What Does Psalm 86:12 Mean?
I extend my hands to you, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and I give weight to your name for the ages.
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 praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore.THE KEY
The whole heart’s praise gives weight to the nature of God across the ages.
THE MEANING
Your praise gathers the whole heart, the inner center of thought and desire, into acknowledgment of God. To glorify God’s name is to recognize the weight of God’s nature, and the verse holds that recognition across the ages.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the idea that praise is only an outward phrase: here it engages the whole heart and recognizes God’s nature as weighty.
THE ROOT
וַאֲכַבְּדָה
va’akabbedah
GROWS FROM
כבד
k-b-d
To be heavy or weighty; in this form, to honor or treat as weighty.
“give weight to” in this verse is va’akabbedah. The English “glorify” can sound like adding a quality; כבד (k-b-d, weight) reveals recognition of what already has weight. The object is God’s name, שֵׁם (shem, name as nature), so the verse honors the nature disclosed by that name.
ALSO GROWS
kavod: Weight, honor, glory.
כָּבוֹד
This noun names the weight the verb makes visible: God’s name is treated as weighty.
kibbed: Honored, treated as weighty.
כִּבֵּד
This related verb shows glorifying as recognizing and giving expression to weight.
אוֹדְךָ
’odekha
GROWS FROM
ידה
y-d-h
To acknowledge, praise, or give thanks.
“extend my hands to” in this verse is ’odekha. Yadah holds praise, thanksgiving, and acknowledgment together. “With all my heart” describes the whole inner self engaged in recognition, not merely a string of celebratory words.
ALSO GROWS
todah: Thanksgiving, praise.
תּוֹדָה
This related noun places gratitude in the same word-family as praise.
modeh: One who acknowledges or gives thanks.
מוֹדֶה
This form makes the root’s sense of acknowledgment visible within the act of praise.
THE PATTERN
Wholehearted praise recognizes the weight of God’s nature and carries that recognition across the ages.
And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your living soul, and with all your might.To the chief Musician upon Muthlabben, A Psalm of David. I extend my hands to the LORD with my whole heart; I recount all your wonders.Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive the weight, and the honor, and the power, for you created all things, and through your will they were and were created.THE THREAD
Give to the LORD the weight of his name; bow down to the LORD in set-apart splendor.The Hebrew word rendered “glory” here is כָּבוֹד (kavod, weight or honor), from the same root כבד (k-b-d) as “glorify” in Psalm 86:12. “Due unto his name” makes the connection clear: honoring God’s name is recognizing the weight of the nature it carries.
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