Final Instructions
I have not turned aside from Your judgments, for You Yourself have taught me. Psalm 119:102 NASB
You Yourself – Emphasis added. The actual Hebrew text just uses ʾattâ, the second person singular pronoun, “you.” “It is appended to verbs for emphasis. Its use in oblique cases (genitive and accusative) is to afford stress to a preceding suffix.”[1] But not here. In this verse it stands by itself, connected only to the preposition kî (“for”). The Chabad translation acknowledges this: “From Your judgments I did not turn away, for You guided me.” So why the added “Yourself”? It makes for powerful reading, like a sort of spiritual exclamation point, and it makes us think that somehow the psalmist has some direct, personal pupil connection with the Almighty, but the text doesn’t actually say that. It simply says that God taught him—directly or indirectly. Instead of pining for that “special” status we might attribute to someone who was taught directly by God, like, say, Moses, we should be asking a different question, a question for everyone except Moses. “How does God teach me His judgments?”
Well, first we need to know what “judgments” means. We find a familiar word, mišpāṭ, the entire order of governance of the creation. Perhaps a reminder:
The meaning of šāpaṭ is further complicated by the fact that although the ancients knew full well what law—whether civil, religious, domestic or otherwise—was, they did not think of themselves as ruled by laws rather than by men as modern people like to suppose themselves to be. The centering of law, rulership, government in a man was deeply ingrained. “The administration of justice in all early eastern nations, as among the Arabs of the desert to this day, rests with the patriarchal seniors … Such … would have the requisite leisure, would be able to make their decisions respected, and through the wider intercourse of superior station would decide with fuller experience and riper reflection.”[2]
In other words, when the poet says that God taught him, he could easily be saying that God’s direction of the entire society had an educational effect. Since mišpāṭ encompasses all governance of the created order, we should expect a poet who also wrote “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, . .” to find God’s instruction in every part of life. Thus, the Chabad translation renders the term “guided me.” In fact, that’s what we experience. Yes, we have written texts, now more than this poet ever dreamed of having, but the order and constancy of the world, and of a righteous society, is also God’s teaching method. If we discover the awe that Heschel reminds us is so important, haven’t we heard God’s “voice”? And yes, perhaps we hear the audible sound of the spirit, occasionally, but the government of God speaks to us constantly if we’re listening.
Topical Index: taught, mišpāṭ, ʾattâ, Yourself, government, guide, Psalm 119:102
[1] Feinberg, C. L. (1999). 189 אַתָּה. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(electronic ed., p. 84). Moody Press.
[2] Culver, R. D. (1999). 2443 שָׁפַט. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(electronic ed., p. 947). Moody Press.
