Psalms 13:6: “I will sing unto the Lord because He has dealt bountifully with me.”

Ok, so the word bountifully gamal has its roots in the idea of being weaned. If you don’t believe me check out Psalms 131:2:  “Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul [is] even as a weaned child.”  That word weaned in the Hebrew is gamal the same word rendered as bountifully in Psalms 13:6.  David must have been quite impressed with that weaning process. Apparently they were not as shy about it as we are today. I mean any parent will tell you that weaning off the mother’s milk really a momentous occasion for a toddler, almost like being certified as potty trained.

I am working on my new book right now entitled A Hebrew Teacher Explores the Heart of God in the Marriage and Family Relationship. The premise of the book is that God designed the marriage and family relationship to reflect our relationship to Him. Thus, just a child grows into maturity, so does a Christian who is born again start off as an infant and eventually grows into maturity. A new Christian spends some time being feed and catered to like a new born baby.  He watches a mature Christian pray and this Christian probably starts his prayer with “Dear Jesus.”  This young believer starts his prayers with “Dear Jesus.” Then the mature Christian says, “We thank you for the blessings of this day.”  The young believer will say, “We thank you for the blessings of this day.”  He watches a mature Christian worship. This Christian worships with his hands uplifted.  The new believer will lift his hands.  The mature Christian says with uplifted hands: “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.”  The young Christians say – well you get the point. But one day this young believe is weaned off the mere milk of the Word and begins to chomp on some meat, he begins to pray “My Father” rather “Dear Jesus.”  He starts thanking God for the blessings of his family rather than the blessings of the day.  He starts to worship by jumping up and down rather than lifting his hands.  He has been gamal(ed) weaned.

David says he will sing unto the Lord when he is weaned.  As he matures in his relationship with God he begins to experience new freedom.  He does not have to do things the way the old timers do it.  He can find his own experience with God.  That word sing in the Hebrew is the word sur.  Oh sure, it means to sing alright.  So do a lot of words in the Hebrew mean to sing.  The Talmud teaches that there are no synonyms in the Classical Hebrew. Each word for sing has a little different spin on it. This sur or singing has its Semitic roots the idea of a wandering minstrel, a free spirit who is not bound by tradition or set musical rules.  He simply sings or plays an instrument from his heart.

My study partner instantly declared she knew such a practitioner known as Jimmy Be Free. She had some of his recordings on her IPOD and played it for me and I had to agree that this was a perfect example of the Hebrew word sur that is used in Psalms 13:6. Jimmy Be Free plays a violin and he plays it as his heart moves him to play it. He is a sort of wandering minstrel who dresses the way he wants to dress, goes where he wants to go and plays from his heart, unrehearsed and without a publicist telling him what and how he should play to gain a following and an audience.  The world is his audience and the only one he seeks to please is his heart.

Worship teams may get together to rehearse the songs they are going to sing for the worship service.  They may advise the drummer when to really come on with it.  They may decide when they will sing the rowdy foot stooping, hand clapping songs and when to sing the quiet soft tear jerkers. That is fine, even the temple choirs rehearsed their songs.  But that is not sur.  That is not the singing that David talks about in Psalms 13:6 when he is rejoicing over his being weaned and entering into a new level of maturity.  He demonstrates it by singing his own songs, his own music, playing his own instruments.  He becomes a free spirit with his music like Jimmy Be Free.   God is becoming His God.  No more does he depend upon God like a little baby does for everything.  Now he is going to learn to love God on his own, not because he needs all those little miracles and signs and wonders to remind him that his God is real.  He can believe in God on his own without the miracles, signs and wonders.   Sure he likes to see his God show off like a child likes to see his parents show off.  A child may love to watch his father fish as dear old dad wades out into the stream and swings that fishing pole back and forth and cast that line out into the water and reel in a rainbow trout.  But eventually that child is going to mature and he will want to have his own pole and cast his own line and catch his own rainbow trout like his daddy.

Sure it is nice to have a worship team expertly play their instruments, and sing, making their joyful noise unto the Lord.  I can’t sing, I turn heads when I sing and the faces I see are not smiling. But one day we will mature, we will gamal and be weaned from dependency on the talented and skilled and we will make our own joyful (or awful) noise unto the Lord with our own song. Like David we will make our sur and declare our gamal.

Sure I enjoy listening to the polished perfection of Giuliano Carmignola playing one of Bach’s cantatas with that depth of feeling of a true artist.  But Jimmy Be Free may not be playing one of Bach’s cantatas, but he still expresses that depth of feeling as he plays his own song from his own heart. He is just as much an artist. We have another more appropriate word, a good word, a flattering word in Hebrew for the performance of Giuliano Carmignola, but the word sur belongs to Jimmy Be Free.  We have another word in Hebrew for the worship team you hear on Sunday morning singing their polished rehearsed music, but the word sur belongs to that off key janitor who is singing his own praise to God after everyone has left and he is cleaning up the sanctuary.

So how about you, can you rejoice in being gamal weaned from dependence upon the mature believers and are ready to start making your own joyful (or awful) noise unto the Lord.  If it is in the voice God gave you it will be music to His ears even if it is awful to those around you.

So let us untalented, ungifted, off key, can’t carry a tune arise and sing our sur until the Lord…as well as those who are talented and gifted such as Jimmy Be Free. Those who are motivated by the heart and not the performance…an artist rather than an entertainer

http://music.jimmybefree.com/album/grace