The Look

I will set no worthless thing before my eyes;
I hate the work of those who fall away;
It shall not fasten its grip on me.  Psalm 101:3  NASB

Worthless – Does David’s declaration match your vision?  David declares that no beliya’al will come before him.  If we’re going to follow David’s devotion, we must know what this word really means.

Beliya’al comes from the root bala.  The root means “to become old or worn out.”  You might think of Yeshua’s comments about wine skins.  The same verb is used to describe the current condition of the universe.  It is old and worn because of the presence of defilement.  But, as TWOT notes, “The new heavens and new earth will consist of the old ones renewed; similarly, our resurrected bodies will have many features of continuity with our present bodies”^[1] [Please note the renewed character of the “new” heavens and earth].  Beliya’al combines this root with the Hebrew ya’al to give it the negative sense of worthless.  It’s not just old and worn.  It is of no use whatsoever.  It is garbage, fit only to be discarded.  It has no life value.  Quite importantly, the LXX renders this term as para-nomos, anomos and aphron (all meaning “lawlessness”).  The rabbis understood that “worthless” means “not found in Torah.”  We must see that “worthless” is the equivalent of “not producing life” and in Hebrew thought whatever is opposed to Torah brings death, not life.  It’s not surprising that the word becomes a name, Belial, the name of the prince of evil, in pseudepi-graphical literature.

So what is David saying that will help us “see”?  Don’t put anything before your eyes that does not promote life as defined by Torah!  See through God’s eyes, not yours.  Look on what God calls good, not on what you tolerate.  Adjust your vision so that Torah is your set of eyeglasses.  David is absolutely not using our definition of worthless.  He could care less for what we consider “of no real value.”  He doesn’t care about what we think has “no good qualities.”  David knows God.  He knows that what God calls good brings life—and anything else leads to death.  Worthless things are death-producing things.  Why would anyone want to contemplate them?

David also employs the verb sit (to put, set).  You will find this word in the form of a noun for the name Seth.  Ten times in the Psalms it is connected to lev (heart).  It is about what we set our hearts on.  David is not saying that we close our eyes when we drive by a provocative billboard on the road (no sense having an accident—that leads to death).  What he is saying is that we don’t contemplate the image.  We don’t turn it over in our hearts.  We don’t explore its possibilities.  We don’t dwell on it.

It’s probably time for some visual cleansing.  How much of your life looks at those things that produce death?  How many images on your heart hard drive are stored in the death folder?  How much of what you contemplate is really outside the bounds of Torah on a direct path to what opposes God’s desires?  When you look far ahead, do you see a graveyard or a renewed earth?

Topical Index:  beliya’al, ya’al, sit, worthless, anomos, lawless, Torah, death, Psalm 101:3