Employee Evaluation

Consider how I love Your precepts; revive me, Lord, according to Your faithfulness.  Psalm 119:159  NASB

Consider – What does the Hebrew rāʾâ imply?  Does it mean “to bring to mind (consider)”?  Or does it mean something more?  Perhaps you recognize the root, “to see.”  It also means “to look at” and “to inspect.”  The translation “consider” might point us in the wrong direction because  it pushes a cognitive dimension.  “Consider” is to carefully think about something, but the Hebrew idea isn’t about mental activity.  It’s about observation.  “Taste and see that the Lord is good”[1] is not an exhortation to contemplation.  It’s an encouragement to experience.  You don’t have to have the right mental attitude to taste.  When David writes, “Taste and see” he uses the same verb that we have here, rāʾâ.  We should translate this as “Observe how much I love Your piqqûdîm,” that is, inspect what I do.

Now we understand why the psalmist focuses on piqqûdîm.  He wants God to inspect his reaction to divine oversight.  In other words, he wants an employee evaluation.  God is the boss.  “So, tell me, Boss.  How am I doing?  See how much I love being under Your supervision.”

Notice the results of this oversight.  Life!  If God is directing your actions, you live.  If not, you exist (for the time being).  Want life?  Follow His orders.  Oh, well, not exactly.  You will notice that the psalmist doesn’t make the mistake of suggesting that following God’s orders ensures you will live.  The reason you will live is not because you’ve been such a good employee.  It’s because God’s character is rav ḥesed, full of loving-kindness (and more).  Perhaps we need to be reminded once again about the scope of ḥesed since it is the entire basis of our relationship with Him.

For centuries the word ḥesed was translated with words like mercy, kindness, love. The LXX usually uses eleos“mercy,” and the Latin misericordia. . . Israel was bound to its deity by covenants like the Hittite and other treaties. He [Nelson Glueck] held that God is pictured as dealing basically in this way with Israel. The Ten Commandments, etc. were stipulations of the covenant, Israel’s victories were rewards of covenant keeping, her apostasy was covenant violation and God’s hesed was not basically mercy, but loyalty to his covenant obligations, a loyalty which the Israelites should also show.^[2]

There are some scholars who argue for a different view of “obligation.”

Glueck argues that ḥesed is practiced in an ethically binding relationship of relatives, hosts, allies, friends and rulers. It is fidelity to covenantal obligations real or implied. Sakenfeld goes over the same material and concludes that indeed a relationship is present (love almost necessitates a subject-object relation) but that the ḥesed is freely given. “Freedom of decision” is essential. The help is vital, someone is in a position to help, the helper does so in his own freedom and this “is the central feature in all the texts” (p. 45).^[3]

For a fuller discussion of these differences and the scholarly development about this word, see Harris’ article in TWOT.  What we can conclude for our investigation into this verse is that the psalmist does not claim his right to life on the basis of his love for God’s oversight.  Instead, he appeals to God’s ḥesed, to the covenant agreement that God initiated regarding Israel.  In the previous verse, the poet has expressed the utter reliability of God’s promises.  Now he says to his Boss, “Please, act on those promises.  Grant me life.”

We are in exactly the same position.  We embrace His oversight, not so that we can claim a reward but because it is the ultimate good, worthy of our admiration and acceptance.  And on that basis, we can say, “Please, act on Your promises. Grant me life.”

Topical Index: ḥesed, piqqûdîm, oversight, supervision, life, Psalm 119:159

[1] Psalm 34:8

^[2] Harris, R. L. (1999). 698 חסד. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 305). Moody Press.

^[3] Ibid.