What Does Psalm 75:7 Mean?
For God is the judge. This one he brings low, and this one he lifts.
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 God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.THE KEY
God’s judgment is not a label on fixed ranks; it is the power that lowers and raises.
THE MEANING
No person’s present height or low place is beyond God’s judgment: God lowers one and raises another. Your current position is real, but it is not beyond God’s power to change.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that visible rank proves permanent worth or safety: neither being raised nor being low places someone beyond God’s judgment.
THE ROOT
יָרִים
yārîm
GROWS FROM
רום
To be high or rise; in this verb, to raise someone.
“lifts” in this verse is yārîm. יָרִים (yārîm, “he raises”) comes from רום, the root of being high. Its causative form makes God the agent who brings another into height, presenting elevation as something received rather than a permanent possession.
ALSO GROWS
rām: High or exalted.
רָם
It shares the root’s language of height, showing the position God gives.
mārôm: Height or the heights.
מָרוֹם
It extends the same root into the place of elevation that God raises another toward.
יַשְׁפִּיל
yashpîl
GROWS FROM
שפל
To be low; in this verb, to bring someone low.
“brings low” in this verse is yashpîl. יַשְׁפִּיל (yashpîl, “he lowers”) is the causative form of שפל, whose branches name lowliness and lowland. Beside רום, it makes the verse’s judgment a deliberate shift in height: one goes down while another is raised.
ALSO GROWS
shāphēl: Low or humble.
שָׁפֵל
It names the low position into which the verse says God can bring someone.
shephēlāh: Lowland.
שְׁפֵלָה
The landform carries the root’s sense of being low, giving the verse’s down-motion a spatial echo.
שֹׁפֵט
shōphēt
GROWS FROM
שפט
To judge or render a decision.
שֹׁפֵט (shōphēt, “judge”) comes from שפט, which also gives the language of judgment and justice. Here the judge’s decision appears in changed positions themselves, so judgment is more than a spoken assessment.
ALSO GROWS
mishpāṭ: Judgment or justice.
מִשְׁפָּט
It shows the root’s broader reach from judging to the order established by judgment.
shāphaṭ: To judge or govern.
שָׁפַט
It names the action behind the verse’s claim that God determines who is lowered and raised.
THE PATTERN
Human elevation and abasement remain reversible because God governs who is raised and lowered.
The LORD strips, and makes rich; he lays low, and lifts high.And he changes the times and the seasons. He removes kings and raises up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to those who know understanding.He has pulled the mighty down from their seats, and lifted up the low.THE THREAD
The LORD strips, and makes rich; he lays low, and lifts high.The Hebrew repeats the same roots: שפל (sh-p-l, “be low or lower”) and רום (r-w-m, “be high or rise”). Hannah’s song makes Psalm 75’s paired movement plain: God brings low and lifts up.
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