Psalms 61:4, “I will abide in thy tabernacle forever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah.”

I was reading something interesting in the Talmud (Yevamot 96b-97a) this morning about Psalms 61:4.   The Psalm is attributed to David and per his style of writing, David often uses Hebrew word plays. The rabbis teach that David was making a play on the word  le-olamim which we render as forever.  Le-olamim is taking for the word olam which means world and putting it in a plural form and then adding the preposition Le which traditionally is rendered  to or for.  Thus, this is literally rendered as  to worlds or for worlds.  The rabbis teach that this expression is best capture in the phrase for eternities.  The Hebrew plural here being interpreted by the Rabbis as two worlds, this world and the next world.

I recently had a Christian who felt he was very knowledgeable about Judaism tell me that the Jews do not believe in heaven or eternal life. He was absolutely adamant about it. His favorite TV preacher had said it and it had to be true and I was wrong when I said that the Jews believe in eternal life and heaven.  I even added that they also believe in a hell. I even quoted the Talmudic interpretation of Psalms 61:4 but there was no convincing him, his TV preacher could not be wrong.

This is not the first time I have heard Christians insist that the Jews do not believe in an afterlife.  I have even heard this from those who claim to have a ministry or mission to reach the Jewish people. The fact is our concept of heaven and hell has its roots in Judaism.  Like Christianity the Jews have a wide range of teachings and beliefs that run from orthodox, conservative, reform to liberal.  There are Jews who do not believe in God.   Just as we have liberal Christians who do not believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God or that Jesus was born from a virgin and was not really God incarnate and  also do not believe in a hell and even a heaven, so too the Jews have their liberal element as well. In fact the majority of Israelis tend to be liberal and this may explain the misunderstanding that Judaism does not believe in an afterlife.

But orthodox Judaism is filled with teachings of the afterlife, heaven and hell. As a whole the Old Testament has few very clear references to the afterlife.  There is the example of Samuel being called up for the grave, there is Enoch passing through a portal into the eternal state with God and of course you have Elijah taken to heaven in a whirlwind.  The Semitic root of the word which we render as a whirlwind is really speaking of a passageway, doorway or portal.

By the rabbinic period which began around the 6^th century AD with the codification of the Babylonian Talmud there was a strong belief in an existence beyond this world.  You can find much discussion of the afterlife in the Talmud and Midrash.  To be sure there are many divergent and sometimes contradictory views on the afterlife, just as there are in Christianity.

In the Talmud Berakhot 18b we actually find a discussion which attempts to show that the dead, while in the next world, have knowledge of this world.  In other places in the Talmud there various discussions which attempt to describe in detail what heaven is like and that not all will be allowed into heaven. The Talmud also has discussions on various views of hell, who goes there and what the punishment is like.

So here the rabbis have no problem with David saying that he wants to abide in God’s tabernacle both in this world and the next.  The use of the English words abide and tabernacle does make this understanding awkward. The word for abide that is used in this passage is ‘agurah which comes from the root word gur which is a common Semitic word meaning to dwell or to live in.  However, that little Hei at the end of the word is a paragogic and would suggest that David wanted to do more than dwell in God’s tabernacle, he wanted God to imprison him in His tabernacle.

In 1757 Robert Robinson wrote the classic hymn, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.”  In it he wrote the words,  “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.”  He wrote that song when he was 22 years of age.  A few years later tragedy enter his life and he wandered away from the God he loved for over twenty years.  One day he attended an evangelistic service, a broken man,  where he heard the evangelist preach about the God he once loved.  Afterward the evangelist spoke with Mr. Robinson and ask what was wrong. He explained that he had once loved God but wandered far away from him. The evangelist picked up a hymn book and said, “Let me read to you a song that has helped myself and many others in your situation.”  Not realizing he was speaking to the author of the song he read to Robert Robinson the words he wrote 20 years earlier.

Like Robert Robinson, David knew he had a wandering spirit, just as we all have and he prayed that God would hold him a prisoner in His tabernacle. The Hebrew word for tabernacle is ‘ohel which is really your standard Hebrew word for a tent or a home.  The Assyrians in the Akkadian language used the word not only for a home but a bed. The root idea of ‘ohel is a place where you can be the closest and most intimate with someone. Hence the word is often rendered as tabernacle as it was a place where you could draw the closest to God.  David wanted God to  keep  him a prisoner in His home or even His very bed.  The bed is one place where a couple can be the closest to each other.  He wanted God to just hold him tight on earth like in heaven.

Back to our rabbis who interpret le-olamim (forever) as in this world and the next.  David wanted to be just as close to God in this world as he will be in the next world.  When we face the trials, difficulties and temptations of this world, we like David and Robert Robinson, are prone to wander from the God we love.  But like David we can pray to God that He will hold us close during those times of trial and temptation, that we will feel and be just as close to him during these times like we will be when we are in heaven.

Heaven for me is where God dwells and thus if he dwells within me, I am in heaven and I can say like David that I am living in God’s house, dwelling in his bed le-olamin both in this world and in heaven at the same time.