What Does Psalm 111:5 Mean?
He gives torn food to those who stand in awe of him. He remembers his covenant for the ages.
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
He hath given meat unto them that fear him: he will ever be mindful of his covenant.THE KEY
The food given now is covenant remembered across the ages made tangible.
THE MEANING
Provision reaches you from the One whose covenant remains in view; this verse holds ordinary food and enduring faithfulness together. Your awe of God is met with care, and that covenant remembrance is present in what sustains you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that covenant care is distant or abstract dissolves here: it appears as food given and faithfulness kept in remembrance.
THE ROOT
יִזְכֹּר
yizkor
GROWS FROM
זכר
Remember, recall, call to mind.
“Mindful” can sound like a passing thought, while זכר (zakar, remember) also gives rise to words for memorial and remembrance. Joined to covenant, it shows that what God remembers remains in view and is expressed here as provision.
ALSO GROWS
zikaron: Memorial, remembrance.
זִכָּרוֹן
This related word gives remembrance a lasting form, illuminating the covenant that remains in view.
hizkir: Mention, bring to remembrance.
הִזְכִּיר
This form shows remembrance can be brought into expression, rather than kept as a private thought.
נָתַן
natan
GROWS FROM
נתן
Give, set, place.
“gives” in this verse is natan. The word translated “given” is נָתַן (natan, give), a root that also carries the sense of setting or placing. The food is not only promised in the abstract; it is given into the present.
ALSO GROWS
mattan: Gift, present.
מַתָּן
This noun makes the giving in the verse legible as a gift received.
mattanah: Gift, offering.
מַתָּנָה
Another noun from נתן (natan, give) keeps the focus on provision arriving through an act of giving.
יָרֵא
yare
GROWS FROM
ירא
Fear, stand in awe.
“stand in awe of him” in this verse is yare. The phrase refers to those who fear God; this root can carry the sense of awe as well as fear. With God as its object, awe brings out the reverence in the verse’s description of those receiving provision.
ALSO GROWS
yir’ah: Fear, awe.
יִרְאָה
This noun carries the same range of reverence and fear present in the verse.
mora: Dread, awe.
מוֹרָא
This related form shows the root’s weight and intensity when it names a response to what is greater than oneself.
THE PATTERN
Enduring divine care becomes tangible through provision in the present.
The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in its season.Who gives bread to all flesh, for his faithful love reaches to the ages.Give us today our bread for the coming day.THE THREAD
He remembers his covenant for the ages, the word he commanded to a thousand generations.Psalm 105:8 uses the same Hebrew root זכר (zakar, remember) beside covenant and permanence. That parallel opens Psalm 111:5 further: covenant remembrance remains in view across generations, and here its care appears as food.
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