In Plain Sight

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

Known – Okay, so how can this be a parable or a riddle if we’ve known it for generations?  Was the insightful story and the dark saying passed down without explanation?  Did it take Asaph to reveal the meaning of this situation centuries after it was originally transmitted?  No, probably not.  The reason Asaph can use a verb like yādaʿ  here is because knowing the answer isn’t knowing the answer.  What?  Oh, I forgot.  It’s a riddle.

When is knowing the answer not knowing the answer?  When it’s Hebrew.

In Hebrew, yādaʿ  doesn’t mean having the correct information.  It doesn’t mean knowing all the facts.  That’s what it means in Greek.  That’s what it means to know the story of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses.  Facts.  Events.  Journey. But that’s not yādaʿ.  yādaʿ  is involvement.  The facts have to become my facts.  They have to affect me, change me, confront me—then I “know.”  It’s possible that all the “facts” have been known for decades—centuries—and yet yādaʿnever happened.  Don’t the rabbis say, “A man cannot know Torah until he is seared by it”?  Hebrew knowing means getting burned, confronting the fire in the words, being branded by getting close.  “Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”  yādaʿ.

So Asaph wants his readers to remember what they have known, what was communicated to them in the experiences of their fathers.  He wants his readers to stand at the יַם-סוּף and see the sea separate.  He wants them to feel the fury: “I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people.  Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”  He wants them to taste the miracle of manna and the bitterness of Marah ( מָרָה ), the scent of the gathered grapes and the smell of fear.  And all for one purpose—to acknowledge their disobedience and God’s continued faithfulness.

It’s simply not enough to know what happened.  It’s not enough to plead forgiveness for the sins of the ancestors (if it were even possible).  They are us.  We are them.  Has anything changed?  Haven’t we had our threats resolved by God who delivers in new ways?  Haven’t we been nourished by His mysterious provision?  Haven’t we turned His mercy into strife, envy, malice?  Haven’t we been afraid because we did not trust His promises?

Our fathers told us parables and riddles.  Did we know what they were saying?

Topical Index:  yādaʿ, know, engage, Psalm 78:2-3