Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar and Nevim Arith Hayomim:
Psalms 73:26: “My flesh and my heart fails, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever.”
I have no problem with someone using this Psalm to find comfort when their physical flesh is failing them and their heart is discouraged. After all God’s Word is eternal and God is our strength when our hearts or flesh fail us. That may not exactly be the context, but even I will pull this out of context and find comfort in it when I need it.
Yet, there is also a literally interpretation or what is called in Jewish literature as the Psahat. Literally, Asaph is trying to understand something that makes no sense to him. The word “flesh” here is the word “she’ar” in the Hebrew which means flesh, but flesh in the sense of a near kinsman, or one you trust as someone of your own flesh, a close advisor. It is also a word used for food as food, once ingested, becomes a part of your body and becomes one with you. So when Asaph says that “his flesh failed” he is likely saying that even those closest to him, his closest counsel who are one with him in thought and motive have failed to explain why the unrighteous should prosper and the righteous do not.
When even our closest friends or relatives can not advise us, we then look to our own hearts and let our hearts decided. But Asaph is saying that even his own heart will fail, he can not trust his own heart for a correct understanding or discernment. So who or what can he trust?
Asaph says that God is his “strength.” The word in Hebrew for “strength” here is “sur” which is the word for “rock.” It is spelled “Sade, Vav, Resh.” Esoterically it means that humility (Sade) is your connection (Vav) to the Holy Spirit (Resh). God is our rock who is our connection to the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit which leads us into all truth. How do we find that connection with the Holy Spirit.? The first letter, Sade, tells us. It is the first thing we must do which is why the word starts with a Sade. We must humble ourselves to Him. Humility means trusting only in God, not what our advisors say, not what our heart says but what the Holy Spirit says. We can follow good advise and follow our hearts only when we are certain it does not conflict with the revelation given to us by the Holy Spirit.
The last part of this verse is the reason I started to study this verse in the first place. My study partner commented to me how the words: “God is my portion” really blessed her. I too felt a quickening in my spirit and a spiritual “thrill” when I hear those words. It is the reason I love the song: “His Eye Is On The Sparrow.” The first verse of the song says:
Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows fall,
Why should my heart be lonely, and long for heaven and home,
When Jesus is my portion, my constant friend is He,
His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me.
I love that phrase, “When Jesus is my portion,” but when my study partner asked what it really means, I was at a total loss as to what it meant. Does it mean we get just a part of Him? Does it mean He is our inheritance? Do you ever have that experience when you hear something, you just thrill at hearing it, but you haven’t the foggiest idea what it means.
I started studying this word “kalak” which is rendered as “portion” and I was getting nowhere. It means territory, equal portions, and separation. I was pondering this when my pastor began to speak about discernment in our Bible Study. That is when I began to understand. This whole chapter of Psalms 73 is speaking of discernment. Asaph is saying that his flesh and heart can fail him in discernment, only the Holy Spirit can give true discernment. Thus Asaph says that God is his “portion” or “separation.” God separates the truth from that which is not true.
But say, there is more. Asaph may very well be answering his own question here by saying that “God is his portion.” He is using the same word used in Numbers and Deuteronomy with regard to the portioning out of land among the tribes. Only eleven tribes received a portion of land to farm and feed their families. One tribe, the tribe of Levi, received no earthly, material portion. They were not to spend their days cultivating land but cultivating their knowledge of God and to lead the members of the other eleven tribes to an understanding of God. In return the members of the eleven other tribes tithed a tenth of what they grew to the Levites so they could feed themselves and their families and be free to spend their time in the service of God.
Thus, Asaph, who was himself a Levi, was making a reference to this division of land when he said “his portion” was God. In other words, the wicked and unrighteous may prosper materially, but he seeks no such portion of material blessings from God, he only seeks God. If God is his portion then it does not matter if the wicked prosper materially, Asaph is prospering spiritually and he will leave his material needs in God’s hand as his ancestors had done.
So once again I say: “Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come, why should my heart be lonely and long for heaven and home, when Jesus is my portion, my constant friend is He, His eye is on the sparrow and if he meets a sparrows need, He will meet mine.
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