What Does Psalm 106:5 Mean?
That I may see the good of your chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation, that I may boast in your inheritance.
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
That I may see the good of thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory with thine inheritance.THE KEY
The same Hebrew root names both “rejoice” and “gladness,” locating personal joy inside a people’s shared joy.
THE MEANING
You ask to see the good among God’s chosen, enter the joy of the people, and praise alongside God’s inheritance. Seeing, rejoicing, and praising are all relational here: the good is shared, and joy lives within belonging.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that another’s share in God’s good leaves you with less: the verse joins your joy to the nation’s gladness.
THE ROOT
לִשְׂמֹחַ
lismoaḥ
GROWS FROM
שמח
ś-m-ḥ
To rejoice, be glad; in a causative form, to make glad.
“rejoice / gladness” in this verse is lismoaḥ. The verb לִשְׂמֹחַ (lismoaḥ, to rejoice) and the noun שִׂמְחַת (simḥat, gladness of) come from the same root, so the verse doubles one movement: rejoicing in the people’s gladness. English gives them separate words, while Hebrew holds the action and the shared joy in one family.
ALSO GROWS
sameaḥ: Glad, joyful
שָׂמֵחַ
This adjective names the state of gladness carried by the same root as “rejoice.”
simḥah: Gladness, joy
שִׂמְחָה
This noun shares the root of both key words, making the verse’s joy a common thread rather than a private feeling.
simmēaḥ: Make glad
שִׂמֵּחַ
This causative form shows the root can describe joy passing from one person to another, fitting the verse’s shared gladness.
THE PATTERN
Joy takes shape as participation in the good and gladness of a people.
For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, let me seek your good.Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.If one limb aches, all the limbs ache with it, and if one is clothed in weight, all of them rejoice with it.THE THREAD
The LORD has grown great in doing with us, and we were glad.The word rendered “glad” comes from the same Hebrew root, שמח (ś-m-ḥ, to rejoice and be glad), that supplies both “rejoice” and “gladness” in Psalm 106:5. Psalm 126’s “for us” and “we” make explicit what the repeated root holds together: joy shared within a people.
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