Mem

How I love Your Law!  Psalm 119:97a  NASB

⁹⁷ How I love Your Law!
It is my meditation all the day.
⁹⁸ Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies,
For they are ever mine.
⁹⁹ I have more insight than all my teachers,
For Your testimonies are my meditation.
¹⁰⁰ I understand more than those who are old,
Because I have complied with Your precepts.
¹⁰¹ I have restrained my feet from every evil way,
So that I may keep Your word.
¹⁰² I have not turned aside from Your judgments,
For You Yourself have taught me.
¹⁰³ How sweet are Your words to my taste!
Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
¹⁰⁴ From Your precepts I get understanding;
Therefore I hate every false way.

מָֽה־אָהַ֥בְתִּי תֽוֹרָתֶ֑ךָ כָּל־הַ֜יּ֗וֹם הִ֣יא שִֽׂיחָתִֽי

How I love Your Law!
It is my meditation all the day.

מֵאֹֽיְבַי תְּחַכְּמֵ֣נִי מִצְו‍ֹתֶ֑ךָ כִּ֖י לְעוֹלָ֣ם הִיא־לִֽי

Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies,
For they are ever mine.

מִכָּל־מְלַמְּדַ֥י הִשְׂכַּ֑לְתִּי כִּ֥י עֵֽ֜דְו‍ֹתֶ֗יךָ שִׂ֣יחָה לִֽי

I have more insight than all my teachers,
For Your testimonies are my meditation.

מִזְּקֵנִ֥ים אֶתְבּוֹנָ֑ן כִּ֖י פִקּוּדֶ֣יךָ נָצָֽרְתִּי

I understand more than those who are old,
Because I have complied with Your precepts

מִכָּל־אֹ֣רַח רָ֖ע כָּלִ֣אתִי רַגְלָ֑י לְ֜מַ֗עַן אֶשְׁמֹ֥ר דְּבָרֶֽךָ

I have restrained my feet from every evil way,
So that I may keep Your word.

מִמִּשְׁפָּטֶ֥יךָ לֹֽא־סָ֑רְתִּי כִּ֥י אַ֜תָּ֗ה הֽוֹרֵתָֽנִי

I have not turned aside from Your judgments,
For You Yourself have taught me.

מַה־נִּמְלְצ֣וּ לְ֖חִכִּי אִמְרָתֶ֑ךָ מִדְּבַ֥שׁ לְפִֽי

How sweet are Your words to my taste!
Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

מִפִּקּוּדֶ֥יךָ אֶתְבּוֹנָ֑ן עַל־כֵּ֗ן שָׂנֵ֚אתִי | כָּל־אֹ֬רַח שָֽׁקֶר

From Your precepts I get understanding;

Therefore I hate every false way.

Love – The 119^th psalm is not a collection of disjointed meditations.  Even though it is broken into acrostic sections, certain themes are on display throughout the poem.  Furthermore, the poet has skillfully bridged one section with another. That is no more apparent than in the movement from the lamedh section to the mem.  At the end of the lamedh section, the poet emphasizes the continuance and scope of God’s commandments.  While all other things have a completion, God’s word does not.  It extends from the beginning to the end—but that “end” is an end like the finishing point of everything else simply because God’s word is a manifestation of God Himself and He has no end.  As Heschel remarked, “No word of God is God’s last word.”

With this lamedh summary in mind, the opening line of mem makes the bridge to the poet’s personal experience.  The bridge is both psychological and grammatical.  Unfortunately, the NASB translation misses the second point.  You see, the opening verb of the mem section is a Hebrew “perfect,” that is, a completed action.  It should be rendered (as Alter does), “How I loved Your teaching,” not as the NASB in the present tense.  The poet has just taught us about the incomplete, continuing scope of God’s Law—and without missing a beat he goes on to say that his love for God’s Law is complete.  It is not subject to future change.  It is fixed in his mind—finished, permanent, settled for him.  You will notice that Alter follows suit in the rest of the verse: “All day long it was my theme,” rather than the NASB present tense, “It is my meditation all the day.”  The translators missed the grammatical connection.

Now we need to investigate just two more things.  First, the verb ʾāhēb (love), today and second, the noun (meditation), tomorrow.

Hebrew, like Greek, has several verbs for love.  This particular Hebrew verb finds its home not in man’s expression of devotion to divinity but in common human relationships.  So, for example, the verb expresses the relationship between a father and a son, between a man and his neighbor (Leviticus 19:18), and between a slave and his master.  However, and this is important, “Notice that nowhere is the love of children toward parents mentioned. Rather, they are to honor, revere, and obey.”^[1]  Are we to assume, then, that loving is some sort of inner passionate feeling (as our popular mythology suggests)?  That would be quite difficult when love is commanded, as it is in the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:5).  If love is a feeling, it can’t be a demand.  How could I demand that you have certain feelings toward me?  What must we conclude about the Hebrew āhēb?  It isn’t how I feel; it’s what I commit myself to.  Love is an expression of willful devotiondisplayed in committed behavior.  It’s what I do, not how I feel.

I watched a movie about spousal abuse.  After the husband hit his wife and intentionally broke her arm, he declared, “You know, I still love you.”  No, he didn’t understand the word at all.  He had no idea that ʾāhēb is directly connected to shalom, the purposeful and intentional development of well-being of the other.  Deuteronomy śîḥâ 6:5 can command love because loving God is deliberately doing what honors and pleases Him, no matter how I feel.  The poet loves God’s torahbecause God’s torah is the divine, purposeful instruction God provides for our well-being.  It’s doing what honors Him and makes me whole at the same time.

Topical Index: ʾāhēb, love, devotion, shalom, commitment, Psalm 119:97a

^[1] Alden, R. (1999). 29 אָהֵב. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 14). Moody Press.