Acqua in Bocca
My mouth is filled with Your praise and with Your glory all day long. Psalm 71:8 NASB
Filled – You don’t really speak a language until you speak its idioms. If I say, “Cut to the chase” or “He kicked the bucket,” you won’t have any idea what I mean if you simply translate the phrases word for word. Just like the Italian idiom “acqua in bocca.” It literally means “water in mouth” but it has nothing to do with drinking. It’s an idiom for keeping a secret. You can’t speak with a mouth full of water. This Hebrew phrase, yimmā’lēt pi’ is like the Italian idiom. If your mouth is full of praises, it’s not possible to utter anything else.
The root of yimmā’lēt is mālēʾ (“to be full”). Most of the time it’s about a filled up space or a fulfilled time. But I don’t think that poet has geography or topography in mind. He’s Hebrew Italian. Of course, he’s referring to the words that fill his mouth, but that really isn’t the sense of it, is it? My mouth doesn’t speak words. It speaks sound which are interpreted as words. I am a phoneme speaker. What you hear are audio signals that your brain converts into meanings. When I say that my mouth is full of Your praise, I don’t mean I’m saying written words as if I were spitting out paper. I mean that my thoughts are so full of God’s greatness that every sound I make squeezes out all the other possible sounds. Just like our idiom, “I only have eyes for you,” the poet writes, “I only have sounds for you.”
Of course, it’s all so romantic—and so impossible. “I only have eyes for you” doesn’t mean that the only thing I see is you. It means my heart is filled (another idiom) with love for you alone. So with the poet’s phrase. He will speak many other “words” during the day, but this is romantic poetry, and for that he expresses that the only words that really matter are the praises he has for God all day long. It’s not practical! It’s not news reporting! “Extra! Extra! The king says nothing but praise for a whole day!” No, I don’t think so. This is a love poem, and it needs to be read that way. Acqua in bocca.
We could investigate the etymology of mālēʾ. We could look at the 249 occurrences and find patterns, but it would be an almost useless exercise. What matters here is a matter of the heart. Perhaps the best way to understand this verse is to stop right now and recall all the blessings you have received at the hand of the Lord. All of them. One after another after another. Fill your thoughts with God’s goodness. Let those recollections push aside all your troubles, your complaints, your disappointments, until there is nothing left but worship. Then you know what yimmā’lēt pi’ feels like.
Topical Index: yimmā’lēt pi’, mouth, full, idioms, Psalm 71:8
