“I delight to do Your will, O my God; yes, Your Torah is within my heart.” Psalm 40:8
Delight – Hebrew has more than one word for pleasure and delight. Whenever we find more than one word for the same concept, we are challenged to discover the differences. Just as there are many words for prayer, each one providing a subtle nuance in Hebrew thought, so there are shades of meaning in the difference between nehmad and haphets (the h is a guttural sound like “ach”). Nehmad portrays “pleasant” as opening the door in the fence that separates chaos from life. It is associated with the garden, God’s private preserve. Haphets paints a different picture. There is still a fence (Chet) but now it is connected with a word (mouth, speaking – the letter Pey) and desire (catch, hook – the letter Tsadik). While pleasure is opening the door that brings us inside the fence of God’s pathway to life, delight is the desire to unravel (separate) the word. Did you get that? When the Psalmist says, “I delight in Your Torah,” he is punning the meaning of both words. It is the equivalent of saying, “I desire to unravel (separate) the word of Your words about instructions for life.” Delight is correctly parsing the words of the Lord.
Does this remind you of a commentary in the Ketuvim Netzarim (New Testament)? Doesn’t Sha’ul say, “. . . rightly dividing the word”? In Hebrew thought, that is delight! One aspect of pleasure is the joy that comes from understanding the depths of God’s own words. And why is that so important? Because, as another great commentator once said, “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” How many pictographic images associated with delight are captured in Yeshua’s statement?
Linguistically, haphets is a verb about both actions and circumstances. We find it used to describe the love between Jonathan and David, the circumstances of Esther’s selection as queen, the intimate sexuality of the lovers in Song of Songs, and the whole-hearted dedication of a king to the will of God. But particularly in the Psalms, haphets expresses a hierarchy of desire with immediate, practical consequences.
Maslow suggested that human beings are directed by a hierarchy of needs. At the bottom of his pyramid of needs are physical needs like breathing, food, sleep and sex. As we move up his pyramid, we pass through safety, community and esteem until we reach the top with self-actualization. It’s difficult to deny Maslow’s insight, except to point out that it is based entirely on a Greek model of human existence. In other words, it presupposes that life is about us. To be fully alive is to be self-actualized.
But this is not David’s view. David’s hierarchy is based on haphets and the top of his pyramid is delight exclusively in God Himself. “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth” (Psalm 73:25). To know God is to know the depths (and distinctions) of His self-revelation found in His words. Haphets pushes me toward the one source of true satisfaction and the real meaning of self-actualization: to know Him. Oh, by the way, that also sounds like Sha’ul, doesn’t it? (Philippians 3:10)
Does this mean haphets is all mystical meditation? Of course not! This is Hebrew and in Hebrew every examination of the Word of God leads directly to action. So, haphets is also used to describe tangible behaviors that express delight in God. These are concrete acts of generosity toward the poor, Torah observance and worshipping in community. In other words, delight is walking the path and knowing why we walk it.
You might consider what delights you today. If you’re thinking like a Hebrew, your answer will be a long way from Maslow.
Topical Index: delight, pleasure, haphets, Maslow, Psalm 40:8
Recent Comments