Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar;
“Psalms 68:6a: “God setteth the solitary in families.”
The KJV makes this passage rather ambiguous, which is a good thing as the use of the particular Hebrew words indicate a remez that there is a much broader understanding Other translations tend to create a solitary (pun is completely intentional) interpretation of this passage and thus you are limited in the vast range of intent of meaning in this verse. For instance the NASV translate this as “God made a home for the lonely,” That is an excellent translation, however, the temptation is to read that and say: “Hey Chancey, I’ve got the goods on that verse, let’s move on.” But all you did was eat the skin of an orange, which isn’t too bad, although a bit sour, and leave the real fruit behind.
So let’s move on beyond the pashat, follow the remez and get into the dresh, I will let you take up the sod.
Someone who actually reads these devotionals commented on the similarity between the word for “solitary” (yachad) and the word found in the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4) “Hear O’ Israel, the Lord our God is One.” The word one there is “echad.” I never saw this before, (which explains why you must not study the Word of God alone – alone as in badad, isolated). I do agree with the student, David is making a play on words. I base that on David’s style of writing and this perfectly fits David’s style.
Let’s first look at “echad” The single most important truth of Judaism is the belief in monotheism. Polytheism is rejected – God is not many. The trinity is rejected and dualism is rejected. Hence when Constantine made Christianity the state religion, the Jewish Christians were totally shut out and eventually Jewish Christians became as rare as the dodo bird until recently. The reason for the rejection of Jews and any hint of Judaic teaching moving into this state religion of Christianity (look don’t threw rocks at me, this is just established history, I learned it at Moody Bible Institute) is that Constantine hated the Jews to begin with, they were considered to have a rebellious non compromising nature. They were willing to die before they compromised their beliefs with 3,000 years of tradition. Gentile Christians, however, only had 300 years of tradition and they were willing to compromise a bit to get themselves free of persecution. Hence to create a solidarity in this new state religion certain elements of pagan religions were brought into Christianity so everybody would be happy. A masterful work of politics, but the Jews didn’t buy it, because they saw pagan God’s being associated with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That was over 1700 years ago and the truth of Jesus Christ still remains pure, even if we tend to muddy it up at times. However, my point is that this word “echad” kept the Jews out of the Christian church for 1700 years.
Echad means one, but it is a collective one. I personally see this as giving creditability to the trinity. Of course rabbis would not only throw salt at me for saying that, they would rub it in my eyes. They view this collective nature as showing all his divine attributes embodied in one God. For instance the numerical value of echad is 13 which would refer to the 13 midot or qualities revealed to Moses. The sages teach that the three letters of the word echad (aleph, che, dalet) span across time and ages to convey not only God’s essence but also the extent of His rulership, with the spiritual (aleph -1) example of the Jewish people (chet -8) being recognized to the four corners of the earth (daleth -4)
Both words “yachad” and “ecahad” do mean one. Both are a collective one, yet each have a little shade of difference. Yachad is used to express unity, and solidarity. But not a solidarity in cause, or philosophy but a solidarity in love. The numerical value of yachad (and my study partner will love or hate this) is 22. 22 represents the light of God or the light bears of God. That represents us who have been redeemed by Jesus Christ. We are now the light bearers. Lucifer was once the light bearer. His job was to lead all the created beings in praise and worship of God. He blew it and that mantel was passed onto man. Lucifer wasted no time in corrupting man in the garden (maybe he was jealous) but Jesus restored that role to us through his death and resurrection.
Hence yachad expresses a unity of among believers who come to worship and praise. So God sets us, the redeemed and the light bearers, in families, that word family is biyethah in the Hebrew. The root word is bayith which means house and/or families. The use of the feminine form suggest it is a family within the same building.
So another angle to this verse is that God brings the redeemed together united in love for Him (not out a similar philosophy or doctrine), under one roof to worship and praise Him. (And you thought I was taking a pot shot at the church earlier in this devotional)
Yet, the old sloufoot will still not give up trying to corrupt the yachad so he can end true worship to God. He get’s his foot in the door and creates create disunity thereby destroying the yachad in the body of believers.
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