Psalm 34:3:  “My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear [thereof], and be glad.”

 

I have a friend who told me I am very self-absorbed.  I know, praise the Lord that I have a friend who will tell me like it is.  After much soul searching I found she is right.  Funny how pride creeps in without you even knowing it.  As the old joke goes you really become proud of the fact that you have your pride under control. It is kind of like bad breath, everyone that gets close to you knows it except you.  Everyone around you will tell others that you have bad breath, but they will not tell you.  I think that is one reason God created wives, of which I do not have.  So if you are around Chaim Bentorah and find he’s has halitosis, kindly compensate for his lack of a spouse and let him know.

 

Back to this pride or boasting business. Boasting is not always bad, so long as it is not about you and your fancied greatness.  David says it is ok to boast in the Lord.  What does that really mean anyways?  Does it mean I can brag about my books so long as I throw his name in there somewhere?  I mean this is my soul doing the bragging or boasting.  How do I brag or boast in the Lord to begin with.  I hear people all the time humbling say: “Yes, Praise the Lord, it was all the Lord that I managed to land that job.”  I remember a student at Moody who was a student pastor and needed a car.  He prayed for a car, we prayed for a car and one day he got a car.  I asked him how he got the care and he said; “The Lord gave it to me.”  I said: “Yeah, yeah, I know that but how did the Lord give you the car?”  He just said he got it from the Lord and started to get a little huffy with me so I let it drop.”  I later found out his father bought a new car and gave him the old one.  I suppose you could say the Lord gave him the car, but the same thing happens thousands upon thousands of times where the old man finds that by giving the kid the old car he can convince his wife it is an excellent opportunity to buy a new one.  Ok, maybe I am being hard on the kid (who is no longer a kid) I didn’t know his heart, perhaps he was sincerely wanting to give God the glory and praise.  But you know, there are times I hear people saying “Praise the Lord” like they are saying: “Golly gee” or “Whoopee!”   I mean if you don’t give God the praise for something the brethren will really look down on you.  So they are so used to saying “Praise the Lord” that when that old pride creeps in unaware and there is not friend around to tell you that you are being self-absorbed, you can actually make Uriah Heep look humble and convince yourself you are giving all the glory to God because you uttered the words; “Praise the Lord.”

 

I believe this is why David said his soul will boast in the Lord.  That is his nephesh in Hebrew, which is that private part of you that contains your true motives.  You lips may praise the Lord, but that is no guarantee you are really praising the Lord, it must come from your soul and like bad breath you may not even know that your lips are speaking your mind but not the words of your soul.  That is why it is important to have a good friend or spouse who will tell you quite frankly: “You know you are really being an idiot.”  I figured since the Lord did not bless me with a wife who could put me in my place, and then He must really trust me to stay on the straight and narrow. Guess that is another thing I got wrong.

 

But wait a minute, how can your soul boast in the Lord?  That Jewish Targum (the Aramaic version) says I will boast in the Word of the Lord.  Why would my soul go around boasting in the Word of the Lord?  Every translation I read renders they render this word as boast.  A few like the NIV will render it glory in the Lord or the Word of the Lord.   Yet the word that is used in the Hebrew that everyone just joins in lockstep in translation as boast or glory is halal which is the Hebrew word for praise. Sure there are cases where halal is used for boasting.  There are also cases where it is used for a mad man.  I think my friend who told me I was self-absorbed really wanted to say I was acting like a mad man.  Indeed we see someone who is boasting and we begin to think that are a little mad.  Halal is a word which describes a strange behavior or an abnormal type of behavior. It is also used for rage, to act like a fool and to celebrate.  The only thing I enjoy in watching a football game are the spectators.  Talk of halal, right there in the stands middle aged football player wannabes acting halal, like fools.  Of course after paying a few hundred dollars for stadium entrance, parking, beer and sausage they earned the ticket to act halal.

 

The word originates from the ancient Canaanites who used the word for a full moon.  Yeah the tradition of Luna or lunatic goes back to the Canaanites who observed unusual crazy behavior when there was a full moon.  Out in the desert when there is a full moon it does cast eerie shadows that seem crazy.  But the full moon also shines and hence the word halal also took on the meaning of shinning.  Someone who is praising the Lord may act foolish but if it is really in the Spirit of God they are shinning with the presence of God, it is radiating out of them.  I was in a  worship and praise meeting yesterday where over a dozen people were halal(ing) grown middle aged people acting like children, acting crazy, yet there was a glowing shine coming from them and like the beer bellied football fan, that shine was their ticket to act crazy.

 

I have a problem wrapping my brain around the idea of my soul boasting in the Lord. I suppose I can say it means to praise the Lord from your soul and give Him credit for everything. I don’t deny that as a meaning of this verse.  But after that rather joyful event yesterday when I found myself joining in on the halal and acting a quite a bit out of character for a PhD, writer, Hebrew instructor I fully understand what it means to have my soul boast or act crazy in the Lord.

 

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