Mighty Ones

Bless the Lord, you His angels, mighty in strength, who perform His word, Obeying the voice of His word! Psalm 103:20 NASB

Angels – One of the traditional Shabbat prayers is Shalom Alechem. In the prayer, the dinner guests at the Shabbat table invoke the peace of ministering angels, malechay ha-sharet. David employs the same idea in this verse, malachay gibbore, “angels mighty ones.” The root of malachay is malak, “messenger, representative, angel.” Once again we are in the realm of kings, kingdoms and royal courts.

The Theological Workbook of the Old Testament corrects common misunderstanding of this word. “‘Messenger’ is an inadequate term for the range of tasks carried out by the ot malʾāk. These were 1) to carry a message, 2) to perform some other specific commission, and 3) to represent more or less officially the one sending him. There were both human and supernatural mĕlāʾkîm, the latter including the Angel of Yahweh (i.e. the Angel of the Lord).”^[1] TWOT goes on the mention that supernatural messengers have the special function of presenting an aspect of God’s glory. Isaiah offers further evidence of this in his vision of the Temple of YHVH.

David connects malachay to ‘asa, “to do, to accomplish, to fashion.” David already employed this second verb when he described the “frame” of Man. We are but dust—and YHVH knows that. But even dust, animated by the breath of YHVH, has obligations. In fact, those obligations can be seen in the actions of the malechay. They perform YHVH’s word. They obey His voice. If men are but a little lower than angels, wouldn’t we expect them to also perform His word and obey His voice? Of course so! How could we expect men to be representatives of the Most High and not do this? Certainly David, who also wrote the psalm about the status of men and angels (Psalm 8:5), recognized the responsibility to act as God’s regent in the world, especially as king.

This fact tells us something deeper about David’s psalm. This psalm is self-reflection and self-confession. David looks in the mirror and sees a man whom YHVH expected to act as messenger to His people. But David sees a man who acted as predator, who abused his power, who concealed his affairs. David, the king anointed by YHVH, acted as the enemy of God. Mortification, humiliation, confession and repentance must follow and did, but at great cost to the child, to Bathsheba, to David and to the kingdom. If there is anyone who needs to know that malachay are still performing the tasks they were called to perform, it is David, a man made just a little less than the angels. Why? Because that means hope; hope that all is not lost, that YHVH forgives and the David (and the rest of us) can still sing, “Glory, glory glory.”

Topical Index: malachay, angels, ‘asa, to do, Psalm 103:20

^[1] Bowling, A. (1999). 1068, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament . Chicago: Moody Press.