Continuity
If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You. Psalm 139:18 NASB
Still– Yesterday we noticed a shift in the emotional direction of this poem. David’s initial concerns about the constraint of divine knowing have changed to praise for God’s revelation. We discovered that David considers God’s purpose intrinsically valuable. He can’t live without the revelation of God’s will. This verse continues that idea. But the Hebrew isn’t quite as hypothetical as the translation suggests. The conditional conjunction “if” has been added to the text. The Hebrew simply says, “I am counting them (imperfect, incomplete action); they are more than sand.” Now this gives us pause. After all, there are a limited number of divine sayings in the Tanakh. They aren’t more than sand. Perhaps David has something else in mind. Not God’s words, but His presence expressed in divine purpose. That invades everything including my inner world of consciousness. That is truly more numerous than the sand. Perhaps one of the purposes of God (and only one) is to be present in all that exists. And that’s a lot.
If this is what David has in mind, then the second part of this verse also needs expansion. We might be inclined to read “When I awake,” as if David is concentrating on the experience of the new day. In other words, today I find God’s purposeful presence more numerous. But the use of the Hebrew word ʿôd suggests something else. This word “Functions as a substantive and an adverb. This word, derived from ʿûd‘ to repeat,’ ‘to do again,’ has the sense of repetition and permanence. . . Most frequently this word has a temporal sense. It is used to indicate the continuance of a past or present event.”[1] Do you suppose that David is stretching our understanding of God’s purposeful presence to include the past? What if, upon waking, I considered everything that God had to do to bring me into this new day? What if my very existence today depends on God’s purposeful presence in every single past day back to the beginning? What if the reason God is still with me is because He has drawn a line of continuity between me and the first of His created agents? I am the end of that line today, but I am not the end of the line. His purposeful presence will weave me into the line that continues after me, but today, this day, I am the sum of all He has done before today. More numerous than the sand? Yes, certainly!
One of the great themes of the Tanakh is God’s faithfulness. As Westerners we tend to think of faithfulness in salvific terms. But Semitic people think otherwise. Faithfulness is about continuity, about the history of His people, about the permanence of His character. It’s not about me getting saved. It’s about the utter reliability of YHVH. That continuity is the reason I woke up today.
Topical Index: ʿôd, still, continuity, Psalm 139:18
[1]Schultz, C. (1999). 1576 עוּד. 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.) (648). Chicago: Moody Press.
“What if, upon waking, I considered everything that God had to do to bring me into this new day?” The reasonable response would be to exalt Him and spend our time and energy doing His will in celebration of His love and faithfulness. The reality would restore our minds to sanity. We would function as we were designed to function. We would experience unity and connection that would be delightful. We would truly live.
Well stated, Theresa.
I can hardly get to the doing, I’m awestruck by being at this moment!
A wonderful reminder. Thank you, Skip.
“. . . for His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning; great is
your faithfulness.” Lam 3:22-23
And, it’s been said:
“This is the day the Lord has made,
let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Ps 118:24
And so, we do!
I have noticed that secular science has hit more than one huge snag on its way to attempting to determine consciousness in terms of humanism – in terms of starting with the self – but none, I think, larger than the dawning realization that for a mind to ‘hold’ its own existence, it must be continuously holding it; in other words, it cannot, for even a split second, lose consciousness, or awareness of itself: if consciousness starts with the self, anyway. Problem: we go to sleep, suffer concussions, blank out, go comatose; even stop breathing for long periods of time and have to be resuscitated. Where does our consciousness of ourselves go, and how do we get it back? Yes, consciousness has proven to be a huge headache for those who have to believe that a: we somehow ‘made up’ consciousness, and b: it is up to us to somehow keep that consciousness.
What a relief for us who realize that there is a Someone who holds it all for us: consciousness, breath, purpose of life – life itself, whenever we sin, anyway – past and future, too – and keeps on handing it back to us like a child who keeps on dropping its lollipop. In the resurrection – when we awake to that awesome Voice like a trumpet calling us – He will even hand it all back with eternity and a perfected, completed connection with Himself and all else added, too! Halleluah!
Thanks for that reminder, Laurita! It’s so easy to fall into the trap of thinking it’s all up to us. The other day I needed to see the doctor and which is usually the case, I have a certain amount of White coat syndrome! But the impression I was getting from the Holy Spirit that morning was a reminder that He was holding my hand. I didn’t need to worry or stress out, in case I got distracted and forgot to hang on tight. He HAS me! He is our keeper. What a wonderful way to enter into our day knowing whom(not what!) we have believed, being persuaded that he is able to keep that which we have committed unto him.
Truly blessed assurance !
And, so, “Modeh ani!”