WORD STUDY – FROM BAD TO WORSE

Psalms 25:17: “The troubles of my heart are enlarged, O bring thou me out of my distresses.”

“Double double toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble.” Shakespeare, Macbeth Act 4 Scene 1

In Shakespeare’s play,“Macbeth,” three witches cast a spell on Macbeth as they await his arrival. Having predicted that he would be the next king, they place a curse on him that his toil and trouble would double.

Do you ever wonder if there were not three witches tossing eye of newt, poisoned entrails, toe of frog and such like into a cauldron wishing your troubles and toil would double.

It seems the Psalmist felt his troubles were also enlarged. The word enlarged in Hebrew is rachab which is found here in a Hiphal (causative) perfect form. This particular form of the word rachab could be rendered as from bad to worse. The word troubles is tsarah which is a feeling of being pressed in. The Psalmist’s heart is feeling like it’s life is being squeezed out of it. Note, however, that this is a process, it is in a preterite form indicating that this has been going on in the past and is continuing on into the present.

As a man of God, the Psalmist must have called upon God earlier to be relieved from this distress. In response to that prayer, it seems like things just were going from bad to worse.

I don’t know, maybe it is just the Psalmist and I that experience this, but I find that many times when I am going through a trying situation and I pray and pray to God for some relief things just do not improve, in fact they get worse.

It is interesting that what the Psalmist prays for is for God to bring him out of this distress. The word in Hebrew for bring out as used here is yatsa’ which oddly is also in a Hiphal preterite (past and present) form. The Psalmist is really saying: “You have, you are and you will bring me out of my distress. What an odd thing to say when his troubles are only increasing.

As I was meditating on this word yatsa’ I dozed off and had the strangest dream. In my office I have a mirror hanging from a stand that is shaped like a Daleth. The Daleth represents a doorway. In my dream I saw the Hebrew letters Yod Sade and Aleph which spell yatsa’. They were by my mirror hanging from my Daleth calling me to follow them.

Grabbing my pen and pad of paper, I walked through the mirror and found myself in a rather dark gloomy world. I saw Yod, Sade and Aleph yatsa’ out ahead of me so I made my way to them. They were stacked horizontally with the first letter to yatsa’ bring out the Yod, on the ground, Sade was on top of the Yod and Aleph was on top of the Sade. Suddenly the ground began to shake, it was a major earthquake. Yod called out to me to hurry up and climb on top of them.

“What is going on” I yell as I climb aboard the Sade and strap myself in. Sade explains: “This is your world and it is collapsing. Yod has taken on the form of a rocket thruster, and the Sade explains that he represents righteousness which is the navigation system. The Aleph is the nose cone. I notice that Aleph had taken on the form of a balance, Aleph will apparently be our gyroscope to keep us in balance.”

Another earthquake hit and Yod announced we were blasting off. Everything was moving too quickly, I was not sure what was happening so I obeyed and jumped on top of my three Hebrew letter friends. I ask Sade what was going on and he explained that my world was collapsing. Well, that I knew but I was not sure how to get off my world.

Sade said that Moses came out (yatsa’) of Egypt, Abram came out (yatsa’) from Haran, Israel came out (yatsa’) from Egypt and now I am coming out of my world through Yatsa’. Just then Yod announced that he was turning on all his thrusters. I realized then that Yatsa’ going out had turned itself into a sort of rocket ship. As Yod turned on all his thrusters we shoot up into the sky. Oddly all the thrust that was giving Yatsa’ its power
was made up of Scripture verses. The number of Scripture verses seemed endless. Sade explained that the Word of God gives us the thrust to leave or yatsa come out. Sade as our navigation system was doing some calculations and I noticed the calculations were made up of righteous acts. Sade explained that following the teachings of God will keep us on course. I looked up at the Aleph which was spinning like a gyroscope. Sade explained that Aleph also represent God and unity with Him. So long as I stay in unity with God I will be able to go out from my world which is collapsing into God’s world of stability.

“You sure we will make it this way?” I ask. The moment I spoke those words Yod’s thrusters started to sputter, it was running out of Scripture verses and we started to fall back to my collapsing world. Sade quickly said,”You must not doubt God’s Word. His Word is of no value to us, it will provide no power if you doubt His word, you must believe His Word and not doubt it for a moment. If Abram doubted he would not have gone (yasa’) out from Haran, If Israel doubted they could not have gone out yasa’ from Egypt and if Moses doubted he could not have gone out yasar. Now you must not doubt. Please, speak it out, confess it. Do you believe God’s Word and His promises?” I replied quickly, “Yes, I do believe every Word in the Bible and everyone of God’s promises.” As I spoke I realized that I truly did believe but I had to confess with my mouth before others to reaffirm that belief with me.

Oh, how we must realize that sharing our faith is not just about bringing people to Jesus but it is also necessary for us to confess our faith with our mouths to reaffirm our faith. Testimony times in churches seems to be a thing of the past. If it is just the pastor confessing his faith every Sunday he will end up with either a dead church or an empty church. We must encourage people to testify of their faith at every opportunity for we will lose our power.

Anyways, almost immediately after I confessed my faith in the Word of God, the Scriptures began to flow from Yasa’ thrusters and the vessel straightened out and once again we were headed back on course.

With a start I woke up and found I was staring at Psalms 25:17. I realized that God had been, is and will continue to guide me and carry me out yasar of my distress if I just continue to cling in faith to His Word. I thought of my Hebrew letter friends that made up the word yatsa’. The first letter Yod represents a divine message from heaven. The second letter Sade speaks of living a righteous life and the last letter Aleph whispers to me about being in unity with God. If I listen to the message from heaven that is the message from the Word of God with faith, live a righteous life that is in unity with God yatsa’ coming out of my trials will be the natural result. However, I must remember that my coming out is a process, a journey and many times it will take a while. It may seem like I am never going to come out yatsa’ but I must cling to my faith, continue to believe in God’s Word and promises. This is a journey and things can get worse before they get better and one reason they get worse is when we doubt. But still God has promised to deliver us and we must cling to that promise.

Take a look at Deuteronomy 31:2 where yasa’ is again used when Moses is ready to die and he tells Israel, “I am now 120 years old and I am no longer able to go out yasa’ and to come in. If Moses is an example that we only stop going out yasta when we reach the end of our lives. No matter what we go through, even if it enlarges, we are also in a state of going out of it yatsa’

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