Hebrew Umbrellas
When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You. Psalm 56:3 NASB
I will put my trust – Hebrew is a sparse language. One word may be called into service in many different ways. For example, you know that shema means both “to hear” and “to obey.” This is a small umbrella compared to many other Hebrew words. This verse begins with the word yom, not the usual word for “when.” Literally it reads, “Day eera” (we will look at the verb in a moment). So we might translate this “[The] day I am afraid.” It’s pretty much the same thought until we look at the verb. That verb is yare. It has five different senses (to fear, to be afraid, to anticipate evil, reverence and awe, righteous behavior and formal worship). So which one is appropriate here?
Could we translate this as, “The day I worship, I will put my trust in You”? Or how about, “The day I experience reverence and awe, I will put my trust in You”? Or maybe, “When I anticipate evil, I will put my trust in You”? What do you think?
The answer has to come from context, but sometimes even context can’t really determine the intention of the author. Of course, you might say, “Yes, but all of these variations are acceptable,” and you would be right. We might never know exactly what David has in mind. But the point is this: the Hebrew reader would make all the connections under the Hebrew word umbrellas while we, readers of translations, are limited to whatever word the translator chooses. Even that might be acceptable until we attempt to build doctrines from the translations. In other words, before we run off proclaiming that David’s view of fear and trust are such-and-such, based on our reading of the English Bible, we might want to reconsider and notice that in Hebrew there are lots of acceptable ways of understanding the same words. Doctrine (which doesn’t seem to be nearly as important to ancient Hebrew thinking) based on “proof texts” might need to be held a lot looser than we previously thought.
Back to David. What is he saying here? Well, I like the fact that he might be talking about being emotionally afraid, or he might be talking about being in awe of YHVH, or he might be talking about his worship experience, or he might be talking about reflection on righteous behavior or he might be talking about all this at the same time. Whatever he intends (and it wouldn’t surprise me to discover that he intends it all), he recognizes that all of these things lead him to trust.
And, by the way, the entire phrase “I will put my trust” is a single word, evtah. From the root betah, this verb could be translated “to trust in, to feel safe, to be confident” and even the seemingly opposite, “be careless” in reference to searching for security in other gods. Once again you get a lot of choices.
What do we learn? We learn that unless we expand our awareness of the wide application of Hebrew vocabulary, we will be tempted to think that our translations are “inspired” and contain the definitive statements of spiritual information. Once we see what is really happening, we just might relax a bit when it comes to having the “right” answer. Now you know why a “full” translation of the text would be 20,000 pages long.
What do you suppose the Hebrew is for “Take it easy”?
Topical Index: when, day, yom, afraid, yare, awe, worship, Psalm 56:3
I don’t know at what point I began to suspect that Scripture, and most particularly the stories of the experiences of the people in Scripture, was a template of sorts, which could be overlaid on top of my life. If I was going through a particularly hard or weird place, I could go looking for a story or example, or even an expression in, say, Psalms that looked or felt like it tracked the way I thought things in my life were heading. If I was stuck in oppression like Joseph, I could look at his story, notice how he handled the situation correctly (or incorrectly!), and proceed accordingly, for the end was sure. Over and over, I would cling to the stories, and try to match the reactions and choices that I made to what I saw. After a while, I began to suspect something else: I started to look at the sum total of examples in that Good Book as perhaps a sum total of possible human experience: in other words, no matter what we are going through, the way has been charted for us through it in that Book already, so just go looking for it: it is gonna be there! That was a big comfort for me, as so much of my life had looked so strange, and felt so weird. I didn’t feel so alone then. No matter what the challenge was, I would go looking for the pattern to lay on top, so I would know what to expect and what to do next!
If it resonated, I found that not only did the pattern seem to work well, I also began to notice something else: I noticed that I also could understand what the author was talking about, no matter what his choice of words were, or whether or not the English translated them correctly. I could still get the gist. I began to get rather excited then, and started actively looking for places in my life that looked similar to the places in Scripture that contained some of those head-shaker phrases, and, viola! I could ‘see’ the meaning better! Long before I met Strong’s, then, I began to get help in understanding. Human commiseration is not to be underestimated! And then there is Skip, who is like the ultimate cheat sheet or Cliff Notes for dummies like me! Hurray! Thank you for serving up the experience template for my life in ever more and richer ways to understand, and therefore appreciate, all that G-d is doing in it! Thank you, Skip, so much. Where have you been all my life?! I pray for you and yours, and am happy you are in this world.
Love, Laurita
As I was reading your comments, I suddenly remembered a boss of mine from 30 years ago. he made the “bold” statement that the Bible was not intended for today. He said he doesn’t see anything in it about, “Mike at the corner of Main and Central having to deal with ________ situation.” I remember him saying it as if it were yesterday. Then, I didn’t have an answer for him. Now, with reading your comments, I would know how to answer.
Wow! What a perfect way to start the Sabbath (of thinking) with Skip teaching a complete lesson about Hebraic context and Laurita with her homespun, kitchen cabinet down-to-earth application (of the doing) in my daily life. I can see that I am in the post grad phase of my quest (spiritual education) when I read such an inspired and informative TWOT and comments that mean so much more now. I am making the transition from Greek to Hebraic thinking very well now Skip. Thanks to you both. If you could use more copies of Crossword Puzzles or something else Laurita I would be happy to send them to you for your ministry.
You know, Rick, I got stumped and taunted for years, and I had to just sit there in silence and take it. I was on the losing end of the swing, and not least of it was because most folks could care less about your defense. Accusation just wants to protect the paradigm! BUT, I, like you, remembered every cut. It makes you angry, doesn’t it? That anger is useful, for it has been a goad to me to get my life to where it is not going to be so very easy to take the cheap shots. The best will be the day I get to where the way I live is going to be the silent challenge to others! I guess I will know when that day will come; I have noticed, historically, it seems to be the day the others go straight to burning you on the street corner. Sigh. That’s about as good as it gets in this world, I think! Until then, I know I haven’t quite arrived yet! If I have to pick who gets to be angry, though, I have had my fill of me being the angry one, so from here on out, I am going to be trying to pick making others angry at me, instead. It is a heartache in this world to me that the one thing that one of my most precious people in my life could never forgive me for was me loving them. Self hatred will do that. But, I know that is still better than being angry at myself, and not being able to forgive myself, for denying my heart.
Love hurts (Yep, Nazareth: it does!). To do the love, you have to learn how to hurt.
George, I don’t know quite what to say, except, thank you! There is no such thing as ‘Laurita’s ministry’ LOL! However, the offer of books, wow! Richard Brock sent me his copy of Crossword Puzzles, and I finished it not long ago, and appreciated the fine and careful and thorough treatment of all the issues that people tend to bring to their quite Greek table.
Crossword Puzzles takes on the very difficult subject of what the cross meant to the Jews, and to Rome, but also what the pole in the wilderness would have meant to not only the Children of Israel, but also what it would have meant to Nicodemus, too, as that pole accomplished, in a sense, for Egyptian symbolism, anyway, what the cross, as a symbol of power over life and death, accomplished for Rome. The death on the cross was expected and ordinary: Rome had the power over life and death. That resurrection, now! Wow! Game changer! The cross was about who had the power.
(A side note by me: I think that the cross was also, in a very real sense, about showing before the whole universe – as well as meeting the accusations against G-d by the Accuser directly – exactly what the character of G-d really was. G-d also had to do the deeds of righteousness, and the deeds of righteousness, even for G-d, are the actions of putting others before yourself. Love is what is willing to die, if the situation requires it, to save another. The cross was the ultimate refutation of the accusation that Love did not really meant what It said. The cross was where the Accuser got beaten in court, as not only the character of G-d got revealed before the whole universe and heaven, (not just us!); but simultaneously, the entire bottom motive of the devil also got revealed. It was one thing for Yeshua to SAY that the devil was a murderer from the get-go: it was another thing to make him PROVE it. That cross was a case-closer. There is now no more room for sympathy for the devil.)
What gets lost, to me, anyway, in the focus on the cross as our only tangible ‘proof’ that we have been forgiven, is that if life, and particularly eternal life, can be given, it can also be forfeited. I think one of the more baleful effects of pagan influence in the Christian world, anyway, is the idea that life itself is eternal: that it has no end, and, therefore, perhaps even no ‘real’ beginning. Thus, the notion of life being something that can be given or taken away from a created being by a King, gets scrubbed out, or at least reduced to what I get told a lot: “Oh, ‘life’ means ‘heaven’, and ‘death’ really means ‘everlasting torment in hell'”. I mean, who cares about a King Who claims power over life and death if you never die: what is important then is if you get into heaven or not, and that has been reduced to forgiveness of sins as being the all-important, all-powerful focus. Therefore, the cross as a symbol of the defeat of death (irrelevant if death just means existence in hell) gets changed to a symbol of forgiveness of sin (all important if getting into heaven is the new and improved meaning of the term ‘life’).
I think the real problem is that there is no concept of the Temple not made with hands, where there is a bleeding Lamb before the Throne. When I ask “what about the heavenly Temple?” People tend to respond with “the heavenly WHAT?” That Temple, which is the Temple of ALL of us, (not just the earthly temple, which was for the Jews), is completely ignored. How do you participate with the all-important service that goes in in that place if you don’t even have any comprehension that it exists; much less exists for us! The Lamb slain before the foundation of the world has also just been reduced to just another metaphor. That Lamb got switched with a cross (and maybe a fish, too!), which is a huge pagan symbol of quite nasty implications. Score yet one more for the devil. Sigh.
I know Rick beat me to it last time but your mention of saving up to buy the book struck a chord with me and the offer still stands if there are three or four books you would like. It would be my great pleasure to see that you get them sooner rather than later. My email address is gkraemer@nbnet.nb.ca
Psalm 56:3…This is MY verse…the one i quoted almost daily as i walked/stumbled thru 6 months of death-defying chemotherapy in 1988….this scripture focused my heart like a laser on things above, NOT on things of this earth. These words of David enabled me to “walk on water”, not focused on the depths/darkness of the fiery trial below. And Baruch HaShem, the experience in that crucible equipped and motivated me to share the truth of His Word with others ever since. So regardless of how this verse may be “properly” interpreted, the bottom line: We CAN rejoice in every situation because He IS faithful to walk with us in every circumstance of life!