Toil and Tears

Blessed are those whose way is ^[a]blameless, who walk in the Law of the Lord.   Psalm 119:1  NASB

Blameless – The Hebraic world knows no systematic theology.  That’s a Greek invention.  What it knows is the lived reality of God’s interaction in the everyday world of men and women.  The Hebraic world doesn’t have creeds or hard-and-fast doctrines or religious dogmas.  Those came along with the influence of Hellenism.  Oh, it has declarations but by and large this way of life (not a “religion”) is built around the practical decision-making.  If there is anything like the Christian statements of faith we find in later religious development, it is perhaps the 119^th psalm, a masterful development of those ideas that express commitment to the God of Israel.  Not only is it beautifully crafted, it also contains a roadmap for divine relationship.  So, while it’s the longest of all the psalms, it’s worth a serious study.  It was probably designed to be a memorized recollection of God’s involvement.  As Alter notes, “The edifying truth of unflagging loyalty to God’s word was intended to be inculcated in those who recite the text, inscribed in their memory.”  We have commented before on the essential oral element of ancient Hebrew thought and this psalm is an example of the importance of memorizing and orally proclaiming the foundations of faith.  Today we read the text, but you might try to imagine what it would be like to memorize this lengthy poem and how that effort would shape your thinking.

The first thing to notice is the acrostic.  This acrostic is designed to promote memorization.  Each section of the psalm begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, proceeding through all the letters.  Seeing the psalm in Hebrew shows you the structure.  Here is the first letter section:

אַשְׁרֵ֥י תְמִֽימֵי־דָ֑רֶךְ הַ֜הֹֽלְכִ֗ים בְּתוֹרַ֥ת יְהֹוָֽה

אַשְׁרֵי נֹֽצְרֵ֥י עֵ֜דֹתָ֗יו בְּכָל־לֵ֥ב יִדְרְשֽׁוּהוּ

אַף לֹא־פָֽעֲל֣וּ עַוְלָ֑ה בִּדְרָכָ֥יו הָלָֽכוּ

אַתָּה צִוִּ֥יתָה פִ֜קֻּדֶ֗יךָ לִשְׁמֹ֥ר מְאֹֽד

אַֽחֲלַי יִכֹּ֥נוּ דְּ֜רָכָ֗י לִשְׁמֹ֥ר חֻקֶּֽיךָ

אָ֥ז לֹֽא־אֵב֑וֹשׁ בְּ֜הַבִּיטִ֗י אֶל־כָּל־מִצְו‍ֹתֶֽיךָ

אֽוֹדְךָ בְּיֹ֣שֶׁר לֵבָ֑ב בְּ֜לָמְדִ֗י מִשְׁפְּטֵ֥י צִדְקֶֽךָ

אֶת־חֻקֶּ֥יךָ אֶשְׁמֹ֑ר אַל־תַּעַזְבֵ֥נִי עַד־מְאֹֽד

Notice that each of the first eight verses begins with the letter aleph (אַ).  The same pattern is followed through the rest of the psalm for each letter of the alphabet.  We will keep this in mind as we explore the meaning of each verse.

Verse 1: אַשְׁרֵ֥י תְמִֽימֵי־דָ֑רֶךְ הַ֜הֹֽלְכִ֗ים בְּתוֹרַ֥ת יְהֹוָֽה

Blessed are those whose way is ^[a]blameless, who walk in the Law of the Lord (NASB).

We can start with the first word, ʾašer (אַשְׁרֵ֥י).  TWOT offers an important clarification:

There are two verbs in Hebrew meaning “to bless.” One is bārak and the other ʾāšar. Can any differences between them be tabulated? For one thing bārak is used by God when he “blesses” somebody. But there is no instance where ʾāšar is ever on God’s lips. When one “blesses” God the verb is bārak, never ʾāšar. One suggestion to explain this sharp distinction, i.e., that ʾāšar is reserved for man, is that ʾāšar is a word of envious desire, “to be envied with desire is the man who trusts in the Lord.” God is not man and therefore there are no grounds for aspiring to his state even in a wishful way. Similarly God does not envy man, never desires something man is or has, which he does not have, but would like to have. Therefore God never pronounces man “blessed” (ʾašrê) (Janzen). It should also be pointed out that when bārak is used the initiative comes from God. God can bestow his blessing even when man doesn’t deserve it. On the other hand, to be blessed (ʾašrê), man has to do something. Finally, bārak is a benediction, ʾāšar more of a congratulation. The former is rendered by eulogētos in the LXX and the latter by makarios.

To be “blessed” (ʾašrê), man has to do something. Usually this is something positive. A “blessed” man, for example, is one who trusts in God without equivocation: Ps 2:12; 34:8 [H 9]; 40:4 [H 5]; 84:5 [H 6]; 84:12 [H 13]; 146:5; Prov 16:20. A “blessed” man is one who comes under the authority of God’s revelation: his Torah, Ps 119:1; 1:2; Prov 29:18; his word, Prov 16:20; his commandment, Ps 112:1; his testimony, Ps 119:2; his way, Ps 128:1; Prov 8:32. The man who is beneficent to the poor is blessed (Ps 41:1 [H 2]); Prov 14:21). Note the negative approach of Ps 1, “blessed is the man who does not.” He isolates himself and shuns the company of certain people, the ungodly. The psalm ends by noting that it is precisely these ungodly who will in the end be isolated. They will not stand in the judgment. They will be conspicuous by their absence for they will perish.

אֶשֶׁר (ʾešer). Happiness, bliss. Always occurs as ʾašrê, usually defined as the masculine plural construct of the noun ʾešer (which form is nonexistent in the Hebrew Bible), “O the happiness(es) of.” Perhaps “bliss” would be a better translation. It is used forty-four times in the ot, twenty-six of which are in the Psalter and eight in Prov. It appears in the Pentateuch only in Deut 33:29, in the historical books only in I Kgs 10:8 (= II Chr 9:7), and in the prophets in Isa 30:18; 32:20; 56:2.^[1]

Please note the translation of ʾašrê in Greek is makarios.  This is the word used in the Beatitudes.  It does not mean “blessed” by God, as we normally understand the Beatitudes.  It is more like “happy,” or in my book on the subject, “lucky.”  The crucial point is that this Hebrew term entails human action.  In our opening verse, the happiness or luck that comes to a man depends on his choice to walk in God’s way.  He experiences blamelessness (a word we will explore) when he follows the “Law” (torah) of God.

What is “blameless”?  The Hebrew is expressed in the phrase, temi-me-darek.  Two Hebrew words are in this combination.  The first is tāmîm, the second derek. The combination in English is “blameless those in the way,” but the literal translation would be “complete (entirely) those in the way.”  In other words, this kind of “walking” (which is yet to be discussed) is wholehearted integrity.  It is entirely complete and in accord with the truth.  This psalm was written long before the prophets and since we know that the poet points to the tôrâ, we quickly learn that Israel’s concept of truth is found in Moses.  In fact, nothing more need be added in order to walk blamelessly.  Without Moses, man is lost, fending for himself in his efforts to achieve utter and complete happiness.  But with luck, he discovers Moses and finds a way to live with an unscathed conscience.  How lucky is such a man!  We might even call him “blessed,” as long as we realize that this is not a divinely bestowed status.  He earned it by conforming to God’s instructions to Moses.

This does not remove the necessity of grace.  A man may stumble upon Moses or find the Torah by some other means but he will still have to deal with his past, his mistakes, and his yetzer ha’ra.  Grace covers what he is unable to resolve—and that is usually quite a bit.  Nevertheless, tāmîm is manufactured luck.  It doesn’t happen by some divine predestined decree, nor is it fully accomplished in confession at the altar.  It is work!  Decision.  Deliberate dedication.  Definitive demonstration.  No man finds the lucky life without pain and sacrifice, but in the end it is worth every drop of blood and every shed tear.  Blamelessness is a rare and treasured commodity, a pearl worth keeping.

“Lucky those complete in the way . . .”  More to come.

Topical Index: ʾašer, bārak, ʾāšar, makarios, tāmîm, derek, happy, lucky, blessed, complete, way, Psalm 119:1

^[1] Hamilton, V. P. (1999). 183 אָשַׁר. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., pp. 80–81). Chicago: Moody Press.