What Does Psalm 72:5 Mean?
They stand in awe of you with the sun and before the moon, from generation to generation.
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
They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure, throughout all generations.THE KEY
The sun and moon are not scenery here; they mark the span of time across which awe of God continues.
THE MEANING
Awe toward God reaches beyond any one lifetime: the sun and moon mark the continuing span, and generation follows generation. The verse places the reader within that ongoing horizon, where reverence is carried through time rather than confined to one moment.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the idea that awe of God is only a fleeting, private feeling; the verse presents it as enduring across generations.
THE ROOT
יִירָאוּךָ
yirā’ûkha
GROWS FROM
ירא
y-r-ʾ
To fear, revere, or stand in awe.
“stand in awe of” in this verse is yirā’ûkha. The verb here carries awe toward God, not merely alarm. The verse measures that awe against the sun’s course, the moon’s return, and generation after generation, making recurring time the scale of its reach.
ALSO GROWS
yir’ah: Awe, fear, reverence
יִרְאָה
This noun shows the same root holding both fear and reverence together, illuminating the depth of the response named in the verse.
nora: Awe-inspiring, fearsome
נוֹרָא
This form of the root appears in Psalm 89:7, where God is described as greatly to be feared; it links the verse’s enduring awe to the shared reverence of a community.
THE PATTERN
Awe before God spans both creation’s recurring cycles and the succession of human generations.
All the days of the earth, sowing and reaping, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not stop.Like the moon it will be set firm for the ages, and a steady witness in the skies. Selah.And his faithful love is for those in awe of him, from generation to generation.THE THREAD
God is greatly trembled before in the intimate circle of the set-apart ones, and is held in awe above all who surround him.Psalm 89:7 uses the same root ירא (yare, to fear or stand in awe) for God as the one greatly to be feared. Psalm 72:5 stretches that same awe across celestial cycles and generations; Psalm 89 places it among those gathered around God.
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