What Does Psalm 98:5 Mean?

Make music to the LORD with the lyre; with the lyre, and the voice of song.

Psalm 98:5 · SDV

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.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

Sing unto the LORD with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm.

THE KEY

The Hebrew uses one root for both singing and the psalm: praise is both the act of making music and the song it makes.

THE MEANING

The verse meets you in praise made audible: the harp rings, and a human voice gives the psalm its utterance. The same Hebrew root joins the act of singing with the song itself, holding them together as one movement.

THE ROOT

זַמְּרוּ

zammeru zimrah

GROWS FROM

זמר

z-m-r

To sing, play music, or make melody

“make music to” in this verse is zammeru zimrah. The imperative ⁨זַמְּרוּ⁩ (zammeru, “sing”) and the noun ⁨זִמְרָה⁩ (zimrah, “song”) come from the same root. English separates the action from the psalm, while Hebrew holds them as the making and the made song.

ALSO GROWS

mizmor: A psalm or musical song of praise

מִזְמוֹר

This branch names a song shaped for music, echoing the verse’s voice of a psalm.

zimrah: Song, melody, or praise

זִמְרָה

This is the noun in the verse, sharing its root with the command to sing.

THE PATTERN

Praise takes audible form as song moves through both voice and instrument.

Give thanks to the LORD with the harp, and pluck for him on the psaltery and the instrument of ten strings.

Psalm 33:2 · SDVThe verse joins singing with strings, making praise both voiced and played.

Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and songs of breath, singing and plucking the strings in your heart to the Lord.

Ephesians 5:19 · SDVSong takes shape through words, singing, and melody directed to the Lord.

Praise him with the thrust of the ram's horn; praise him with the harp and the lyre.

Psalm 150:3 · SDVThe verse gives praise an audible form through instruments.

THE THREAD

Give thanks to the LORD with the harp, and pluck for him on the psaltery and the instrument of ten strings.

Psalm 33:2 · SDV

Psalm 33:2 uses ⁨זמר⁩ (z-m-r, “sing or make music”) in its command to sing. Psalm 98:5 uses that same root for “sing” and for “psalm,” joining the musical act to the song it brings forth.

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