What Does Psalm 5:11 Mean?
But let all who take shelter in you rejoice; let them ring out for joy for the ages, and you cover them. Let those who love your nature leap for joy in you.
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
But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee.THE KEY
Here, trust is shelter taken in God, and joy is the sound that shelter makes.
THE MEANING
You take refuge in God, and joy rises from that shelter as an enduring, audible expression. To love God’s name is to love God’s nature as it is made known; the covering and the gladness meet in God.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that trust is only mental agreement: here it is taking refuge, with joy already sounding from within that shelter.
THE ROOT
חוֹסֵי
ḥōsê
GROWS FROM
חסה
to seek refuge, take shelter
“take shelter in you” in this verse is ḥōsê. English “trust” can sound like an opinion held in the mind; this word depicts people taking shelter in God. The verse’s joy belongs to that refuge: trust is lived as a place of cover.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāsâ: to seek refuge, take shelter
חָסָה
This is the verb behind “put their trust,” so trust carries the image of entering shelter.
maḥăseh: refuge, shelter
מַחֲסֶה
The verb’s shelter becomes a place of refuge, showing trust as more than agreement.
תָּסֵךְ
tāsēḵ
GROWS FROM
סכך
to cover, screen, or shelter over
“you cover them” in this verse is tāsēḵ. The verse pictures defense as covering those who take refuge. The root also names a sheltering booth, so the protection here is a covering one can dwell within.
ALSO GROWS
sāḵaḵ: to cover, screen, overshadow
סָכַךְ
This verbal form describes the covering action behind God’s defense in the verse.
sukkāh: booth, temporary shelter
סֻכָּה
The noun makes the covering tangible as shelter, a picture of being defended under God’s care.
יְרַנֵּנוּ
yərannēnū
GROWS FROM
רנן
to ring out, sing aloud, cry out
“ring out for joy” in this verse is yərannēnū. This root makes joy audible: it is a ringing cry, not only a private mood. Its branches link song and shout, letting the verse’s joy spill outward from refuge.
ALSO GROWS
rinnāh: a ringing cry, song, or joyful shout
רִנָּה
This related noun shows the voice-filled quality of the rejoicing in the verse.
rōnēn: singing aloud, crying out
רֹנֵן
This related form echoes the verse’s picture of joy rising into sound.
THE PATTERN
Taking refuge under God’s cover turns trust into lasting, audible joy.
Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you perish, losing the way, for his anger burns but a little. Flourishing are all who take shelter in him.He who settles in the hiding place of the Most High lodges in the shadow of the Almighty.Whom you have not perceived, you love; in whom, though now you do not perceive him, yet leaning your weight on him, you leap with joy that cannot be spoken and is clothed in weight.THE THREAD
To the chief Musician, Al-taschith, Michtam of David, when he fled from Saul in the cave. Bend toward me, O God, bend toward me, for in you my living soul takes shelter. In the shadow of your wings I take shelter until the ruin passes over.“Trusteth” and “make my refuge” both grow from חָסָה (ḥāsâ), the root behind “put their trust” in Psalm 5:11. The parallel makes the hidden image plain: trust is taking refuge beneath God’s shelter, even amid calamity.
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