What Does Psalm 5:7 Mean?
But I, in the abundance of your faithful love, come into your house; in your awe I bow down toward your set-apart temple.
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 as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple.THE KEY
You enter because faithful love overflows, and you bow in awe: welcome and reverence belong to the same approach.
THE MEANING
You come into God’s house on the strength of abundant faithful love, not on a claim of your own deserving. In that same nearness, your body bows and your inner life meets God with awe; welcome does not erase reverence.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that nearness makes God casual or that reverence requires distance: faithful love draws you near, and awe remains.
THE ROOT
חַסְדְּךָ
ḥasdeḵā
GROWS FROM
חסד
ḥ-s-d
Faithful love, loyal kindness, and steadfast care.
The verse’s “multitude” of faithful love is the ground of the speaker’s entry. This root carries relational loyalty, not merely a moment of leniency.
ALSO GROWS
ḥesed: Faithful love, loyal kindness.
חֶסֶד
This is the noun in the verse; it names the relational ground from which the speaker enters.
ḥāsîd: A faithful or devoted person.
חָסִיד
This related form describes someone marked by faithfulness, showing that the root speaks of a quality of relationship, not only an act of kindness.
titḥassad: You show yourself faithful.
תִּתְחַסָּד
Psalm 18:25 uses this form for meeting the faithful with faithfulness, revealing the relational consistency carried by the root.
בְּיִרְאָתֶךָ
bə-yirʾāteḵā
GROWS FROM
ירא
y-r-ʾ
To fear, revere, or stand in awe.
The same root holds reverence and fear together. Beside the verse’s bowing verb, awe is not an abstract idea: it is the inward weight expressed in a lowered posture.
ALSO GROWS
yirʾāh: Awe, reverence, or fear.
יִרְאָה
This noun is the root form behind “thy fear”; it gives the approach its note of reverence.
yārēʾ: One who fears or reveres.
יָרֵא
This related form shows the root describing a person’s stance toward what they encounter.
mōrāʾ: Dread, fear, or awe.
מוֹרָא
This branch keeps the trembling edge of the word audible; the verse’s awe is more than polite admiration.
אֶשְׁתַּחֲוֶה
ʾeštaḥăweh
GROWS FROM
שחה
sh-ḥ-h
To bow down, lower oneself, or prostrate oneself.
“bow down” in this verse is ʾeštaḥăweh. The word rendered “worship” names a bodily act of bowing. Here reverence takes visible form as the speaker lowers himself toward the holy temple.
ALSO GROWS
shāḥāh: To bow down.
שָׁחָה
The basic verb makes the physical lowering beneath “worship” visible.
hishtaḥăwāh: To prostrate oneself or bow down.
הִשְׁתַּחֲוָה
This related form names the speaker’s action in the verse: he bows toward the temple.
THE PATTERN
Faithful welcome opens a way into God’s presence, where the response is grateful nearness and reverence.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with a clamor of praise; lift your hands to him, and bless his nature.For with you is release, so that you may be held in awe.Let us therefore draw near, with open speech, to the throne of favor, that we may receive compassion, and find favor to help in the right moment.THE THREAD
For with you is release, so that you may be held in awe.The word translated “feared” comes from the same Hebrew root as “thy fear” here, so the verses share a root as well as a theme. Psalm 130 adds the surprise: release and awe belong together, and reverence can rise from being met with mercy.
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