Figure It Out

I will open my mouth in a parable; I will tell riddles of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.  Psalm 78:2-3  NASB

Parable/ riddle – māšāl and ḥîdâ (parable and riddle).  How are these two terms connected?

First, we need to know what the Hebrew idea of “parable” really is.  “A. S. Herbert has well stated that in the Old Testament the ‘proverb’ māšāl had ‘a clearly recognizable purpose: that of quickening an apprehension of the real as distinct from the wished for … of compelling the hearer or reader to form a judgment on himself, his situation or his conduct …’” ^[1]

Parable: a saying (story) designed to elicit a direct response from the listener, engaging the hearer emotionally by demanding a reaction that will cause self-reflection.  Asaph intends to engage us in a story; a story that makes us apply the lesson to ourselves.

And what about ḥîdâ (a riddle—really a “dark saying”)?  Used only seventeen times, a “ḥîdâ is an enigmatic saying, question, or story whose meaning must be determined by the audience.”^[2]  Once again, a demand for the listener to engage, to face some internal consequence.

As you can see, both terms are in line with maskîl and tôrâ: insightful instruction that requires response.  It’s not enough to hear the story.  It’s not enough to listen to the riddle. The problem must be solved—by you!  What matters is what you do about it!

With this in mind, we expect Asaph to utter twisted tales of allegorical actions.  But he doesn’t.  He doesn’t turn his recounting of Israel history into something like the way Christian and Jewish scholars treat the Song of Songs.  If you read this psalm in its entirety, you discovered that it is a retelling of Israel’s failures.  No allegory.  No lessons from fables.  Just what happened when.  But Asaph wants you to find something more than a history lesson.  He wants you to engage the history as your own—corporately and personally.  Israel’s history is our history, filled with God’s grace and our resistance, God’s promises and our failures, God’s forgiveness and our disobedience.  If you read it any other way, then you didn’t comprehend māšāl and ḥîdâ.

There is, perhaps, an even deeper level here—another layer of māšāl and ḥîdâ.  That layer is the incomprehensible goodness of God.  Read the poem.  Everything God did on behalf of His people is systematically ignored, spurned, or dismissed.  And yet, for some hidden reason, God continues to woo them.  He never gives them up.  He never says, “That’s enough.  I’ll find someone else.”  We never find an answer to the question, “Why does God love me?”  We just see over and over that He does.  It’s a māšāl and ḥîdâ.  A mystery.  A very good one.

Topical Index:  māšāl, ḥîdâ, proverb, dark saying, riddle, mystery, Psalm 78:2-3

^[1] Hamilton, V. P. (1999). 1258 מָשַׁל. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., pp. 533–534). Chicago: Moody Press.

^[2] Yamauchi, E. (1999). 616 חוּד. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 267). Chicago: Moody Press.