Watchfulness

אַשְׁרֵי נֹֽצְרֵ֥י עֵ֜דֹתָ֗יו בְּכָל־לֵ֥ב יִדְרְשֽׁוּהוּ   Psalm 119:2

נֹֽצְרֵ֥י – Blessed are those who comply with His ^[b]testimonies, And seek Him with all their heart (NASB).  This verse poses a serious question.  It comes without a rhetorical answer.  Here’s the question (but don’t answer too quickly): Do you want to be happy?  Pause!  Ask yourself again: Do you really want to be happy?  Wait!  Before you jump to “Yes, of course!” let’s investigate.

The NASB translates nāṣar as “comply,” but I’m not happy with the overtones.  That translation makes it sound as if the action is forced.  “You must comply” feels very different than “You should guard.”  Alter’s translation is much better: “Happy who keep His precepts.”  The TWOT speaks of “guarding with fidelity.”  The point is that this is a voluntary act of dedication.  God doesn’t force His commandments on anyone.  He has expectations, perhaps hope, but He doesn’t make us conform.  He doesn’t want the affection of robots.  That means that ʾašer, “happiness,” is entirely up to you.  You decide if you want the kind of happy life the Bible offers.  You decide to guard, watch over, protect yourself because ultimately applying nāṣar to God’s instructions affects your happiness.  The biblical text constantly reiterates this idea.  What you decide to do about His instructions is ultimately self-fulling.  Happiness is achievable—if you guard His ways.  And what are those?

The Hebrew word is ʿēdût, “testimony,” here in a plural construct ʿēd^ewōtê. The root is instructive.  It’s ʿûd, “to return, to repeat.”  “Most frequently this word has a temporal sense. It is used to indicate the continuance of a past or present event.”^[1]  In other words, something that is done over and over.  “Constancy can be expressed by this term. The psalmist affirms that he will sing to the Lord as long as he lives (Ps 84:4 [H 5]; 104:33; 146:2). Jacob declared that God was with him all his life (Gen 48:15). When limited by its nature to a single occurrence, this word assumes the meaning “again” (Gen 18:29; 29:33).”^[2]  One of the derivatives is ʿēd (“witness”), that is, someone who has firsthand knowledge of an event and is able to recall, repeat what happened or what he heard.  This idea is found in the instructions in Deuteronomy: “These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.  Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:6-9 NIV).  Repetition!  In an oral tradition, repetition is essential and repetition instills the cultural values into the consciousness of the participant. Picture the current repetition of prayers in Islam.  Even if the one praying does not understand Arabic, the prayers must be in Arabic and just saying them over and over shifts the framework of the participant.  That’s notzrei —watchfulness.  Say it again.

So, do you want to be happy?  Are you repeating His instructions over and over, every day, many times a day?  Are you filling your thoughts with His words?  Are you a living witness to His handiwork.  Ashrei notzrei edotav bechol-lev yidreshoohoo.

Oh, and there’s just one more clarification: “with all your heart,” that phrase at the end: bechol-lev yidreshoohoo. Tomorrow.

Topical Index: notzrei, watchfulness, nāṣar, guard, ʿēd, witness, edotav, precepts, Psalm 119:2

^[1] Schultz, C. (1999). 1576 עוּד. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 648). Chicago: Moody Press.

^[2] Ibid.