What Does Psalm 92:4 Mean?
For you, LORD, gladden me by your work; I ring out in the deeds of your hands.
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
For thou, LORD, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands.THE KEY
What the KJV calls triumph is a ringing song: the LORD’s work turns gladness into a voice.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s work meets you as gladness now; it does not remain something you observe from a distance. Your voice rises into rejoicing among the works of the LORD’s hands.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that joy depends on your own achievements: the gladness here begins with the LORD’s work, and your triumph is its voiced response.
THE ROOT
אֲרַנֵּן
arannen
GROWS FROM
רנן
ranan
To ring out, shout, or sing aloud.
“I ring out” in this verse is arannen. The word translated “triumph” is a first-person form of a root for ringing out in song or a shout. The verse’s response to the LORD’s work is audible rejoicing, not merely an inward sense of victory.
ALSO GROWS
rinnah: A ringing cry, song, or shout of joy.
רִנָּה
This noun shows the same root’s joy taking the form of a sound, like the psalmist’s voiced triumph.
renanah: A joyful shout or song of rejoicing.
רְנָנָה
This branch makes clear that the root can name rejoicing expressed aloud, the shape the verse gives to gladness.
שִׂמַּחְתַּנִי
simmahtani
GROWS FROM
שמח
samach
To be glad or to cause gladness.
“gladden me” in this verse is simmahtani. The form means that the LORD has made the speaker glad. The verse links that received gladness to the song that follows: joy begins in the LORD’s work and becomes the speaker’s response.
ALSO GROWS
simchah: Joy or gladness.
שִׂמְחָה
This noun shows gladness as a named state, the joy the LORD’s work awakens in the speaker.
mesammeach: One who gladdens or brings joy.
מְשַׂמֵּחַ
This active form echoes the verse’s focus on the LORD as the one who causes gladness.
פָּעֳלֶךָ
poolekha
GROWS FROM
פעל
pa'al
To do, act, or perform.
“by your work” in this verse is poolekha. The word points to the LORD’s doing or activity as the source of gladness. The line therefore locates joy in what the LORD does, before the speaker gives that joy voice.
ALSO GROWS
poal: Work, deed, or activity.
פֹּעַל
This noun carries the root’s sense of doing into the verse’s phrase “thy work.”
pe'ullah: A deed, work, or action.
פְּעֻלָּה
This branch keeps the focus on work as something done, reinforcing the verse’s movement from the LORD’s action to the speaker’s rejoicing.
THE PATTERN
The LORD’s acts kindle gladness that finds its voice in song.
The LORD has grown great in doing with us, and we were glad.Sing to the LORD, for he has done what rises. This is known in all the earth.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
The voice of a ringing cry and of deliverance is in the tents of the aligned; the right hand of the LORD makes strength.“Rejoicing” here is רִנָּה (rinnah), from the same root רנן (ranan) as the word rendered “triumph” in Psalm 92:4. Both verses reveal triumph as a sound that rises among the people: a ringing cry of joy.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us