A Psalm’s Story

O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His lovingkindness is everlasting. 1 Chronicles 16:34 NASB

Give thanks – The story of this psalm is found in the chronicles of the kings. David receives the ark and offers sacrifices, installing Asaph and his line as priests. Then David offers this song. Its parallel is Psalm 104. In the middle of the song of praise, David uses the Hebrew words hodu laYHVH. The verb is yada, but spelled Yod, Dalet, Hey, not Yod, Dalet, Ayin, the verb “to know” with the same phonetic sound. Yada (with the Hey) means, “to confess, to praise, give thanks.” Its derivatives include toda. “The primary meaning of this root is ‘to acknowledge or confess sin, God’s character and works, or man’s character.’ The basic difference between this verb and its synonym, hālal, is that the latter term tends to stress ‘acclaim of,’ ‘boasting of,’ or ‘glorying in’ an object, while yādâ emphasizes ‘recognition’ and ‘declaration’ of a fact, whether good or bad. The LXX normally renders yādâ with exomologeō.”^[1]

But David didn’t write in Babylonia block script. He wrote in Paleo-Hebrew. Perhaps if we examine the difference between yada as praise and yada’ as knowing we will find something interesting.

Yada as praise is Yod-Dalet-Hey. The consonants paint a picture of the arm (work), a door and “Behold.” Perhaps we can consider the idea of giving thanks (praising) as acknowledging (behold!) the pathway of work (deed). Giving thanks to YHVH is extolling Him for offering us the way to make things right in the world, the pathway of righteousness, the full meaning of avodah in Hebrew. The first occurrence of the word is in Genesis 29:35 where Leah extolls the Lord at the birth of Judah. Leah’s choice of name is a play on the word she uses for praising YHVH, i.e., yada and Yehuda.

“To know” (yada’ with an Ayin) paints a different picture. It is “work (deed)” plus “door (path)” plus “eye, to see, to experience.” “To know” is a wide umbrella word in Hebrew. It covers everything from gathering facts about the universe to sexual intimacy. Context tells us how to understand the meaning. But in general we might say that yada (with an Ayin) is about experiencing life—all life and everything about life. The emphasis is not on the object known but rather on the effect on the subject. We see how the world is when we know (yada’). The first occurrence of this word is Genesis 3:5. Look at that verse closely. Yada’ occurs twice, once attributed to what God knows and once promised in the temptation to know what God knows. Yada’ is ultimately about knowing as God knows, that is, with complete intimacy, for God knows all there is to know about any given object.

Praising is accepting His way for making the world an example of His righteousness. Knowing is ultimately a quest to have the same consciousness as YHVH. The two words are closely connected. They both begin with our efforts and the paths that lie before us. But in the end, those paths separate and what we do when we come to the fork in that road is the entire story of yetzer ha’ra/yetzer ha’tov.

Topical Index: yada, yada’, give thanks, praise, know, Psalm 104, 1 Chronicles 16:34, Genesis 29:35, Genesis 3:5

^[1] Alexander, R. H. (1999). 847 יָדָה. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke, Ed.) (electronic ed.) (364). Chicago: Moody Press.