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 the verse is clear. It is one of those verses that I scratch my head and wonder if the Hebrew would reveal anything more something deeper in this verse. After all these years, I am certain of it. But first let’s look at the literal meaning.

The sea was a place of terror to the landlocked Jewish people.  Fishermen were the iron workers of their day. If you live in the city you probably seen the iron workers constructing sky scrapers walking narrow beams like a Sunday stoll. If I think of fearless men I think of these iron workers.  That is what people thought of the fishermen in the ancient world. Many would venture out to sea and many never returned.  Hence the legends of sea monster or other horrors of the unknown that awaited the seafarer’s. Even these fearless men would not venture in uncharted areas.  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.  Actually ahoy is a Semitic word used by the Phoenicians who were the seafaring people of this time. It was used to convey the idea of grief. You notice even the word oy comes from this which is another expression of grief.

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.   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.   I believe in Matthew 14 Peter understood this. When he saw Jesus walking on the water, demonstrating more power than the most powerful force known to ancient man, he was ready to jump ship and join forces with Him.

That is the literal meaning.  But I found a treasure buried in the depths of this sea. I will bring it to the surface where we can open this treasure chest together.  Written on our treasure chest are these words: “The Lord is mightier than the noise of many mayim or waters and mightier than the waves of the yam or sea.”  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 is in reverse yod, mem.  Each has a numerical value of 50.   The numerical value of the 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.  They believed the sea was saying to them: You are mine. As an old fisherman himself I wonder if  Peter have been thinking about this old saying of the sailors which ironically the Hebrew words for sea and waters has the same numerical value. When he saw Jesus walking on the water and in the midst of the storm I think he might have thought of those words; 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.  Then Peter asked if he could come. In the Greek the word is elithe. Jesus spoke Aramaic and the word used in the Peshitta is etha which means to produce or to bring forth fruit.  I wonder if Peter was really saying at this point: “Lord I have walked with you for three years, I have seen your miracles, I believe you, do you think I have the faith to walk on water?”  Jesus then replied etha, show me the fruit or produce of your faith.”   Peter made it only so far before his faith failed. It the Greek and English it sounds like Jesus scolded him: “Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt.”  But in the Aramaic I read it differently.  The word little is zeora which means to be young, immature. So Jesus was only saying: “It is because your faith is still young which is why you doubted.”  I see Jesus encouraging Him even more so because the Greek word that was used for Come elithe is sometimes used in the Septuagint for halak which means come but it also means walk and it is the root for halakah the righteous walk.  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. Next week I plan to tie this into Romans 8:28 for now I think there is a lesson to learn from here.

As I look out over that terror filled sea of life, I grow very fearful to step forward. My faith is zeora, still young and immature.  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 etha, is this an opportunity to demonstrate my faith?”  And  Jesus answers: “Etha, come demonstrate your faith.”  So I do and fall flat on my face but the I look up and I am reminded that there is His grace (5) plus Jesus saying: “You are mine (50). Maybe I did fail and fall, but like Peter Jesus will not let me drown and I can claim Romans 8:28.