singing lips are joined.
THE ROOT
פָּדִיתָ
padita
GROWS FROM
פדה
padah (פדה): to ransom, redeem, or free from a claim or peril.
“ransom” in this verse is padita. The root holds redemption and release together: the nefesh is brought out from what held it. Beside the rejoicing lips, the word makes song the sound of a life already released.
ALSO GROWS
padah: To redeem or ransom.
פָּדָה
The base verb shows redemption as an act that brings someone out from what holds them.
podeh: One who redeems or ransoms.
פּוֹדֶה
This form names the one doing the freeing; in the verse, God is the one who has released the living self.
תְּרַנֵּנָה
terannenah
GROWS FROM
רנן
ranan (רנן): to ring out, cry aloud, or sing and shout for joy.
“ring out” in this verse is terannenah. The Hebrew verb carries the sound of joy itself: rejoicing is a ringing cry, not only an inward feeling. Paired with “sing,” it lets the lips voice what redemption has done.
ALSO GROWS
rinnah: A ringing cry, joyful shout, or song.
רִנָּה
This noun preserves the audible quality of the rejoicing in the verse.
yerannen: He rings out, sings, or shouts for joy.
יְרַנֵּן
The same root makes joy something voiced, as in the lips’ rejoicing here.
נַפְשִׁי
nafshi
GROWS FROM
נפש
nefesh (נפש): the living self, person, or life; the living soul.
“living soul” in this verse is nafshi. “Soul” can sound like a separate inner substance, while nefesh names the living self as a whole. Here it is that very living self that God redeems, joined to the lips that sing.
ALSO GROWS
nafsho: His living soul, self, or life.
נַפְשׁוֹ
This form shows nefesh can name a person’s living self, not only an invisible part.
nefashot: Living souls, lives, or persons.
נְפָשׁוֹת
The plural form shows that nefesh can refer to living persons, clarifying the embodied sense of the verse’s “my soul.”
THE PATTERN
When deliverance brings the living self out of confinement, its answer becomes song.
Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the LORD, and said, I will sing to the LORD, for he has risen high, risen high; horse and rider he has hurled into the sea.The ransomed of the LORD turn back and come to Zion with ringing cries, and the joy of the ages is upon their heads. They overtake joy and gladness, and sorrow and groaning flee.And they sing a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to untie its seals, for you were slaughtered and bought us for God with your blood, out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.THE THREAD
But let all who take shelter in you rejoice; let them ring out for joy for the ages, and you cover them. Let those who love your nature leap for joy in you.The Hebrew root רנן appears here in the word translated “shout for joy,” echoing the rejoicing lips in Psalm 71:23. Psalm 5 joins that ringing voice to God’s defense; Psalm 71 lets it rise from the living self God has redeemed.
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