Me Too

The Lord sustains all who fall and raises up all who are bowed down. Psalm 145:14 NASB

All – Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t see this happening in my world. I don’t see YHVH sustaining those who fall and raising up those who are bowed down. I see chaos, agony, oppression and abuse, both personally and socially. I see the good ones taken advantage of and the bad ones prospering, or at least getting away with it. Even my personal experience challenges David declaration. When I fall, I fall. When I am discouraged, downhearted, rejected, no one arrives with good news for me. Maybe David is only providing a wish, not a statement about reality. Maybe he is one of those “friends” who tells you, “Things will be better in the morning,” when you are certain that they will not be better.

Or maybe the translation is wrong.

First we should notice the group David has in mind: kol, a Hebrew word occurring 5400 times in the Tanakh usually in relation to the following noun, but in this case, in the absolute form (by itself). David certainly has everyone in mind. No exceptions. He isn’t writing about the righteous or the holy ones or those who deserve comfort. He’s writing about every single person on earth who fits the description, hanoplim ve-hakpupim.

But that’s the key to understanding David’s apparently outrageous claim. The two verbs, naphal (to cast down, to fall, to fail) and kaphaph (to bend, to submit oneself [Niphal]) are both participles. It isn’t those who “fall” or those who “are bowed down.” It is those who are falling and those who are being bowed down. David isn’t claiming that God rescues all who are at the bottom. He is claiming that God sustains and raises up those who are on their way to the bottom. That helps a bit, but even this doesn’t seem to correspond to reality. We have to take a look at the other verbs, the ones that describe God’s behavior.

The first is samak (to lean upon, to uphold, to support). “Sustains” isn’t the way I would translate this verb. “Sustains” implies maintaining some condition, as in “proper oxegen sustains fuel burn rates.” With that in mind, David could be saying that God keeps the ones who are falling in their state of falling. He sustains them. The verb, however, seems to me to imply that God alters their condition, that He upholds them. In other words, He changes their direction by offering His shoulder to lean on. If we are falling, God is able to turn us around by providing the support we need in our tumbling condition. It’s particularly important that this verb is the one used for “laying on of hands” in the sacrificial ritual. Something intangible is transferred from the person to the animal. The person “leans upon” the animal to remove his condition of defilement. Samak is the verb that describes what God does when we lean on Him. It is also a participle. He is changing our altitude.

Maybe the reason I thought David’s statements were so out of touch with observable reality is because I thought David was saying God’s action was already done. But now I see that David is saying that God is actively engaged in doing something, not that it is finished. He is changing the altitude of all who are falling. Even Paul says the same. We have all (kol) come short of the glory of God. We are all sinners and all sinners deserve death, but God is doing something about that. He is changing our direction.

The second verb is zaqaph. This verb is used only twice in Scripture (the other occurrence is Psalm 146:8). With such a limited range to examine for context, Gesenius suggests that it means “to raise” (literally) and “to comfort” (figuratively). Robert Alter suggests, “all who are bent stand erect.” But how do we know the meaning? TWOT makes no entry at all. We are left to fill in the meaning from the context.

David is writing Hebrew poetry. That means he is employing parallelism. The first idea is repeated in the second idea. So what God is actively doing to provide support for those who are falling is reflected in the second thought. God’s action in the first phrase is explained a second time in the second phrase. “Raising up” is the same as “offering support.” In this case, zaqaph is a synonym of samak. Are you being bowed down? The verb implies distress, submission and subjugation. There’s plenty of that going around. The action of being forced to bow down, whether from external authority or internal humiliation, is like falling. Once initiated, there’s no stopping until the end. Except that God is doing something about this, even while we are falling and being bowed down. We might not see what He is doing now, because right now we are still falling and we are still being bent, but David isn’t saying that God instantly and miraculously intervenes. He is claiming that God is in the process of offering support and comfort. Wait and see.

I feel better about David’s words. I feel better because I didn’t stop with the English and reject them as unconscionable silver-lining wishes. I feel better because God is doing something about my falling and my bending. And someday I will see the results.

Topical Index: all, kol, sustain, samak, raise up, zaqaph, Psalm 145:14

 

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laurita hayes

Sin is designed to take us out, no doubt. The miracle to me is why the planet is not wiped out yet. Ahh, now I might see why, a little. “Down but not out” might just be yet another statement about grace. We all deserve to die. I think the miracle could be that more of us aren’t dead already. The curse under which we fall I believe is the substitute for the death that fall should have resulted in. The curses are what we are being kept ALIVE WITH in our sins. Until we trade them in for the life of the Son and He becomes that curse for us, that is. Everything from His hand is good. Everything.

cbcb

Wow !
Our saviors true Stock Exchange 🙂

carl roberts

A Kept Man

~ God has provided Himself the Lamb ~ Abraham’s prophecy has come to pass. A Savior has been born in Bethlehem. The Bread of Life has been born in the city of bread. Eat. Find. Feast.
Paul, in his “extremity” posed the question: “Who shall deliver me?” [Deliver us from evil! – Amen!) Uhh, Paul, whose very Name is “YHWH is Salvation?” Who is (sumdumguy inquired) ~ “a Light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel?” Shall we continue?
The long-promised Messiah has come. What do the Scriptures say? ~ Casting ALL (all?) your care upon HIm, for He cares for you!! ~ Savior, like a Shepherd lead us, much we need Thy tender care! Oh, friend!
Ask, and you will receive. Gather up the loins of your mind and listen once again to Paul’s prodigious proclamation: ~ And this [very] same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from His glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus ~ (Philippians 4.19) And may I add, even though I know the weight is minuscule, my “amen?” Friend, — it is so. God has been good to me. Not only “good,” but “so good!” He is (hello) the “Good Shepherd.” The [always] Good Shepherd. (Dare I say it?) God knows what He is doing. He is not willing that any should perish, but that ALL should come to repentance.
~ Who are kept [protected,being guarded, (keep watch) like a military sentinel) by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time? ~ Jesus [both] saves and keeps me! — And He’s the One I’m living for!
~ For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life! ~ But this Man, [the Man Christ Jesus] because He lives forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Consequently, He is able to save to the uttermost [All] those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them ~
I am so happy for Paul, for he finally came to the blessed conclusion: ~ Yet in ALL these things [every vicissitude of life] we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. ~ Friend, as He now ever lives to make intercession for us, please tell me, — when did He stop loving us? NEVER!. And love never fails!
Paul, what say you now to these things?

~ For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our LORD!!! ~ Hallelujah! Amen!

Dana

God is good. Even when He brings us down. Yeshua said, “Whatever you do for the least of these.” I have found that His bringing me down gives me eyes to see things and people from a different perspective. God wants us to “free the oppressed.” In order to see them from His perspective, I have to be brought low. But it’s necessary, not comfortable, but necessary. And, in the process, He is healing me. Praise God!

David Williams

‘Help Wanted’. The Creator is looking for good people to fill, what is probably, an endless list of employment opportunities, in this current good creation, and the New Creation that He has already launched. Many are the ‘employment’ benefits, the Creator offers. Benefits like ‘GodCare’ ( a truly Affordable Care Act), longevity of life, creative bliss and beauty without bounds. Just apply and submit yourself. You are your resume. Voila, you’re hired, and some will say, you can’t be fired. Now, go home and sit and wait for that automatic check deposit. Really? No!! You’re employed and much is expected of you! First thing you must do is show up for work. You’ve been ‘hired’ to help build a New Creation, not sit a home fondling your ‘employment acceptance’, your personal salvation. You are saved for something, for some purpose. You’ve been offered employment, you’ve accepted and now, right now, there’s work to be done. That said, why do you think humanity often seems oblivious to the requirements of the ‘employment opportunities’ or maybe more importantly, laughs at all that we hold by faith? There are many promises made in Scripture, many metaphors that have been taken as literal truth and much about God and His nature, that when you look around in this world, just don’t seem to ‘add up’. So much about what we ‘know’ about God is locked away in our contemplative process, as if that contemplation is an end of it all. That is how God has been presented over the course of two millennia, especially after our Jewish roots were kicked to the side of the road. This world can be a mess. This world can be beautiful. This world can be messy and beautiful, all at the same time and in the same moment. But here is the rub. God still wants you and I to engage with Him, in this present good creation, and to help built His New Creation, which according to Scripture, has already begun. We need to stop looking to God for what He can do for us, but rather, what God, you and I, can do together. Some of the text in Scripture, some of the promises may leave you going, ‘What, it sure doesn’t look that way to me’. That’s understandable. That’s why God loves a good question. Questioning is not off limits! Don’t sit at home salivating over your ‘death benefits.’ Yes, that is offered as part of your ‘employment’, but there is a lot more. So get up and show up for work! And when your ‘review’ time comes around, you just may hear, ‘well done good and faithful servant’.

Seeker

David and Jesus say similar words, Jesus took it further – And those the Father gives Him He will not allow to be lost…

I believe David provided everyone a reminder that God has a purpose and in control.

Now for sin Lucifer through Eve introduced that concept into the creation not God. God permitted it… I believe because He knew this would not effect His plan Alpha and Omega.

The lesson is that it does not matter what happens to us what makes the difference is how we respond to it…

laurita hayes

Nice response, Seeker.

Seeker

“David is writing Hebrew poetry. That means he is employing parallelism…”

Or is it more about parallel universes Dawid, Hebrew, Christian, Rabbi, my and your view versus God’s intent as His will is always higher than ours. As David we desire to proclaim things, As David we learn to reflect on our knowledge, experience, perception etc to explain our own, others or God’s desire.

This keeps us in the void – the darkness for which we need God’s words to enlighten empower and encourage.

Resulting from this I will have to acknowledge that the truth is found in Skip’s statement;

“Maybe David is only providing a wish, not a statement about reality. Maybe he is one of those “friends” who tells you, “Things will be better in the morning,” when you are certain that they will not be better.”

And this is the reason why John reminds us in John 1 that when the word takes on flesh things change for the better before that the darkness comprehends not the light…

Clayton Augustine

Planting a church in a small community in Oregon. Seems like I am falling and being bent continually. It’s a daily battle. Good to know that Our father catches us before we reach the pit. For those who get discouraged reliance and moving forward are the way out.