What Does Psalm 116:5 Mean?
The LORD bends toward us, and is aligned; our God has compassion.
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
Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.THE KEY
The root of “merciful” also names the womb, joining the LORD’s righteousness to an intimate, life-bearing compassion.
THE MEANING
The LORD meets you with favor and rightness; your God is compassion toward you. These are one character: here, rightness carries tenderness rather than distance.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
You have to choose between being met with what is right and being met with compassion.
THE ROOT
מְרַחֵם
merachem
GROWS FROM
רחם
r-ḥ-m
To show compassion; this root is also associated with רֶחֶם (rechem), “womb.”
“has compassion” in this verse is merachem. The Hebrew names God as one who shows compassion, and its root also names the womb. English “merciful” can sound chiefly like the choice to spare; this word carries intimate, life-bearing tenderness within the portrait of divine rightness.
ALSO GROWS
raḥamim: Compassion
רַחֲמִים
This noun names the compassion that the verse presents as part of God’s nature.
rechem: Womb
רֶחֶם
The shared root gives compassion the sense of intimate, life-bearing care.
חַנּוּן
ḥannun
GROWS FROM
חנן
ḥ-n-n
To show favor.
“bends toward us” in this verse is ḥannun. The verse’s graciousness is favor extended toward you. The root family links favor itself with the act of showing favor, making grace a relationship in motion.
ALSO GROWS
ḥen: Favor
חֵן
This branch names the favor that is present in “gracious.”
ḥanan: To show favor
חָנַן
This verb makes explicit the action carried by the LORD’s graciousness.
צַדִּיק
tsaddiq
GROWS FROM
צדק
ṣ-d-q
To be right or just; alignment.
“aligned” in this verse is tsaddiq. This root links being right with the quality of rightness expressed in relationships and action. Beside compassion, the verse presents alignment as tenderly relational rather than cold.
ALSO GROWS
tsedeq: Righteousness, justice
צֶדֶק
This noun shows that “righteous” belongs to a wider family describing what is right.
tsedaqah: Righteousness, justice, generosity
צְדָקָה
This branch carries rightness into its expression toward others.
THE PATTERN
God’s rightness and compassion belong to one character, so favor and tenderness do not compete with justice.
And the LORD passed by before his face, and called out, The LORD, The LORD God, compassionate and full of favor, slow to flare, abounding in faithful love and truth,Faithful love and truth meet; alignment and wholeness kiss.Being aligned as a gift by his favor, through the unbinding that is in Jesus the Anointed One.THE THREAD
And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before your face, and I will call out the name of the LORD before you. I will favor whom I favor, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.The roots behind “gracious” and “merciful” in Psalm 116:5 meet here in a paired phrase: favor and compassion. The verse lets “righteous” complete that portrait, so rightness and tenderness share one character.
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