Halfway

Revive me according to Your faithfulness, so that I may keep the testimony of Your mouth.  Psalm 119:88  NASB

Revive – We’ve been at this for quite a while.  Perhaps “revive” is the right term for the halfway point.  Halfway through the longest psalm, we should pause and ask ourselves, “Why is the poet spending so much time on these themes?”  After all, some psalms are just a few lines.  Most are less than twenty verses.  So, why is this one so long?  Why so much to consider?  Perhaps the answer can be found if we reflect on the purpose of prayer, which is what the psalms really are, prayers sometimes set to music.  Here’s an important insight from the ArtScroll Siddur:

Prayer’s Function (from “An Overview” in The Complete ArtScroll Siddur)

Its Hebrew name is תְּפִלָּה, tefillah, a word that gives us an insight into the Torah’s concept of prayer.  The root of tefillah is פָּלַל, to judge, to differentiate, to clarify, to decide.  In life, we constantly sort out evidence from rumor, valid options from wild speculations, fact from fancy.  The exercise of such judgment is called פְּלִילָה.  Indeed, the word פְּלִילִים (from פָּלַל) is used for a court of law (Exodus 21:22), and what is the function of a court if not to sift evidence and make a decision?  A logical extension of פָּלַל is the related root פלה, meaning a clear separation between two things.  Thus prayer is the soul’s yearning to define what truly matters and to ignore the trivialities that often masquerade as essential (Siddur Avodas HaLev).

People always question the need for prayer—does not God know our requirements without being reminded?  Of course He does.  He knows them better than we do.  If prayer were intended only to inform God of our desires and deficiencies, it would be unnecessary.  Its true purpose is to raise the level of the supplicants by helping them develop true perceptions of life so that they can become worthy of His blessing.

This is the function of the evaluating decision-making process of תְּפִלָּה, prayer.  The Hebrew verb for praying is מִחְפַּלֵּל; it is a reflexive word, meaning that the subject acts upon himself.  Prayer is the process of self-evaluation, self-judgment; a process of removing oneself from the tumult of life to a little corner of truth and refastening the bonds that tie one to the purpose of prayer.

 Prayer, then, is not a list of requests.  It is an introspective process, a clarifying, refining process of discovering what one is, what he should be, and how to achieve transformation.  Indeed, the commandment to pray is expressed by the Torah as a service of the heart, not of the mouth (Taanis 2a).  To the extent that we improve ourselves with prayer, we become capable of absorbing God’s blessing, but the blessings depend on each person’s mission.

“Revive me,” asks the poet.  What does he mean?  Give me some refreshment?  Offer me some nourishing sleep, some stimulating food or drink?  Or does he mean something like this: Help me “define what truly matters and to ignore the trivialities”?  A life caught in the web of the trivial is exhausting.  There is constantly more to do—and less time to do it all.  The list of trivial but necessary never grows shorter.  Perhaps the real function of prayer is to pare down all that interferes with what matters—to judge between the pressing and the perfect.  So—stop for a moment (or more) and realize that all these verses, all eighty-eight so far, are about focusing on the eternal issues of life and avoiding the chatter.

“Revive” is the Hebrew verb ḥāyâ.  It’s much more than a pick-me-up.  It’s life itself!  Sustaining life.  Prosperous life.  Wholehearted life.  And what’s important here is that it is not the first word in this verse.  The Hebrew text reads:

כְּחַסְדְּךָ֥ חַיֵּ֑נִי וְ֜אֶשְׁמְרָ֗ה עֵד֥וּת פִּֽיךָ

The first word is a form of ḥesed.  The vehicle of “revive” is the relationship of ḥesed.  Without that, trivialities will subdue the greatest human effort.  So, we should revise the syntax.  “According to (כְּ) Your (ךָ֥) ḥesed (חַסְדְּ), revive me.”  It’s because of God’s חַסְדְּ that I will be revived.  Nothing else.

Topical Index: prayer, ḥesed, ḥāyâ, revive, life, trivial, Siddur, Psalm 119:88