Who is God?
O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Psalm 63:1 NASB
God/my God– David’s opening two words in Hebrew are ʾĕlōhîm ʾēli. You might think that he is addressing only the one true God of Israel with these words, but, in fact, the words were commonly used by many ancient cultures to describe the gods or God.
ʾlh is the assumed root of ʾēl, ʾĕlōah, and ʾĕlōhîm, which means “god” or “God.” The Ugaritic term for “god” or the “chief god” is ʾil, plural ʾilm, occasionally plural ʾilhm(cf. UT 19: no. 163[1]). The Phoenician term is ʾl“El”; the plural is ʾlm which seems to be construed sometimes as a singular (cf. Z. Harris, Grammar of the Phoenician Language, Jewish Publication Society, 1936, p. 77). The Aramaic is ʾĕlāh, plural ʾĕlāhîn. The Akkadian form is ilu.[2]
The name “El” is a very ancient Semitic term. It is also the most widely distributed name among Semitic-speaking peoples for the deity, occurring in some form in every Semitic language except Ethiopic.[3]
What do we learn? That many other people groups used the same words that the Hebrews used to describe God. What does this mean? That the idea of a supreme God isn’t unique to the Hebrews. Why does this matter? Because David’s poem doesn’t just use the common language for God. Notice that David specifies that this God is ʾēli, namely “my God.” And that’s what counts. There may be all sorts of competing other gods in David’s ancient world, whether we consider them real or not, but what matters to David is that this one is his God. His God is the God who established the nation of Israel, the God who brought His people out of Egypt, the God who gave them the Land, the God who anointed David as king. Even if there are other people who claim they have their own God or gods, it makes no difference to David because David knows that his God is the One Who gives his people their identity.
Perhaps we should start here. Even today there are competing gods. They might even have the same name: the God of the Roman Catholic Church, the God of the Protestants, the God of the Jews, the God of Messianic believers. All with the same name (almost) but all very different in character and action when we really investigate. Does it matter? Only if none of these gods are your God. But if the God you understand is your God, then perhaps all the other versions of God don’t really count too much—and perhaps it’s not quite so important to convince someone else that your God is the only God. Perhaps the really important question is this: “Is this really your God, your personal, intimate God of your life? Or is He just a name in a theological statement?” Oh, and by the way, David’s God is YHVH, the only God of the Hebrews and the only God of the Scriptures. If you happen to worship another God, who just might have the same name as far as you are concerned, but isn’t precisely the God of Israel, then no matter what name you give your God, He still isn’t the God of the Bible, is He?
Topical Index: God, ʾĕlōhîm, ʾēli, my God, Psalm 63:1
[1]UT C.H. Gordon, Ugaritic Textbook, 1965
[2]Scott, J. B. (1999). 93 אלה. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(electronic ed., p. 41). Chicago: Moody Press.
Skip, you wrote, “There may be all sorts of competing other gods in David’s ancient world, whether we consider them real or not, but what matters to David is that this one is his God”. Well, yes, in the final anaylsis David’s cry of “YHWH Only” echoes the “Jesus Only” sentiment of many today, but there is no doubt that these “other gods” greatly influenced David’s worldview. His supernatural view of the cosmos was influenced by the ideas found in the “Book of Enoch” and other later Apocalyptic Literature of the 2nd Temple Era. Many of these Jews who believed in the supernatural became the first followers of Yeshua. The Book of Enoch is replete with tales of gods, giants and demons which we moderns find silly, naive and simplistic, but to them were as real as automobiles, airplanes and antibiotics are to us. Admittedly, my belief system of a “supernatural world view” replete with gods, a real adversary, demons, evil angels and dark powers is derived from those early sources and may appear anachronistic, naive or even foolish, but I believe it is important to recognize that the religious realm is not just the “God of the Roman Catholic Church, the God of the Protestants, the God of the Jews” but that there are other worldviews available for lease or purchase. There are a whole host of “gods” that dwell in the spiritual pantheon. They are the same ones Yeshua battled on a daily basis and cast out of the mentality tormented and the physically sick; they are the ones Paul identifies as “principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, spiritual wickedness in high places”. We call these demons diseases, disasters and doubts hoping perhaps to somehow minimize their authority and power, but they are in reality “gods” from another realm and are not to be trifled with, ignored or discounted. They are the disembodied spirits that beguile, goad and tempt human beings into tasting their essence of evil and are named after their own character. Paul catalogued them as “spirits of”: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like”. These are not just “works of the flesh” just as fruit of the Spirit are not works of human nature. True “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” are as much as a result of the influence of a spirtual power (The Holy Spirit), as are the negative works the result of Un-Holy Spirits. While this “supernatural world view” seems simplistic and superstitious and more apt in the ancient pagan world it is very apropos in this modern world. While I am no expert in the field of demonology or exorcism, I have experienced both sides of light and dark, good and evil and am testifying to the veracity of their existence, power and influence. If the Hebrew language and life is, as Skip says, phenomenological, then I may be Hebrew afterall.
I was trying to think of how to put the words together, then I continued reading Michael’s post and he pretty well said it. How many people are unaware of the forces that these other gods hold, and how people are trapped within them. Lied to, cheated, robbed of the truth of the true. E l he wants to be our personal God. The God of all creation wants us to know him personally.
Thanks for this brother. If you are not Hebrew genetically you at least have a Hebrew mind and soul my friend. Perhaps more valuable in the long run. I see and experiance this as a spiritual world, the souls of men as responsive or reactive to to spiritual nature of the chosmos. Enoch I accept ( although contested and questioned) as largly descriptive of the reality of the created realms of the spirit. It reads to me much like Daniel…
For anyone interested, Dr. Michael Brown explains in this 28 min. teaching that Messianic Jews categorically believe in One God. He explains the complex and triune nature of the Hebrew God, the God of the the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Theological Objections: The Trinity God is One…not three
(Outside link removed)
Interesting, this is a middle of the road conversation to me. Seems like there are more nuances to consider to both lanes.
Well Skip, let’s just get down to brass tacks shall we? Lets get passed all the things that don’t stick. I love it. So I’m reading through the whole bible this year. Not focusing on the minutia, no matter how helpfull that might be at times. In reading through it we go places one does not necessarily choose to go. Places like Chronicles. In Chronicles you find the God of Isreal YeHoVaH having his faithfull scribe chronicle the geniologies of the people. One sees that this particular god is a god of the individuals. He recognizes them one by one, naming them all the way back to Adam his first created son. Humm…The furries, the Greek gods, the pagan gods don’t seem to be concerned with much out side them selves. The other gods we could chose from , and in the history of mankind there are many -are about their power over mankind. Humm…..Since I do have to choose what God I will serve,, I’ll go with the god that at least takes notice and provides a way to ” Have life and that to the full.” Thanks for this post, I pray the spirtual pushback for so clearly exposing the true nature of things is minimal. One takes a risk when exposeing the nature of the “the Prince of the power of the air”.
“My” God to 6 billion “me’s” adds up to 6 billion Gods.
There must be more to finding the one true God than
just a personal sense or experience.
And there is.
Scripture tells us that YHVH, the only God, does the
choosing.
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people
he chose for his inheritance.” Ps 33:12
In the movement of time, Yeshua spoke to all people
saying: “You did not chose me, but I chose you and
appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit — fruit
that will last — and so that whatever you ask in my name
the Father will give you.” Jn 15:16
Yeshua chose his disciples, became friends with them,
taught them to be servants and to bear permanent fruit
through prayer . . . and commanded them to love one another.
The message has been the same through time . . . and before
time. “He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was
revealed in these last times for your sake.” 1 Pet 1:20
And us?
“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be
holy and blameless in his sight.” Eph 1:4