Before We See

If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,  Psalm 139:9 NASB

Wings of the dawn– Twilight is a time of strange visions.  It’s that time just before the sun breaks the horizon or just after the sun hides behind the edge of the world.  When Hebrew uses the term šaḥar, veiled creatures lurk in the shadows.  šaḥar pulls us back to that night on the wrong side of the Jabbok when the wrestler cries out, “Let me go for šaḥar is coming!” šaḥar is also present in Isaiah’s vision of Lucifer (Isaiah 14:12). šaḥar seems to be connected to those ghostly figures we can’t quite make out in the occluded moments before light rises. Consider the remarks of Victor Hamilton:

(šaḥar). Dawn. A masculine noun generally denoting the breaking of the day, that time just prior to sunrise. Some have taken a clue from the Ras Shamra texts in which šḥr refers both to the common noun “dawn” and to the name of a deity, Dawn. Šaḥar, along with šalim, is born to a woman who has been impregnated by the god El (UT 16: Text no. 52*). The suggestion is then that there are (veiled) references to this Canaanite deity in the ot, albeit in a demythologized fashion.

It is of interest to observe the verbs with which šaḥar is used. Most frequent is the verb ʿālâ“to ascend, rise.” Cf. Gen 19:15, “When the morning arose/when the dawn broke” (also Gen 32:24, 26 [H 25, 27]; Josh 6:15; Jud 19:25; I Sam 9:26; Jon 4:7; Neh 4:21 [H 15]). Another is ʿûr “to awaken” (Ps 57:8 [H 9]; 108:2 [H 3]). Should these two verses, which are the same in parallel Pss, be translated “I shall awake in the morning” or “I shall awaken the dawn” or “I shall awaken Shahar”? Cf. Job 38:12, dawn (šaḥar) is given a daily assignment by God, though it would appear obvious that this is a case of poetic license. We may assume the same license in operation when the Psalmist (139:9) muses about riding on the wings of the dawn, or in those references to the dawn’s eyelids: Job 3:9; 41:18 [H 10], Steadman).^[1]

Do you suppose the Psalmist is gathering all the implications of šaḥar in his poem?  Is he asking the reader to consider the mystical half-light moments, those instants when other deities seem to walk in the shadows?  Or perhaps he’s asking us to recall the twilight that covered Ruth’s retreat from the threshing floor.  šaḥar is the realm of unidentifiable objects, a shadow world where nothing is quite what it seems.

Why does the poet choose imagery that pulls us out of the light?  Perhaps he notes that even here, in the place where strange things happen, where we cover up our deeds, where other spiritual beings roam, even here there is no escape from YHVH’s eye.  Before we see clearly what the world is really like, God is in the shadowy land of apparitions. He resides just over the horizon, out of the light, between night and day.

Is that comforting?  Or frightening?  Only the reader can decide.

Topical Index:  wings of the dawn, šaḥar, Psalm 139:9

*UT C.H. Gordon, Ugaritic Textbook, 1965 (Grammar cited by chapter and section; texts cited by chap (16) and no. of line. Glossary cited by chap (19) and no. of word)

^[1]Hamilton, V. P. (1999). 2369 שָׁחַר. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke, Ed.) (electronic ed.) (917). Chicago: Moody Press.