Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar;
Psalms 138:7: “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.”
I was a little surprised when I read this verse in the Hebrew. I fully expected to find the word halakah for walk but instead I found the world yalak. Both words might have similar origins, but they do have a different root. Thus, they can both mean walk, but each has their own type of walk. Halakah is a righteous walk. That is why I expected to see halakah here as I assumed that if I walk a righteous walk in the midst of trouble (sarar – pain, distress, grief, bound up) God will revive me. In other words you can expect help from God only if you are walking a righteous walk and you suffer for his name sake.
However the word used here is “yalak.” This is the word used for child, or youth. In it’s original state it has the idea of giving birth, bringing forth. Thus due to my own stupidity or I happen upon (which is really what that word “midst – karah- means) trouble which I brought forth by my own disobedience or selfishness, God is there to revive me. The word revive comes the root word “Ki.” You know “LeKiyim – to life.” He will restore life to me.
You ever, by you own stupid acts, get yourself into a mess and you feel like you’re dead or wish you were dead. David is saying that God will bring life back into you even if it is your own fault. Sometimes God allows trouble to come our way to chastise us as Paul says in his Book of Hebrews. Sometimes our trouble is from our own doing, but David is saying that the Heavenly Father will not look down upon us and say: “Well, you made your bed, now sleep in it.”
So, why should God deliver us from trouble that is the result of our own doing or disobedience. We got ourselves into a mess, why not just leave us to get out of it so we can learn a lesson.
The answer is found in the following words; David says “He will stretch forth His hand against the wrath of our enemies.” The hand of God has always been a symbol of his power and/or acts. But note the next phrase, “thy right hand shall save me..”
Why does He not say with the left hand destroy my enemies and the right hand save me? Why does He specifically refer to His right hand? The ancients believed that your heart was in your right hand. Remember the word “yadiyad”? This is the word for beloved friend. It is repeating the word “yad” twice. It literally means hand in hand. More specifically right hand to right hand. The Talmud teaches that David often lifted his right hand to God as if joining his right hand to God’s right hand saying: “Yadiyad – Beloved friend,” as God would say to David, or more specifically, “my heart to your heart, your heart to my heart.” In our politically correct society today the only really acceptable physical contact between two people, when consent is not given, is a handshake. Yet in ancient society the hand shake was a very intimate expression, because when you took someone’s hand your were symbolically sharing your heart with that person.
This is why David says that He will save me with his right hand. God is not a police officer or fireman who saves someone that they have no relationship with. Rather God reaches out with His heart to save you. He is saving you not out of duty but out of love. Like a little child who is repeatedly warned by his mother not to play with fire and then when the child disobeys and gets burned, the mother does not scold the child and says “I warned you, now suffer.” But she only sees the child’s pain and reaches out to comfort the child. So too with God when we disobey and find ourselves in pain. By all rights God should just leave us to our pain, after all He warned us. Yet, His heart of love will just naturally draw Him to us to offer salvation and comfort.
Recent Comments