What Does Psalm 9:1 Mean?
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.
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
To the chief Musician upon Muthlabben, A Psalm of David. I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works.THE KEY
Praise is the whole heart giving God’s wonders a spoken record.
THE MEANING
Your praise gathers your whole heart toward the LORD, then gives voice to what is wondrous. The inward recognition and the telling belong together: the wonders are spoken, not kept inside.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that praise is only an inward feeling: here, wholehearted praise also tells what God has done.
THE ROOT
אֲסַפְּרָה
asapperah
GROWS FROM
ספר
s-f-r
to count, recount, or tell
The verb translated “shew forth” means “I will recount.” Its root also carries the sense of counting and recording, so praise here gives the wonders a spoken account.
ALSO GROWS
sefer: book or written record
סֵפֶר
The shared root links recounting aloud with giving something a record.
mispar: number or count
מִסְפָּר
This branch preserves the root’s sense of counting: the speaker recounts all the wonders, holding none outside the telling.
sippur: story or account
סִפּוּר
A telling becomes an account, showing how praise carries the wonders forward as a story.
נִפְלְאוֹתֶיךָ
nifle’otekha
GROWS FROM
פלא
p-l-ʾ
to be extraordinary or wondrous
The Hebrew phrase is “all your wonders.” The root lets “marvellous works” carry the sense of acts beyond the ordinary, whose wonder is kept in view as they are recounted.
ALSO GROWS
pala: to be wondrous or extraordinary
פָּלָא
The verb names the quality that marks these works as wonders.
pele: wonder or marvel
פֶּלֶא
This noun makes explicit the wonder contained in the phrase “marvellous works.”
nifla’ot: wonders or extraordinary acts
נִפְלָאוֹת
This is the plural form in the verse: the speaker recounts all of them.
THE PATTERN
Praise gives God’s extraordinary works a voice that carries beyond the one who first sees them.
We will not hide them from their children, recounting to the generation that follows the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonders that he has done.Return to your own house, and tell how much God has done for you. And he went away and heralded throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty; aligned and true are your ways, King of the nations.THE THREAD
That I may make the voice of outstretched hands heard, and recount all your wonders.The same Hebrew root ספר (s-f-r), meaning to recount or tell, joins the two verses. Psalm 26:7 makes the link plain: thanksgiving finds its voice by recounting all God’s wonders.
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