Psalms 103:1  “Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, [bless] his holy name.”
“Man is not complete until he has a mate, then he is finished.”  Translated from Jewish Literature
I translated the above statement from Jewish literature which was written in the Aramaic.  Actually, the word complete is used twice in the sentence in the Aramaic.  Since it is not a good practice in English writing to use the same word twice in a sentence I sought a  synonym and choose the word finished for its second use. When I sat back to admire my work, I realized that perhaps I should have forgotten the good practice, as some may consider my rendering to be more of a joke that a serious statement as the English word finished, although correct, can have a double meaning.  Such is the problem a linguist faces when translating from an ancient language into a modern language.
My brother who is a linguist with Wycliffe Bible Translators told me of a problem he ran into when translating the Bible into the Amanda language in Papua New Guinea.  He came to the phrase, the land of milk and honey. To us in our Western culture when we hear that phrase we think of something good.  To the people of Papua New Guinea, however, milk is something only babies drink and honey is something wild, surrounded by bees that sting you and is almost toxic in their thinking.  So when he asked them what they would think when he said a land of milk and honey, they responded “Oh, that is something not very good, that is a land we would not want to go to.”   He also told me of a huge controversy surrounding a recent Arabic translation of the Bible where the translators used the word Messiah rather than Son of God. Fundamentalist were throwing salt in the area accusing the Bible translators of heresy and compromise and actually denying the Sonship of Jesus.  The problem is that there is no way to culturally and linguistically express the idea of the Son of God in Arabic without giving the impression that God had sex with a woman.   Western Christians have become enemies with each other, churches have been split over interpretation of passages of Scripture which could easily be explained if put into a cultural, Eastern, Semitic emotional context.
I remember I once asked a friend who came from Saudi Arabia if he ever laughed or told a joke.  He said he did and he told me an Arabic joke that he translated into English. After he finished he broke out laughing while I just stood there trying to figure out why it was so funny. Such is a problem we face when we try to translate the ancient Hebrew Scriptures into modern English.
I have one more example.  Yesterday on my bus route I stopped to pick up a woman.  I pulled in front of her house and beeped the horn. She did not come out. I picked up my phone and said, “Your bus is outside.”  I hear the response, “No speak English.”   I say, “Bus, Town of Cicero, outside, chop chop” (ok I used a word twice in a sentence).  I still got, “No speak English.”  Then I hear pages turning so I figure she looking something up in her language dictionary.  Suddenly I hear, “I am totally ignoring you.” Then she hung up.  I immediately think, “Same to you Chicky Baby, I will just ignore you and go to my next pick up.”  An hour later my dispatcher calls to say this woman canceled her ride.  That is when I realized she chose the wrong word from her language dictionary. I mean she was correct but did not consider the emotional context of the words she used.
So we come to Psalms 103:1 where David says, “Bless the Lord oh my soul.”  We hear this quoted in church very reverently, we even sing it with great reverence and calmness and it means nothing to us. I have often asked my students just who David is speaking to.  Some reply to God, to the elders, or the people around him.  Too many of us read Scripture but we don’t read it.  Look again, he is speaking to his soul his nephesh, that part of him that feels emotions, feardoubts etc.   Do you ever start to praise God or worship and you are really getting into it, you begin to feel the sweet presence of God and then all of a sudden your soul steps up to plate and says, “You know you’ve got that bill due.” Or “So what are you going to do about old George over there who insulted you this morning.”   How about “Tomorrow is Monday and that big project is due and you are not finished, what are you going to do about it?”   As you soul comes boldly forward with all these little bothersome things, you lose that presence of God, you are distracted and you mind is not set on Him.
That was David’s problem when he wrote this Psalm.  Note the word bless.  It is bareki in the Hebrew.  This word means to make happy or create pleasure. Yet, note, that it is in a Piel Imperative form.  We must render this in its emotional context.  David is trying to bring pleasure to God’s heart, make God’s heart happy but his soul keeps popping up with, “What about that Assyrian army that is ready to attack?”  or  “What are you going to do about all the dissension in the kingdom.”  Suddenly, he is distracted and he can’t praise God.  So what does he do? He tells his soul to start blessing God.  But let’s put it in its emotional context, in a Piel Imperative form.  He is taking his soul by the collar, slamming it against the wall and screaming in its face, “Soul, I have had enough of your interference when I am trying to bring pleasure to the heart of God. Now get with the program and start thinking on things that will bring pleasure to God’s heart or I will pound the…out of you.”  David is getting pretty serious here with his soul, he is giving it a regular Dutch Uncle talk.
Without putting this very familiar passage into its emotional context, we lose out on a very important message.  That message is that we have control over our souls, we just have to get downright nasty with our souls at time.  Yes, we will go through time of deep sorrow, grief, fear, uncertainty and don’t you think your soul won’t let you forget it, even when you try to pray and bring pleasure to God’s heart.  David is telling us that we have control over our soul, we just have to pick it up by the collar slam it against the wall and show it who is boss when it comes time to start praising God and bringing pleasure to God’s heart.

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