You’ll Feel Better in the Morning

I have remembered Your judgments from ^[t]of old, Lord, and comfort myself.  Psalm 119:52  NASB

Comfort myself – Wait a minute!  Didn’t we just look at this idea (v. 50)?  Remember the discussion about “comfort” versus “consolation”?

And what is “consolation” in these situations?  The poet chooses the term, neḥāmâ, found in this form only once more in Job 6:10.  Do you suppose he wants us to connect the two?  Job 6:10 reads: “But it is still my comfort, and I rejoice in unsparing pain, that I have not denied the words of the Holy One” (NASB).  But since we know that neḥāmâ is better translated as consolation, we need to read Job in the same way.  “But it is still my consolation . . .” What was the consolation?  The very fact that I am still alive tells me God cares about me!  The lord of life and death has granted me continuance.  That is true consolation.

Ah, but now we have the same root (nāḥam) in a different form—and it makes a difference.  The previous verse used the noun form.  Now we have a verb, a hitpa’el.  What does that mean?  Well, the hitpa’el is a causative verb, that is, it is a verb that describes making something happen, but here in the reflexive mode.  So, I make something happen to myself. Thus, “I comfort myself.”  Except that this verb is also a vav-conversive imperfect.  That adds another wrinkle.  The “imperfect” element is easy.  This action hasn’t stopped.  It started some time in the past but it’s continuing as the poet speaks.  Unfinished.  Now let’s look at the vav form: וָֽאֶתְנֶחָֽם

We need to break it apart to see what’s happening:

וָֽ   אֶתְ   נֶחָֽם

The root verb is נֶחָֽם, “to be sorry, to repent, to regret, to be comforted.”  It’s interesting that this verb is also the verb used in that difficult passage in Genesis 6:6-7 where God repents (regrets) that He made Man.  At any rate, here we have a future form, but . . .

The added תְ and אֶ make it causative and reflexive, that is, something that I cause to happen to myself.  And finally, the וָֽ flips the verb from future to past.  So we have “I caused myself comfort.”  This is not captured in the NASB nor in Sefaria’s translation or other English versions.[1]  But it’s important.  Now we can see the contrast in this verse.  The first verb (zākar) is a completed action, but this verb is an incomplete action.  It’s as if the poet is saying, “I remembered Your ‘judgments’ [really mišpāṭim – Your acts of governing, notice that it is also a past action] and remembering those acts allowed me to give myself comfort.”  The fact that God governs the creation lets me soothe my distress.

Despite the technical difficulties with the translation, there’s an important and straightforward lesson here.  How many times has the state of the world caused us to despair?  How often have we stumbled over the presence of evil, the rebellion of men, the absence of forgiveness and compassion in human affairs?  Don’t you feel it—the edge of collapse everywhere you look?  And now the poet answers, “It’s okay.  God is in charge.” “Take courage.  It’s not out of His control.”

Remember the story of God’s intervention.  Let it sink deeply into your soul.  Yes, things look dark.  Yes, the rebellion seems to accelerate.  But remember—and breathe.

Rabbi Zev of Parma added this:

The only real way to comfort oneself, is through faith and trust in G_d. Similar to what King Solomon says in Proverbs.1.33  וְשֹׁמֵ֣עַֽ לִ֭י יִשְׁכׇּן־בֶּ֑טַח וְ֝שַׁאֲנַ֗ן מִפַּ֥חַד רָעָֽה
“But he who listens to me will dwell in safety, Untroubled by the terror of misfortune.”

Topical Index: remember, zākar, judgments, mišpāṭ, nāḥam, comfort, Psalm 119:52

[1] “I remembered Your judgments of old, O Lord, and I was consoled.”  Chabad has the first part I the past, but doesn’t recognize the reflexive aspect of the second part.  About half of the English translations render the first verb (zākar) in the present tense (which seems like a grammatical impossibility), while fifteen of the thirty-two English translations I reviewed don’t acknowledge the reflexive aspect of the second verb (nāḥam). Statistics like this make me wonder if there really is any grammatical order to Hebrew translations.