Predestination

Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them. Psalm 139:16  NASB

Ordained– Does God know everything you will do before you are born, before you make a single choice?  Does He know all men’s choices from eternity past?  And if He does, and He is never mistaken, then in what sense can we claim that we have free will—or, for that matter, how could anyone, including God, ever hold us accountable for any of our actions if they are all predestined?

Questions like these have haunted theologians and philosophers for millennia.  It’s unlikely that any certain answer will be forthcoming.  All the possible solutions to these dilemmas have to make assumptions about God, the world, time, action, and culpability.  Does the Psalmist have his own set of presuppositions that lead him to assert what appears to be a view of total predestination?  Or is something else happening in the Hebrew text?

We can dismiss the issue about who is the subject of this statement fairly quickly, but perhaps not without some uncomfortable ramifications.  The Hebrew word translated “my unformed substance” is, unfortunately, a hapax legomenon, that is, a one-time word, appearing only in this verse.  In fact, the root, gālam, is also a once-off (2 Kings 2:8) as is the derivative, gĕlôm (Ezekiel 27:24).  Here it is gōlem.  Needless to say, hapax legomena are particularly difficult to translate.  So “embryo” is as good as any guess. Maybe.

But now the verse gets more difficult (is that really possible since we are guessing at the meaning of gōlem?).  The Hebrew is actually, “in Your book all of them written the days formed [when] none of them.”  Now you will notice that some crucial terms do not appear in the Hebrew text.  For example, the NASB reads, “the days that were ordained for me,” yet the expression “for me” does not appear in Hebrew.  The phrase in Hebrew is yikatevoo yamin yootzaroo velo echad bahem (roughly, “written the days formed when no none among them.”  The  translation makes the verse seem as if it is describing something God knows beforehand.  The translator uses the past tense (“were written,” “were ordained”).  But the verb tenses aren’t quite like this.  The first verb is a Ni’fal imperfect, usually designating an incomplete or reflexive passive voice.  In other words, the writing isn’t finished. It’s still going on.  That’s quite a bit different than the idea that it is all written in the book before you were born.

The second verb (“ordained”) also betrays theological bent.  The verb is a Pu’al perfect, that is, an intensive completed action.  We know the root, yāṣar, but it takes a theological assumption to translate it as “ordained.”  While the citation is lengthy, it’s worth reading about the larger scope of yāṣar.

The basic meaning of this root is “to form,” “to fashion.” While the word occurs in synonymous parallelism with bārāʾ “create” and ʿāśâ “make” in a number of passages, its primary emphasis is on the shaping or forming of the object involved.

As with many Hebrew words of theological significance, the root yāṣar may be used of human as well as divine agency. When used in its secular sense it occurs most frequently in the participial form meaning “potter,” i.e. one who fashions (clay). The word is used in this form frequently in the prophets where “the potter” provides an apt vehicle for the communication of the prophetic message (Isa 29:16; Jer 18:2, 4, 6; Zech 11:13).

The concept of “fashioning” is particularly clear in Isa 44:9–10, 12 where an idol is pictured as being shaped (yāṣar) by hammers (v. 12). See also Hab 2:18. The same concept is evident in the use of the word in Ps 94:20 where wicked rulers use the law to devise or frame means of wrongdoing.

When used of divine agency, the root refers most frequently to God’s creative activity. It describes the function of the divine Potter forming man and beasts from the dust of the earth (Gen 2:7–8, 19). It occurs in association with bārāʾ “create” and ʿāśâ “make” in passages that refer to the creation of the universe (Isa 45:18), the earth itself (Jer 33:2), and the natural phenomena (Amos 4:13; Ps 95:5). See also Ps 33:15; 74:17; 94:9; Jer 10:16; 51:19; Zech 12:1).

The word also occurs in the sense of God’s framing or devising something in his mind. It is used of his preordained purposes (II Kgs 19:25; Isa 37:26; 46:11; Ps 139:16) as well as his current plans (Jer 18:11).

The root is used of God’s forming the nation of Israel in the sense of bringing it into existence. It is used in this way only by Isaiah and always connotes God’s activity in this regard (Isa 43:1, 7, 21; 44:2, 21, 24).

The participial form meaning “potter” is applied to God in Isa 64:7 where mankind is the work of his hand.

When applied to the objects of God’s creative work, the emphasis of the word is on the forming or structuring of these phenomena. The word speaks to the mode of creation of these phenomena only insofar as the act of shaping or forming an object may also imply the initiation of that object. In this way the root yāṣaris an appropriate surrogate for bārāʾbut not an exact synonym.^[1]

Is “ordained” the proper translation here? Did you notice Mccomisky’s remark on Psalm 139:16?  The verb is used for “God’s preordained purposes.”  Does that include everything men will do?  It hardly seems reasonable to extend the idea of God’s purposes to cover every act of men.  In fact, the other citations in Mccomisky’s list are specifically about God’s action, not the acts of men.  Isn’t it possible that this poet who has already asked his readers to recall the chthonic mythology of Genesis is now remarking on God’s eternal plans, not ours.  If the prepositional phrase, “for me,” isn’t in the original text, then how could this verse be enlisted as a proof of God’s foreordination of all human choices?  Why couldn’t it simply be read that God knows what He plans to do before any human days are numbered? The translator’s addition of “for me” alters that entire direction of the text.  Should we not view the text as the worldview of a 10^thcentury BCE poet rather than a post-Augustinian Reformed theologian?

Topical Index: yāṣar, formed, ordained, predestined, Psalm 139:16

^[1]Mccomiskey, T. E. (1999). 898 יָצַר. 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.) (396). Chicago: Moody Press.