Conflict Resolution

Oh that my ways may be established to keep Your statutes!  Psalm 119:5  NASB 1995

Oh that – Pay attention to the first word in this aleph sequence: ʾaḥlâ אַחלָה  It’s an emotional outburst.  “Ah that!” is the TWOT rendering.  Alter renders the verse: “Would that my ways be firm to observe Your statutes!”  But notice the Chabad translation; the emotional expression is entirely absent: “My prayers are that my ways should be established, to keep Your statutes”  Chabad.  Now the poet’s words become a straightforward declaration of fact, not a cry of desperation.  Why make the change?

What’s implied in ʾaḥlâ?  Isn’t this the cry of someone who knows what is demanded but finds it sometimes too much to do?  Doesn’t this cry mean that desire doesn’t always match performance?  “I want so desperately to serve You in everything, but I fail so often.  If only all my ways could be fixed on You!”  This is human reality, but it’s not theological alignment.  The theology tells us that we can and should always do what God wants.  The theology excoriates those who “are but dust” as spiritually weak and unfit.  The theology holds up a divine standard despite all the evidence that mortal men fall constantly.  Even biblical heroes.  The theology looks only at those pure and undefiled righteous few, and pretends that they are the real representatives of God’s program.  They’re just not like us.

But the poet says something else.  He says that we seek God and still fall down.  He says that we are constantly betrayed by our yetzer ha’ra, that essential human force that empowers living and at the same time offers self-aggrandizement.  He recognizes the tension of being alive.  Yes, perhaps, maybe, there might be some who achieve the lofty status of spiritual purity, but for most of us, that is a bridge too far, a deep desire unmet.  We wait for redemption rather than rest on our merits.

By the way, it’s not just the elevation of Jewish Sages that propounds such a theology.  Why do you think the Christian Church has the category “Saint”?  More importantly, how does the Christian Church portray “Jesus.”  As human?  With struggles?  In tension?  Caustic? Bellicose? Worried?  No, none of these belong to a man who is described by non posse peccare (“not able to sin”).  This sort of man is just as “other worldly” as the revered Sages and Saints.  Not one of us.  But the biblical text tells a different story.  Abraham, Joshua, David, Solomon, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah—they are all too human.  Just like us.  Perhaps the real lesson in this often overlooked expression is this: if the Messiah isn’t like us, then he can’t really know us.  And if he is like us, then he isn’t that divine figure who descented from Heaven.  Oh, you could say that he’s both, but that involves some real equivocation about what it means to be human.  I’d rather stick with ʾaḥlâ.

Topical Index: ʾaḥlâ, ah that, if only, yetzer ha’ra, human, Psalm 119:5