Max Headroom
I have seen a limit to all perfection; Your commandment is exceedingly broad. Psalm 119:96 NASB
Perfection – What is the limit of all perfection? When you think about it, the phrase is a bit strange. If something is perfect it doesn’t have a limit. If it did, would it still be perfect? If I set a border for perfection, what is beyond that border? Better perfection? No perfection? The whole idea is nonsensical. And how could anyone—any human—“see,” even in the imagination, such a limit? If I were to see this, wouldn’t that imply that my perspective is greater than perfection? How could that be? Theologians recognize these contradictions when they employ the via negativa to describe God. According to Aquinas, God is perfect. That is to say, He is a being to which nothing can be added or taken away. At the same time, He is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent—all terms that defy the idea of limit. But this is Greek thinking, not Hebrew. How are we supposed to understand “the limit to all perfection” in Hebrew thought?
I’m sure you appreciate the difficulty, although I imagine you never actually considered how contradictory the statement really is. You just assumed that the poet was speaking metaphorically about the lack of perfection in this world. And, of course, you assumed that things will be “perfect” in the next world (although I’m not so sure we even understand that). The problem is caused by the translation (and a bit of Greek philosophy). You see, the Hebrew is miklâ and it doesn’t mean “perfection.” In fact, the idea of perfection really doesn’t appear in the Bible (although translations certainly incorporate it). Instead, miklâ means “to bring a process to completion.” That’s a long way from our usual Greek-based idea of perfect. To complete something doesn’t require perfection at all, although we could think of the end result as the “perfect” finish of the process. For example, if I cut a natural diamond into a “princess” shape, I could say that the finished product is perfect. I don’t mean it has no flaws. I mean that the end result is the stone cut into a certain shape. Or I could say that his test score was perfect, and mean only that all the answers were correct. If I translate this verse as “I have seen the limit to all completed things,” I have a correct Hebrew translation without involving myself in a struggle with the idea of perfection.
With this clarification in mind, the rest of the verse takes on a different sense. Why does the psalmist draw opposition between miklâ and meod reḥābā (exceedingly broad)? Because while all finished things come to completion, the miṣwâtis never finished—complete. It continues as long as heaven and earth continue, and it is applicable in every circumstance of history. Of the end there are no days.
Why does the psalmist make such a comparison? At the completion of the lamedh section, he summarizes what we have learned. We learn that God’s word—His commandments, His oversight, His involvement—never ceases. It not only covers all creation, it also covers every moment from the distant past to the distant future. Forgetting this jeopardizes our very existence. And so we declare, “I love Your Law,” the first statement of the next section.
Topical Index: meod reḥābā, miklâ, perfection, completion, Psalm 119:96
“To every goal I have seen an end, but Your commandment is exceedingly broad.” Artscroll, Stone Edition.
Amen! And it continues with “. . . for it is ever with me.” (vrs 98)
Yes! Indeed, this limit to all created things is the perfect means by which the Holy Scriptures perform their intramundane mediation by the Spirit (that is, they are given an openness or freedom in reference beyond themselves through the creative power of God’s self-revelation through them) yet so as to not usurp and betray the Truth beyond themselves through God’s own perfect creative power of his self-revelation through them.
This is the case with all created means of mediation of Truth through the Spirit. By this understanding, when Christ performs miracles, he both demonstrates and mediates not merely perfect means of intramundane mediation, but he manifests the very Truth of the creative power of God himself that is beyond means that lie within the present state and conditions of the creation… manifesting means that are indeed intrinsically perfect… God’s own perfection!
Incidentally, this givenness is (in contrast, opposite intrinsic) precisely the distinction between manifest demonic power (fallen, nonetheless supernatural) and the Truth of God’s own divine intrinsic creative power. Demonic power is entirely self-reflected in deception as a lie; whereas God’s power reflects beyond that created to the ultimate Truth of God as Sovereign and Lord over all creation and Father of his own people (Truth that is nonetheless mediated through the means/forms— of that He created… I.e., all things by the ruach of his utterance/Word).
Of course, we must understand, too, the Truth of the man, Christ Jesus, who, as the uniquely begotten Son of God, “was in the beginning with God, and was God”… the Word of God manifest in form as flesh, yet in being “very God of very God.”