The Water of Life

Let my lips pour out praise, for You teach me Your statutes.  Psalm 119:171  NASB

Pour out/ teach – What’s significant about the two verbs, nābaʿ and lāmad?  They’re not unusual.  They don’t have some odd grammatical structure.  But they do have something we need to notice, which, by the way, we don’t see in the English translation.  Both verbs are imperfect, that is, they are unfinished, continuing actions.  We would be better served if the translations read, “Let my lips continuously gush praise, for You are always teaching me Your statutes.”  You’ll recall that the poet’s final acrostic section is a series of supplicant praises.  He wants God to hear him; to accept what he is saying.  But this means he is in conversation with the Holy One.  This is not sitting at the desk (as I am doing right now) studying the the text, going over the grammar, checking the vocabulary, noting the diacritical traditional readings.  No, sir!  The psalmist is interacting with God, almost as if he is face-to-face (remember l^e pānêkā ?).  His view of the water of life is the personal instruction he gets from the spring in God’s garden.  Oh, by the way, nābaʿ (pour out) is about an artesian well, one of those springs that simply gushes out water that can’t be controlled or stopped.

Our root connotes an uncontrollable or uncontrolled gushing forth as, e.g. the swollen waters of a wadi (Prov 18:4: cf. nāhal), the rush of words from a fool’s mouth (Prov 15:2; antonym, hāgâ, Prov 15:28). . . . In Ps 19:2 [H 3] nābaʿ images the “uninterupted [sic] line of transmission” and “inexhaustible spring,” the “day” issuing in declaring God’s glory (KD).^[1]

Does this cause you to recall a statement from Yeshua?  “On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, ‘Anyone who is thirsty may come to me!  Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, “Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.”’”[2]  Perhaps we should read Yeshua’s statements in light of the psalmist.  “Living water” might be thoroughly Hebraic.

And what of lāmad?  “As one of the twelve words for teaching in the ot, lāmad has the idea of training as well as educating. . . The principle use of this verb is illustrated in Ps 119. Here is repeated the refrain, “Teach me thy statutes” or “thy judgments” (vv. 12, 26, 64, 66, 68, 108, 124, 135, 171).^[3]  Kaiser’s discussion of the difference between Greek and Hebrew is crucial:

While Greek uses two different words for “to learn” (manthanō) and “to teach” (didaskō), each having its own content, goal, and methods, Hebrew uses the same root for both words because all learning and teaching is ultimately to be found in the fear of the Lord (Deut 4:10; 14:23; 17:19; 31:12, 13). To learn this is to come to terms with the will and law of God.^[4]

Basically, teaching in Hebrew requires doing.  If education doesn’t result in transformation, nothing has been learned. Now we can appreciate the continual praise from the poet.  His life is constantly being affected by God’s training and instruction.  No wonder he can’t stop thanking the Lord.

And that, of course, is the challenge for us.  Are we in communication with God, or do we just study the history and the written text?  Are we experiencing daily, perhaps moment by moment, training, not just factual education?  Are we hungering for the next word?  Or does our religion sit on the shelf in sanctified commentaries and lexicons?  Reconsider the poet’s passion.  Feel his thirst.

Topical Index: nābaʿ, gush, lāmad, learn, teach, Psalm 119:171

KD K. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament

^[1] Coppes, L. J. (1999). 1287 נָבַע. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 548). Moody Press.

[2] John 7:37-38 NIV

^[3] Kaiser, W. C. (1999). 1116 לָמַד. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(electronic ed., p. 480). Moody Press.

^[4] Kaiser, W. C. (1999). 1116 לָמַד. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(electronic ed., p. 480). Moody Press.