What Does Psalm 21:5 Mean?
His weight is great in your deliverance; majesty and splendor you set upon him.
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
His glory is great in thy salvation: honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him.THE KEY
Deliverance does more than bring you out of constriction; it lays weight, honor, and majesty upon you.
THE MEANING
Your deliverance is not an empty escape: God’s bringing you out makes glory weighty in your life. Honor and majesty are pictured as resting upon you, so being brought through does not leave you diminished.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that rescue only returns you to safety while leaving you lesser; here, deliverance is also where honor and majesty are laid upon you.
THE ROOT
בִּישׁוּעָתֶךָ
b'yeshuatecha
GROWS FROM
ישע
To deliver, to bring out of danger into safety and spaciousness.
The word translated “salvation” is יְשׁוּעָה (yeshuah), meaning deliverance. The verse places glory inside that bringing-out: deliverance carries the person toward dignity and fullness, not merely away from danger.
ALSO GROWS
yasha: To deliver or bring out.
יָשַׁע
This verb shows the movement inside the verse’s “salvation”: someone is brought out of constriction.
moshia: A deliverer, one who brings someone out.
מוֹשִׁיעַ
The root includes both the act of deliverance and the one who carries it through.
כְּבוֹדוֹ
kevodo
GROWS FROM
כבד
To be heavy or weighty.
The word for “glory” carries the sense of weight. English can make glory sound like radiance alone, while the Hebrew also suggests substance and presence; that weight becomes great in deliverance.
ALSO GROWS
kaved: Heavy or weighty.
כָּבֵד
This branch makes the verse’s glory tangible: it carries weight.
kibbed: To honor or treat as weighty.
כִּבֵּד
The same root links weight with honor, joining “glory” to the honor placed upon him.
THE PATTERN
Deliverance carries a person through danger into a life marked by weight, honor, and glory.
You give me the shield of your deliverance, and your right hand holds me up, and your bowing down makes me great.Rise, shine, for your light has come, and the weight of the LORD has risen upon you.Moreover, those whom he marked out beforehand, these he also called; and those whom he called, these he also aligned; and those whom he aligned, these he also clothes in weight.THE THREAD
Look, God is my deliverance. I will lean my full weight and not tremble, for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song, and he has become my deliverance.The Hebrew word יְשׁוּעָה (yeshuah, deliverance) appears in both verses. Isaiah names God as that deliverance itself; Psalm 21:5 shows glory taking weight within it.
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