PRAYER
Open my lips
Before the Amidah’s first blessing, we ask Hashem for the ability to pray. Learn this short verse one phrase at a time.
At the doorway to the Amidah
The Amidah is the standing prayer at the center of our daily services. If these landmarks are new, begin with Find your way in the siddur.
Open your siddur to the Amidah. Just before its first blessing, look for the short verse below. We address Hashem, asking him to open our lips so that we can declare his praise. The prayer begins with a request for help in praying.
אֲדֹנָי שְׂפָתַי תִּפְתָּח
וּפִי יַגִּיד תְּהִלָּתֶךָMy Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
This is a verse from Tehillim, the book of Psalms. In Psalm 51, David asks God for cleansing and renewal. The request to open his lips belongs to that movement toward renewed praise.
Follow the words
Read the English alongside the Hebrew. You can understand the prayer while your Hebrew reading develops.
- אֲדֹנָי
My Lord. The prayer addresses God directly.
- שְׂפָתַי תִּפְתָּח
Open my lips. שְׂפָתַי means “my lips.” תִּפְתָּח means “you will open,” used here as a request: “open.” We ask Hashem to act.
- וּפִי יַגִּיד תְּהִלָּתֶךָ
And my mouth will declare your praise. וּפִי means “and my mouth”; יַגִּיד, “will declare”; תְּהִלָּתֶךָ, “your praise.” The praise is directed to the same God we ask for help.
Whose lips are opened, and whose praise is declared?
My lips are opened so that my mouth can declare God’s praise. The words move from a request for help to the purpose of that help.
Which phrase means “and my mouth”?
וּפִי. Notice that the English needs three words where Hebrew uses one.
A prayer that begins prayer
Our sages discuss this verse in Berakhot 4b. The Gemara asks how saying it fits with joining the blessing of redemption directly to the Amidah. Its answer treats this opening verse as part of the prayer itself. Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chayim 111:1 permits this verse between the blessing of redemption and the Amidah.
We do not have to arrive at prayer already feeling eloquent. These words let us begin by asking for help. Even the ability to offer praise becomes something we receive from Hashem.
Is this verse a greeting to the congregation?
No. It addresses God. It opens the Amidah by asking him to help us speak his praise.
Explore the sources
Psalm 51: read verses 12–19 around the prayer. Berakhot 4b: the verse as part of prayer. Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chayim 111:1: joining redemption to prayer.