What Does Psalm 89:50 Mean?
Remember, Lord, the taunt of your servants, which I carry in my bosom, from all the many peoples.
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
Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants; how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people;THE KEY
The reproach carried close in the bosom is still brought before God to be remembered.
THE MEANING
This prayer gives you words for reproach carried close: the speaker asks the LORD to remember what he bears. What is endured by God’s servants remains visible before God; carrying it inwardly does not make it weightless.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that reproach becomes negligible once it is borne inwardly; this prayer asks for that very burden to remain in view.
THE ROOT
חֶרְפָּה
cherpah
GROWS FROM
חרף
charaph
To taunt, revile, or heap shame upon someone.
“taunt” in this verse is cherpah. This root holds together the act of reviling and the shame that remains from it. The speaker carries contempt imposed by others, not simply a private feeling.
ALSO GROWS
charaph: To taunt, revile, or reproach.
חָרַף
The verb names the act behind the reproach the speaker carries.
mecharef: One who taunts or reviles.
מְחָרֵף
This form names the person doing the reproaching, keeping the burden connected to those who impose it.
cherpah: Reproach, disgrace, or public shame.
חֶרְפָּה
This is the noun in the prayer: contempt is named as something carried and remembered.
נָשָׂא
nasa
GROWS FROM
נשא
nasa
To lift, carry, or bear.
“carry” in this verse is nasa. The speaker does not merely experience reproach; he carries it in his bosom. The root also forms a word for a burden, joining the act of carrying to the weight of what is carried.
ALSO GROWS
nasa: To lift, carry, or bear.
נָשָׂא
This is the verb behind the speaker’s bearing of the reproach.
massa: A burden or load.
מַשָּׂא
This related noun makes the weight within the act of bearing visible.
זְכֹר
zekhor
GROWS FROM
זכר
zakar
To remember, call to mind, or keep in view.
“remember” in this verse is zekhor. The speaker asks for more than a fleeting recollection: the reproach is brought into God’s regard. Related remembrance words can name a memorial, giving the plea the sense of keeping what happened in view.
ALSO GROWS
zakar: To remember or call to mind.
זָכַר
This is the root of the plea addressed to the LORD.
zikkaron: Remembrance or memorial.
זִכָּרוֹן
This related word shows remembrance as something kept in view, not just a passing thought.
zeker: Remembrance or memorial.
זֵכֶר
This branch echoes the prayer’s request that the reproach not pass unnoticed.
THE PATTERN
Reproach borne by God’s servants is named before God as a burden that can pass from one speaker to another.
For the burning for your house eats me up, and the reproaches of those who reproach you fall on me.For even the Anointed One did not please himself, but, as it is written, The insults of those who insult you have fallen upon me.Having held the reproach of the Anointed One as greater riches than the storehouses of Egypt, for he looked toward the paying of wages.THE THREAD
For the burning for your house eats me up, and the reproaches of those who reproach you fall on me.Psalm 69:9 uses the same Hebrew root חרף (charaph, taunt or reproach) as Psalm 89:50. There, reproach aimed at God falls upon the speaker, deepening the image of contempt carried personally in the bosom.
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