Missing in Action
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Psalm 103:1 NASB
O my soul – The first thing we notice about this poem of praise is that half of the English translations simply leave out of the opening word, l’david. The other half attempt translations like, “of David,” “for David,” “A Psalm of David,” “Davidic,” or “by David.” I suppose all are possible, but what isn’t possible is simply ignoring the word. Unfortunately, this is common when it comes to the “superscript” introductions of many of the psalms. But for us, the deliberate association of this praise with David is important. After all, not all the psalms were written by David so those that are connected to him help us understand the context.
With this in mind, the next words are also unusual. The words themselves are familiar (barak and nephesh) but the combination “is an unusual rhetorical move.”[1] By the way, the Hebrew reads literally, “Bless my nephesh YHVH.” What is unusual about this phrase is the speaker’s exhortation to himself to bless YHVH. It is as if he were standing in front of a mirror and instructing the one he sees to offer praises to the Lord. But, of course, he is the one seen in the mirror. In what sense, we might ask, is it necessary to exhort ourselves to offer praise to God?
Amazingly, praise is not an automatic human response to life. Perhaps it should be, but it seems that most of the time we are caught up in the necessary but trivial and we simply forget the fact that our reality is necessarily dependent. We forget that being alive is the hallmark of His grace, that having our lives extended fro one more day is mercy manifested. We become occupied with email, work schedules, commuting, meals, children, washing, ATMs, bills, coffee and all the thousands of insignificant activities that prevent us from recognizing life granted to us today. So we need to stand in front of the mirror and chide ourselves to bless the One who is really responsible for our very being. “Bless my nephesh YHVH.” It is an exclamation and a personal commandment. It takes but a moment, but that moment alters the course of the day.
Why is it inappropriate and misleading to translate the verse, “Bless the Lord, O my soul”? First, of course, is the difficulty of capturing the wholeness of the word nephesh. Nephesh is not “soul.” That’s a Greek idea, that the human being is compartmentalized into body, mind and soul. Hebrew has no such divisions. Nephesh is me, all of me all at once. Nephesh is the whole person. So an instruction to bless YHVH from my nephesh does not mean that the “spiritual” part of me offers Him thanksgiving. It means that this day, the day that commences with acknowledgment of His grace and mercy, I will express barak (blessing) to Him in all the ways that I am today. “Thank you, Lord , for this cup of coffee.” “Oh, Father, how gracious You are that You have blessed me with children.” “I bless you Lord for providing me with work.” “Lord, how magnificently You have kept me in health this morning.” “Father, I thank you for my spouse.” “I am in awe, Lord, of Your trust in me over money.” “How You have cared for me when I travel today and everyday.” “Lord, I am so grateful that you have given me hands to wash dishes, eyes to see my food, ears to hear prayers, feet to run after You.” You get the idea.
And what about the syntax? English: “Bless the Lord, O my soul.” Hebrew: “Bless my nephesh et YHVH.” What’s the difference? YHVH is the direct object of the verb in both arrangements (clearly indicated in Hebrew by et), but English separates the actor and the action while Hebrew does not. “Bless my nephesh YHVH” takes on the force of an internal command because one cannot mistake the deliberate exhortation to oneself, while “Bless the Lord, O my soul” make the phrase “O my soul” appears as almost a simple emotional outburst. The syntax matters. This is not a verse of empathetic exuberance. This is an order from myself to myself. “Do this now!”
So do this now. Stop right here and tell yourself, “baraki naphsi, et YHVH.” And then, of course, do it!
Topical Index: nephesh, barak, Psalm 103:1
[1] Robert Alter, The Book of Psalms, p. 358.
TRAVEL NOTE: Today Rosanne and I leave for London to catch Explorer of the Seas. I will be lecturing onboard for the next 2 weeks. That means NO INTERNET for me, so don’t expect to see a lot of replies. But your book orders will still be filled (thanks, Rachel).
I wish to be a fly on the wall while Skip is teaching on Psalm 103! When I immersed myself in this Psalm a while back, I became a little consternated about the self exhortation to bless YHVH. I thought I sorta understood how He was supposed to bless me; after all, my need for His blessing was so obvious! But, how do you “bless the Lord”? What does He possibly need? For a while, I tried to think about it from the angle of a small child asking his Daddy for change so that he can buy him a present. I thought about tithe, where you turn the front part back around in gratitude for the rest. But, what part of me, like the little shepherd child wondering what gift to bring Him, did I possess? Answer: “myself”. Nephesh.
But then, the problem escalated. I thought I understood how I was supposed to give Him my heart, my self, on a continual basis. It’s like a subject swearing fealty to a sovereign, a servant presenting themselves for service, a spouse searching for ways to keep in constant step, a child in unthinking, happy obedience; even a slave understanding that no part of their existence is outside the primary will of their master. Service. His will, not mine. His reasons, not mine. His path, not my personal life list. Necessary for relationship with YHVH Himself, for sure, but, is this the totality of BLESSING Him? My immersion in Him, my understanding that I am but an extension of Him in reality, is a given, a starting point. This is not something I ‘offer’ Him, except in my wildest, most narcissistic rebellion; after all, who am I apart from Him, that I would have a ‘something’ from that distance to present Him with? Nope. My half of the dance is not a ‘gift’ in any sense of the word. My half is just the correct action I was created to take. Sure, it has to be a great relief, even the greatest relief, to Him when I do that, and the greatest happiness; just like a parent can get so proud when their child truly ‘gets it’, and, in that moment, becomes fully a child. I can understand that, but is that all that is implied in that word, ‘blessing”?
Then I decided to look at each individual moment of the day, and ask myself “how do I bless Him in this moment?” What, in this moment, in addition to (or in more completion of, might be more like it), is correct for perfected relationship? I decided to look at the dance; at where I was already at with Him, and He with me. I saw we were all over the place. Sometimes, it was because of me, sometimes it was because of Him. Like any relationship, any give-and-take, it washed back and forth. This moment, I was overwhelmed, whether from fear shame or guilt, or from doubt or indecision, or from being caught up short by the chance for success in some little venture, and then the old programming started kicking in. Help! Rescue! How to bless Him in this place? By remembering to call on Him, and give Him the chance to rewrite my reality His Way. So, the next moment He rescues me, when I call on Him. How to bless Him in this moment? Gratitude. Yelping for help is hard, but I am usually motivated by desperation. Thankfulness can be harder (even though it should be easier if I was desperate enough when I required saving!), but, how often do I act as if He ‘owed’ me a lift? When I forget to be grateful, the arrogance puts a real chill on the deal. The next moment, I am relating to someone else. I can bless Him by representing His love to them; not in arrogance or in what I THINK they should receive from me, but by asking “what do you need from me?” “In honor, preferring one another”. You cannot be any good to anyone else without respecting them. It takes humility to respect others! I can set out to ‘do good’ to somebody as a foil to hide shame, but I give it all away with arrogance and pride; the pride that says “I know better than you what is good for you, so I don’t have to ask or pay attention to your dignity or worth”. No, I bless Him when I treat others with the respect and sincerity that I owe Him.
I found that what Skip says is right; blessing Him is something done with all of me, in every moment, not just when everything is just so in a pew seat or on a prayer mat. Blessing Him has to do with turning every moment into a way to make Him happy, and to honor Him, and to remember Him, and to allow Him to have His Way in me. How do I know when I have blessed Him? What is the focus of His Way? Because I am created to be a steward, a conduit of His love for all else, then His Way for me will be to reflect His blessing to all around me. I will have blessed Him when His world is a better place because I am in it. Halleluah!
We recorded some of the sessions and I might put them up on the web site when I get back.
Laurita, I just purchased ‘Blessing the King of the Universe’ by Irene Lipson. It looks like it addresses many of your points and Skip’s.
Come Thou Fount of EVERY blessing, — tune my heart to sing Thy grace!
Streams of mercy —never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise.
~ For EVERY good gift
and EVERY perfect gift
is from Above.. #allthingsgreatandsmall
“Today” is a Gift, and that is why it is called “the Present.”
“This is the Day which our LORD has made
[therefore] — I will rejoice and be glad in it.”
Heb.7:7 “And behold, this no one disputes: that the lesser is blessed by the greater.”
Should “barak” not rather be rendered “kneel / kneel down / salute / praise” in the context of Ps.103?
The image I have, is of the nefesh kneeling down in worship before YHWH and then YHWH bending down on one knee and touching that life.
That is a very beautiful image.