What Does Psalm 112:5 Mean?
A good man gives favor and lends; he sustains his words in judgment.
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
A good man sheweth favour, and lendeth: he will guide his affairs with discretion.THE KEY
The “affairs” the good person guides are literally his words and matters, and both are held within judgment.
THE MEANING
Goodness appears as favor that gives and lending that shares provision. Your words and practical matters are held within judgment, so generosity and discernment belong together. The verse shows goodness in both the open hand and the just way it handles what it has.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that generosity requires unmeasured giving, or that discernment makes generosity less kind: favor and lending are joined to judgment.
THE ROOT
דְּבָרָיו
devarav
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak; a word, matter, or thing.
The Hebrew rendered “affairs” is devarav, literally “his words” or “his matters.” What he orders with judgment includes both what he says and what he handles; the Hebrew holds those together.
ALSO GROWS
davar: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
This is the singular form behind “his affairs,” showing that each matter belongs to the same word-family as speech.
dibber: He spoke.
דִּבֵּר
The verbal form makes the connection plain: speaking and handling matters grow from the same root.
בְּמִשְׁפָּט
bemishpat
GROWS FROM
ש־פ־ט
sh-p-t
To judge or decide.
The word rendered “discretion” is mishpat, meaning judgment or justice. It gives the verse a measure beyond clever management: the good person’s decisions and dealings are shaped by what is just.
ALSO GROWS
shofet: Judge.
שֹׁפֵט
The person who judges uses the same root as the justice that guides these affairs.
mishpat: Judgment or justice.
מִשְׁפָּט
This is the word in the verse: the person’s matters are sustained within a frame of justice.
מַלְוֶה
malveh
GROWS FROM
ל־ו־ה
l-w-h
To join or accompany; also, to lend.
“lends” in this verse is malveh. The root behind “lendeth” also carries the sense of joining or accompanying. Lending can therefore be seen as more than transferring provision: it joins a person in the place where need presses.
ALSO GROWS
lavah: To join or accompany.
לָוָה
Leah uses this root when she says her husband will be joined to her (Genesis 29:34), revealing its relational sense.
loveh: Borrower; one who borrows.
לֹוֶה
The same root names the other side of lending, showing the act as a relationship between people.
THE PATTERN
Generosity becomes good when provision meets another person’s need and is governed by just judgment.
But you shall open your hand wide to him, and you shall surely lend him enough for what he lacks.Doing alignment and judgment is more chosen by the LORD than the slain offering.Each one, as his heart has taken hold, so let him give, not from grief or from pressure, for God loves a glad giver.THE THREAD
All day he bends toward and lends, and his seed is blessed.Psalm 37:26 repeats חוֹנֵן (chonen, “showing favor”) and מַלְוֶה (malveh, “lending”), the same two actions paired here. That repeated wording makes the link concrete: favor takes material form in lending, and its blessing reaches beyond the giver.
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