Psalms119:93: “I will never forget thy precepts for with them thou hast quickened me.”

This time I planned to read my Bible in the English text of the KJV and just leave well enough alone. People have been telling me I am spending too much time with my Hebrew letter friends and I need to get a life, so I will just save time and study from my English Bible and thus I will have time to enjoy a little life.

So I pick a verse like 119:93, which is pretty straight forward in English, and  yet, I had to sit and think?  What in the blazes are precepts?  Suddenly the Letter Pei jumps up on my shoulder and starts to whisper something to me. “No!” I snap at Pei, “I am not going to look this up in the Hebrew because you guys will just come along and drag me through the Looking Glass and I have no time for another one of your adventures, I need to be getting a life here.” Pei keeps whispering.  “Keep quiet,” I tell him.  So I go to the Living Bible and find this word precepts means commandments.  “See,” I tell my Hebrew letter friend, “I get along just fine without you, so go away.”  Then I hear Qop whispering to me.  “Like I told Pei,” I shout, “Just keep out of my way  will you. I can do this myself.”  I check my Webster dictionary and I find that precepts mean commandments or instructions.  There is another little voice whispering to me, now it is the Daleth and she is saying: “What does commandments have to do with being quickened?” “I don’t hear you,” I say.  Now I’m really agitated: “La La La La, I don’t hear you, La La La: Will you three just leave me…Huh?”  I notice the three letters standing together with their arms around each other’s shoulders.  Pei with a cowboy hat and checkered shirt and Qop and Daleth in blue blouses and red and white checkered dresses and petticoats doing a sort of line dance like the Rockettes.  “Oh, you have to be kidding.” I exclaim.

Now I am really confused.  The letters are lined up to spell Pei, Qop, Daleth Paqad.  “What does the word for visitation have to do with precepts?”  “Ok, ok, I give up.” I finally say, “What gives, what are you doing in Psalms 119:93?  “Forming a square,” responds Pei.  “No,” I reply, a bit grumpy, “I mean why are you in Psalms 119:93, you don’t even belong there?”

“Oh, but we do,”  replies Pei, “Come on join us, oh please we are about to do a Square Dance and we need another male partner.”  Well, I wasn’t getting anywhere with my personal study anyways, I might as well put this getting a life business on hold. After all, they did need a fourth person to form the square, so I formed a mini-wave with Daleth and waited for the caller.  “Uh, Pei, we do have  a caller don’t we.” I suggest. “Well, for that we need to go behind your Looking Glass into Hebrew Esoteric Land.” replies Pei.  “I knew it,” I complain, “I figured you would find some way to get me into one of your adventures. Ok, let’s go. I mean how much of an adventure there be in a simple barn dance.”

So I join Paqad visitation we no sooner pass through my Looking Glass when I discover this was going to be no simple barn dance, it is not even in a barn. I find we are on a mountain top which has been flattened into a 10’X10’ square and a cliff on all four sides dropping off to a valley thousands of feet down..  In one corner I see our caller – Chet, with Kap playing the fiddle and Shin clapping his hands.  “Cheth Kap and Shin Shakach forget,” I think, “Hey don’t you guys spell out the word forget?”  Quiet says Paqad Cheth is about to begin.  With that Chet starts calling: “Swing your partner, turn around, circle to the left and circle to the right.”  “Slow down,”  I scream, “I’m going to fall off this cliff.”   Daleth tightens her grip around my hand and says: “So long as we all remain in sync and follow the instructions of the caller, you have nothing to fear.  You must really trust this Caller not to give us instructions that lead us right off this cliff?” I whisper to  Daleth. Daleth replied: “Oh why the caller is Chet and he represents a binding of yourself to God. If we bind ourselves to God we will never fall off a cliff.”

“Allemande to the left, and courtesy turn, bow to your partner, bow to your corner, do sa do and circle to the left, promenade and pass right through”  continued Chet. “Hey this is really fun” I cry out.  “I understand why Cheth is here but what are Shin and Kap doing here?”  I question.”   This time Pei responds as we perform a partner trade.  “Shin represents the power of God and the Kap is your heart filled with that power and, of course,  Chet is a binding yourself with God.”   “Ok,” I reply, “But they form the word Shakach forget.  What has their meanings to do with all this?”

Suddenly a new couple joins our square.  They are Lamed, and Aleph Lo.  “Huh,” I question, “What are Lamed and Aleph Lo  doing here, they form the word for not in Hebrew.”  Oh my,” says Pei,  “They are very important for we are not to forget. When we listen to Shakach forget and fill our hearts with the power of God and bind ourselves to Him, we will then  Lo not forget, the Pakad (Pe, Quf, Daleth instructions).  Pakad not only means precepts or instructions, but visitation as well.   Lamed Aleph reminds us “Not” to Shakach (Shin, Kap, Chet) forget the instructions.

Cheth is still calling: “Right and left grand, square on thru, weave the ring and spin around.”  I being to spin like a top, enjoying every moment with life feeling so good and then I find myself in my office spinning around.  I look at my desk and see Pe, Quf, Daleth (Pakad – visit, and/or precepts) who is waving to me as they step back into Psalms 119:93 and I begin to understand.

You see that mountain top we were on was named “Chiithani.”   Chiithani is rendered in Psalms 119:93 as quickened me.   It more modern terms it means to experience life.  But this is in a Piel form thus it means to experience life abundantly, to its fullest.   David is saying that he will never forget the Pakad or the visitation of God to bring him instructions for it is those instructions in life that cause him to experience life to its fullest. Nothing wrong with trying to get a life, but, if we were to ignore or forget any of the instructions that God gives us during His Paqad or visitation, we will fall off  that cliff into despair and depression and not get any kind of life.

I believe what Psalms 119:93 is instructing us to do is to cling to the memory of those Paqad visitations we have with God where he whispers his will, desires, and purpose to us.  We are to remember this no matter what happens and if we do we will enter into the fullness of life, we will get that life that God intended for us to have.