Biblical Maslow
“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
A long way from Maslow. I have never been comfortable with Maslow because of his putting persons in the center of life. But that is what psychology does. Life is so much richer with life centered on God. Delight by all means. Yes!
I don’t know much about Maslow, but did read Toward a Psychology of Being back in 1969.
At the time I did not know what psychology was, but found the book fascinating and inspiring.
One thing to keep in mnd when reading Abraham Maslow is that his cultural background was orthodox Jewish.
And his intellect was Ivy League.
And during his lifetime, fascism was a dominant ideology in Europe, where many Jews lived.
And anti semitism was not not uncommon in the US.
I would guess that he knew nephesh did not mean soul.
I would also tend to argue that his notion of self is Jungian at least in so far as it is not ego (false and selfish).
That his notion of self is something like God in that it is other to us and must be cultivated.
That maybe he was speaking in a kind of code that could reach the masses and have a positive effect.
my 2 cents.
Your points are well taken. Now, if we only had the code book. But Maslow wouldn’t be the first Jewish intellectual to abandon the revelation of God to his people and attempt to build a philosophy or psychology without mystery and awe. There are always bits and pieces of the truth scattered among the ruins of men’s minds.
Hi Skip,
You make a very good point.
Regarding the code book, I think it is the Torah.
But to decode the Torah, you need to know Hebrew and probably some other texts in Hebrew and Greek.
Yes it helps to know Hebrew, but what you really need is a deep sense of awe before a holy God.
Skip …. HaRuach working through you is beginning to push the envelope …. 🙂 …. seriously!
This message aptly points to the awesome mystery that is Eloheinu …. HIS ways for us … HIS WORD … yet at the same we can be joyful and not dismayed regarding this staggering complexity! Why?
Because HE has revealed to us that HE will impart wisdom and knowledge through Ruach HaKodesh. HE has revealed that the world’s (men’s) wisdom is foolishness. Hence the excitement of receiving HIS revelation through The Word! Yet … brother Skip you rightfully slam the door on knowledge being converted to joy through action! Self actualization is all about doing HIS bidding and putting aside our bidding! This is true delight! 🙂
And praise The Lord …. Skip you are rightfully teaching how we can better find the meat that is covered within all the milk! The methods are Hebraic … not Greek! The perspective has got to be HIM and not me/us!
I for one am tremendously excited by this message today … this message encapsulates exquisitely and in plain terms the joy Torah brings to my life. Until this morning I frankly had difficulty in adequately expressing such blessings! The joy is just as much the journey as it is the final destination … this is why Yeshua declared that our joy in him can be complete … here … and now!
I sense that many TW readers are smiling! 🙂
“Delight yourself in the LORD and He will give…”
Self-centered or Savior centered? Rick Warren’s PDL was a runaway best seller because it was a “revelation” to many of how “self-centered” or “ego-centric” our society has become. “What’s in it for me?” has become our mantra. (Yes, brother Skip- very Greek.. -lol!). G-d has promised (does He ever lie?)- “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” (Was He ever lost?)- nooooo. Who is ever about “revelation?” Not me babe.. I want to hide myself- just like A&E- (mom and pop). Hagar was on the run herself trying to “hide” somewhere/anywhere, when G-d spoke to her and she paused to listen. “Where have you been? and Where are you going? Same question asked to our G-G-Grandpa Adam. Same question to us.. Where are you? and where are you going? (in such a hurry!- lol..). “Be still and know that I AM G-d.” Slow yourself down little bird: “sit/stay”. “Remember.. return.. renew.. revive.. rejoice”. All relationship words. YHWH wants all of us, but more importantly “each” of us to return unto Him. We are the sheep who have gone astray and have turned every one (ALL)- to his own way. To be “ego-centric” is to be “eccentric” or “off-center”. The wheel is out-of-round and needs to be “trued”. As we place ourselves on the Potter’s wheel and submit our lives into His (quite-capable) hands, He will form and fashion-(usually through heat and pressure!)- our (yet) pliable clay into the vessel of His choosing. We are promised again (are we paying any attention to HIS words?)- “the zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this”. Our part? -trust and obey. “Submit,commit, don’t quit.. get fit”. -And Who is able if we are willing?
I am so excited to see (and to know!), G-d has not abandoned His children. Again, “it is written” -(don’t you love those three words?)- “I will never leave you or forsake you”. I do not know what the day may bring forth, -but I know WHO brings forth the day.. He is (both!) , the Day-Maker and the Day-Runner. To us, sometimes life may appear to be a run-away freight train, but our Captain has never left the control room.
Even if, right now, someone may be in the “perfectly-heated” furnace of affliction, the “fourth man” is with us. “He will never leave you or forsake you”.. – let us say this together (and rejoice!)- “it is written!”. “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” (Psalm 119.65) Hallelujah! Amen.