What Does Psalm 99:5 Mean?
Lift up the LORD our God, and bow down at his footstool; for he is set apart.
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
Exalt ye the LORD our God, and worship at his footstool; for he is holy.THE KEY
The verse draws one vertical line: the LORD is raised high, while the worshipper bows low at the place of his feet.
THE MEANING
The LORD our God is exalted, and the worshipper’s body bows at the place of his feet. His set-apartness gives the posture its focus: the one bowed before is the LORD, distinct in being.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the idea that worship is only an inward feeling: the verse shows it as a bodily lowering at the LORD’s footstool.
THE ROOT
וְהִשְׁתַּחֲווּ
ve-hishtachavu
GROWS FROM
שחה
shachah
To bow down or prostrate oneself.
The verb translated “worship” pictures a body lowering itself. Its related forms can be rendered “bow down” or “prostrate,” so the footstool gives this worship a visible posture and a place.
ALSO GROWS
hishtachavah: To bow down or prostrate oneself.
הִשְׁתַּחֲוָה
This related verb form makes explicit the bodily movement contained in “worship.”
mishtachaveh: One who bows down.
מִשְׁתַּחֲוֶה
The same root can name the person taking the posture described in the verse.
רוֹמְמוּ
romemu
GROWS FROM
רום
rum
To rise or be high.
“Lift up” in this verse is romemu. The command to exalt comes from a root of rising or being high, while the next command uses a verb for bowing low. The verse places these two directions together as a picture of reverence.
ALSO GROWS
ram: High or exalted.
רָם
This adjective echoes the height expressed by the command to exalt the LORD.
marom: Height or a high place.
מָרוֹם
This noun extends the root’s image of elevation, set beside the worshipper’s lowered posture.
קָדוֹשׁ
qadosh
GROWS FROM
קדש
qadash
To set apart, consecrate, or make distinct.
“Set apart” is also the seed of words for a sanctuary and for consecrating something. The verse links the LORD’s set-apart nature with the worship enacted at his footstool.
ALSO GROWS
miqdash: Sanctuary; a set-apart place.
מִקְדָּשׁ
This related word links holiness with a place set apart for the presence of God.
qiddesh: To consecrate or set apart.
קִדֵּשׁ
This verb shows the root in action: marking something as distinct.
THE PATTERN
Recognition of the LORD’s set-apart presence takes visible form in bowing.
And Moses hurried, and bent his head to the earth, and bowed down.Enter, let us bow down and kneel before the face of the LORD who makes us.The twenty-four older ones fall down before the one who sits upon the throne, and bow down to the one who lives into the ages of the ages, and throw their crowns before the throne, saying,THE THREAD
And Moses hurried, and bent his head to the earth, and bowed down.The same Hebrew verb for bowing that appears in this psalm appears when Moses bows his head to earth and worships. Both verses make worship visible in the body’s lowering; Psalm 99 places that posture at the LORD’s footstool.
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