What Does Psalm 61:5 Mean?
For you, O God, hear my vows; you give me the possession of those in awe of your name.
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
For thou, O God, hast heard my vows: thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name.THE KEY
The inheritance is a shared gift to those who stand in awe of God’s nature, turning a private vow into belonging.
THE MEANING
Your vows are heard by God, and God gives you a place in the inheritance shared by those who stand in awe of God’s nature. This belonging is a gift that joins your promise to a wider shared portion.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A vow does not purchase your place with God; the verse says God gives the inheritance to those who revere God’s name.
THE ROOT
יִרְאֵי
yir’ei
GROWS FROM
ירא
To fear, revere, or stand in awe.
“in awe of your name” in this verse is yir’ei. Here, fear is directed toward God’s name, God’s nature and character, so the word opens into awe, not mere alarm. The inheritance belongs to those whose attention is turned toward that nature.
ALSO GROWS
yare: Fearing, revering, standing in awe.
יָרֵא
It describes the people named in the verse by their response to God.
yirah: Fear or awe.
יִרְאָה
This noun shows the inward orientation carried by the phrase “those that fear thy name.”
יְרֻשַּׁת
yerushat
GROWS FROM
ירש
To inherit or take possession.
This root connects inheritance with possession: what is received becomes one’s portion. Here God gives that portion as a heritage shared among those who stand in awe of God’s nature.
ALSO GROWS
yarash: To inherit, possess, or take possession.
יָרַשׁ
The verb reveals the movement from receiving an inheritance to possessing a share in it.
morashah: Inheritance or possession.
מוֹרָשָׁה
This related noun echoes the verse’s picture of a received portion that can be held as one’s own.
THE PATTERN
What God gives is described as a portion or inheritance, received as belonging.
The LORD is the portion of my share and of my cup; you hold fast my lot.Flourishing are the bowed, for they inherit the earth.into an inheritance that cannot be ruined, and cannot be stained, and cannot wither, kept in the heavens for you,THE THREAD
For the evildoers will be cut off, and those stretched toward the LORD will inherit the land.“Inherit” here comes from the same Hebrew root ירש (yarash) as “heritage” in Psalm 61:5. One verse names the shared inheritance; the other shows it as a portion received by those who wait upon the LORD.
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