Psalms 93:4: “The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea than the mighty waves of the sea.”
The literal meaning of this verse is clear. The sea was a place of terror to the landlocked Jewish people. Fishermen were the fearless iron workers of their day and even they did not venture out into the deeper waters. There was no Jacques Cousteau to explore the world under the sea and show off it’s beauty. To early man the sea was awesome, foreboding, a place where the gods duked it out with each other. Every storm was thought to be a major battle between the gods and if you happen to be the poor slob out in a boat in the middle of their battle, well “ahoy.” (Ahoy, Heb. ah, expression of grief, oy another expression of grief. Not really the origin of the word ahoy just playing with ya).
Although the Jews rejected any polytheistic mythology, they still knew the stories and when Jesus walked on the waters during a stormy sea, at night and calmed the storm, he was declaring Himself the master God, who welded more power that Zeus or Neptune (Dagon), for not even these phony gods could control the mighty seas like Jesus did. The writer of this Psalm is declaring in beautiful poetry that the God Jehovah has all of these phony, two bit, penny annie, wannabe gods beat by many miles.
The ancients had a far greater terror of the seas than we have today and if our God is mightier than the most terrifying thing on earth, what do we have to fear. Check out the Matthew (14:22-33) account of Jesus walking on water. The disciples thought Jesus was a ghost or spirit. Ok, maybe that spooked them out, but I think there was more culturally involved here. The Greek word used for ghost is phantasma where we, of course, get our word phantom. However the Aramaic expression is a dagala chazoa which is a vision of doom. I don’t think it was a ghost that frightened them; it was the legends of the sea that really shook their day. The words dagala chazoa are rooted in the ancient Phoenician language. The Phoenicians were seafaring people and a dagala chazoa is the ancient concept sort of like the Flying Dutchman of the Middle Ages. The Flying Dutchman was the name of a ship that was not granted safe harbor during a terrible storm. It was believed by many a seaman that the ship and its crew did not sink but was doomed to spend eternity riding the high seas and anyone or any ship crew who saw the Flying Dutchman was doomed to drown or their ship was doomed to sink in the ocean. In the first century legend this specter was a sailor doomed by the gods to wander the seas until he found his ship or something like that. Anyways, whoever saw this apparition was seduced by the ghost to walk out to him and of course their first step took them down to Davy Jones’s Locker. Peter, however, was beyond that, he knew that his Jesus was more powerful than any gods or so called Flying Dutchmen. When he saw Jesus walking on the water he knew it was his Lord demonstrating more power than the most powerful force known to ancient man and he was ready to jump ship and join forces with Him.
Well, that is just the literal meaning of this passage. However, this is a package deal and you have just looked at the outer wrapper, let’s open this package and see what we can really find. “The Lord is mightier than the noise of many waters (Heb. mayim) and mightier than the waves of the sea (yam). The root words of both water and sea are the rare cases where it is dual and triliteral. Waters is spelled Mem Yod and seas are spelled Yod Mem. Each has a numerical value of 50. The numerical value of the Hebrew word for you are mine is also 50. When the ancient seaman ventured out onto the seas, he knew his fate belonged to the sea. The sea was saying: “You are mine.” I wonder if Peter was thinking about that when he saw Jesus walking on the water and in the midst of the storm maybe he was thinking of the pagan phantom who have enticed him to leave the boat and walk on the water to him by saying; “You are mine.” Instead his faith caused him to reject the legend and recognize that it was his Jesus who was enticing him to come by saying: “You are mine.” Jesus was showing that he was overpowering the mighty waters and was saying the terror of the sea can not claim you because “you are mine.” When Peter asked if he could come (Greek – elithe) to Jesus, Jesus said “Come (Greek – elithe).” The Greek word elithe is sometimes used in the Septuagint for halak which means come but it also means walk and it the root for halakah the righteous walk. The Aramaic uses the equivalent word etha. Peter could have been asking, “Let me walk the halakah, the righteous walk to you.” Jesus responded with “Walk the halakah to me.” Halak = 50 + 5 (grace). 50 is also the number for faith. The grace of God (5) without faith (50) is of no value as Peter quickly learned. Fifty also being the numerical value for “you are mine” might have given Peter more confidence. Peter was attune to the fact that Jesus was his rabbi and a rabbi often speaks to his disciples esoterically. So Peter may also have heard Jesus say: “Come, walk the righteous walk, for by my grace you are mine.”
Some may say I am really stretching things here and they are probably right, but as I look out over that terror filled sea of my life, I grow very fearful to step forward. But then, like Peter, I can see my Savior walking in the midst of that terror. That terror is completely in His control. I can be confident of Psalms 93:4 that tells me that my God is greater and mightier than any terror in this world. As Jesus walks through this terror filled world, I can like Peter say: “Jesus can I come to you. “ Jesus answers : elithe or halakah. “Come, walk the righteous walk, for by my grace (5) you are mine (50).
But soft, before I get out of that boat and walk through the terrors of this world I need to remember what Peter forgot, 50 is also the number for faith. Without faith, those terrors will pick you up and toss you around like a ping pong ball in a washing machine.
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