The Hebrew verb mot (מוֹט) means to totter, shake, slip, or fall — describing instability and the failure of that which was meant to stand firm. It appears frequently in the Psalms in both negative declarations about the righteous (they will NOT totter) and in descriptions of the wicked's eventual fall. The word captures the existential vulnerability of human life without God's sustaining presence.
Some of the most reassuring promises in the Psalms use mot negatively: "He will not let your foot be moved [mot]" (Psalm 121:3); "I shall not be moved [mot]" (Psalm 62:6). The righteous person's stability is not self-generated but divinely sustained — God's presence is the ground beneath the feet that keeps them from slipping. Conversely, the wicked are described as tottering and falling (Psalm 82:5). The promise of Psalm 46:5 — "God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved [mot]" — grounds the security of God's city and people not in their own strength but in God's abiding presence. Peter's use of Isaiah 28:16 in 1 Peter 2:6 ("he who believes will not be put to shame") follows this same logic.