Psalms 27:10: “When my mother and father forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.”
The first word in this verse in Hebrew is ki. Translators take a lot of liberty with this word. Generally it is rendered as a conjunction because (my mother and father forsake me) or a pronoun that. The KJV uses the word when. That’s cool, I like that. The ERV uses the word for. God’s Word translation says: even if. So all our major English translations will say: When, for, or even if my mother and father forsake me. They all avoid the most common rendering of because for ki –because my mother and father forsake me. And they say I use secondary or alternative renders too much.
To make this more interesting the word forsake is in a perfect tense. A perfect tense expresses an action that has already taken place. The writer’s mother and father have already forsaken him. So guess what? The word because would really be a more appropriate rendering for ki. Anyways, most commentators will say that David is picking the two people in the world who will be the least likely to forsake you and even in that unlikely event, the Lord will still be there.
Perhaps that is true, but I remember sitting through a series of training classes for foster care and I listened to a lot of stories of young people who have been forsaken by their parents. Ok, maybe I am talking extremes. But for most of us, our parents will one day forsake us for the simple reason that we will outlive them. The word forsake in Hebrew is ‘azav which does mean to forsake or abandon, however as pointed out in my last study this word is sometimes associated with building, repairing or restoration. When you take on a project it causes you to abandon other things until that project is completed. Another nuance to this word ‘azav is an abandonment that takes place after you have used up every resource and there is nothing more you can do. In other words you have done everything possible to repair and restore something to the point you that you finally must forsake it or abandon it. This is unfortunately is common in many marriages where divorce takes place under irreconcilable differences. The judge asks: “Have you tried everything to save this marriage. If the couple say yes and it is hopeless, then the judge signs an order of divorce which essentially says they are abandoning their marriage and there is apparently no hope in saving it. That is ‘azav.
In other words the picture is not one of parents just forsaking their child even if there is something more they can do, it is a picture of parents in a position of hopelessness, and their child is in a situation where the parents can do nothing to help the child. This could be a child with an incurable disease or a criminal charge. They have tried everything and now they simply must abandon the child to the outcome. But to God that disease or that criminal charge is not hopeless, where the parents can no longer pick their child up, God can still do it.
A child will always go running to his parents to help him out. To that child his kindergarten problems can often be resolved by adult intervention. However, there may come a time when that not even adult intervention can help that child and then we have ‘azav. God often becomes our last resort.
It would appear that the message given here is that when we try to depend upon the arm of the flesh, there is no guarantee that it will not fail us. However, if we depend upon God, he will not let us down, but will lift us up.
Interestingly enough the word for lift us up is in an imperfect form. In other words it is in a future tense. This lifting up does not take place right away, but it will come in God’s time.
The word for lift up is saph which means to gather up, assemble, or collect. The word is often used for expressing hospitality to a wanderer or someone who is homeless. This is also a word used to express not just an assembling, but a welcoming with open arms. Thus when the arm of the flesh fails us, the Lord will welcome us with open arms.
What really catches my attention is the fact that the word for lift me up is in an imperfect or future tense. For many Christians, myself included, it is not a matter of exhausting all help from the arm of the flesh, but it is that we get tired of waiting on God. We need His help, we pray and nothing happens, so we turn to plan “B” which is the arm of the flesh. If that fails, then we again turn back to God.
So this verse is not saying that even if our mothers and fathers forsake us, but that because (there are times when our mothers and fathers are forced to forsake us) we can always be sure the Lord is fully capable of doing what our parents cannot do. In other words God is faithful and more dependable than the arm of the flesh, we just need to sit back and be a little patient.
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