What Does Psalm 86:5 Mean in the King James?
For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
God is not persuaded into forgiveness here: pardon is ready, and faithful love is abundant for everyone who calls.
THE MEANING
God’s goodness meets you now as ready forgiveness and abundant faithful love. The verse gives this welcome to all who call upon God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that you must first become worthy before God is willing to forgive you: the verse says forgiveness is ready for everyone who calls.
THE ROOT
חֶסֶד
chesed
GROWS FROM
חסד
Faithful, steadfast love.
“mercy” in this verse is chesed. The Hebrew says God is abundant in chesed: faithful love is not a passing kindness but the character meeting the caller. The same root also describes a person marked by that faithfulness.
ALSO GROWS
chasid: A faithful or devoted person.
חָסִיד
The branch shows faithful love as something that can mark a person, not only describe a feeling.
chasidut: Faithfulness or devotion.
חֲסִידוּת
This related form makes the root’s connection between steadfast love and lived devotion visible.
סֹלֵחַ
soleaḥ
GROWS FROM
סלח
To forgive or pardon; here, forgiveness is release.
The verse calls God “ready to forgive,” making pardon an open posture rather than something the caller must pry loose. Forgiveness is release: the accusation is let go, while faithful love remains.
ALSO GROWS
salaḥ: To forgive or pardon.
סָלַח
This is the verb behind “ready to forgive,” naming pardon as what God is prepared to extend.
seliḥah: Forgiveness or pardon.
סְלִיחָה
The noun form carries the same root from the act of forgiving into forgiveness itself.
קֹרְאֶיךָ
qore’ekha
GROWS FROM
קרא
To call out, proclaim, or summon; the root also carries the sense of reading aloud.
The verse’s “all who call upon thee” uses language of calling out: the welcome reaches anyone who makes an appeal. The root’s other branches connect calling with words spoken into the open.
ALSO GROWS
qara: To call, proclaim, or read aloud.
קָרָא
Its range joins an appeal to God with a voice that speaks or calls openly.
miqra: A reading or an assembly called together.
מִקְרָא
This related form shows the root extending from calling out to a gathering formed by that call.
THE PATTERN
God’s abundant character meets everyone who calls upon him.
And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.THE THREAD
And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,“Plenteous in mercy” in Psalm 86:5 is the same Hebrew pairing rav chesed, abundant faithful love, found in Exodus 34:6. That shared root shows the welcome to everyone who calls resting in the LORD’s abundant character.
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