WORD STUDY – PERFECT –גמר
Psalms 138:8: “The Lord will perfect that which concerns me, thy mercy O Lord endures forever. Forsake not the works of thine own hands.”
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Charles Dickens “A Tale of Two Cities.”
Charles Dickens started his novel, “A Tale of Two Cities” off with one of the major motifs of this novel. Throughout his novel things came in contrasting pairs. England at relative peace, France in revolution. Charles Darney the perfect gentleman contrasted to Sidney Carton the loser. In the end all the contrast tie together for a perfect ending.
In the Hebrew, Psalms 138:8 literally says: “The Lord will bring to an end or to completion that which is about me.” This is a picture of coming full circle. It has the idea of starting something and finishing it.
There are various ways we can look at this. We can look at it from the beginning of our life to the end of our lives, God will fulfill the purpose for which He has created us. But we can also look at it from the idea that during our lives God starts a work or many different works in our lives. All the works that God starts in our lives will be brought to a completion. God finishes everything that He starts, there are no abandoned projects.
Sometimes God can start a work in the middle of your life or even in the latter years of your life. Examples are Joshua taking over the leadership of the children of Israel at 71 years of age, Abraham becoming a father at 90 years of age. This work may begin with a tragedy, the loss of a job or a health crisis. When you look back over that tragedy or crisis after having come full circle you could say like Dickens that it has been the best of times and the worst of times. Every disappointment and every crisis is contrasted to God’s faithfulness and lovingkindness. Yet, you can be assured that one day you will come full circle and be able to praise God in every situation.
One thing that Psalms 138:8 seems to make very clear is God is the author of our life’s story. He is designing us to be an adequate servant. He will finish the story. If you have given Him your life, put Him in the helm of your life then whatever happens in your live is not the luck of the draw, it is part of an overall plan and purpose.
The word in the Hebrew used to describe this process is gamar which means to perfect or to complete. It is spelled Gimmel, Mem and Resh. This Hebrew word itself gives us a built n commentary and tells what to expect. From the word itself we learn some interesting things about this perfecting process.
The first letter is Gimmel which tells us that as we go through this process of completion or perfection whatever the crisis or tragedy we face, it will be surrounded with the lovingkindness of God. The Sages picture the next letter, the Mem as water or the womb. This process is a birthing process of something new, when completed we will be born into a new season of our lives. Finally the last letter is the Resh. I recently read where one rabbi called the Resh a mini Rosh Hashanah or New Year.
When this process ends or is completed, it is not an end but a beginning. I hear a lot of talk on Christian TV or in books and on the internet of a breakthrough, you’re break through is coming and you will experience a new beginning etc. I believe David had a similar experience in his life and he is expressing it in Psalms 138:8. Whatever we call it and we have many words for it, it is a season, a refining process, a cleansing process, etc. they all have one thing in common and that is the fact that this a process that was initiated by God and God promises in Psalms 138:8 that he will complete the process, he will not abandon us in the middle of the process and during this process we will find His lovingkindness as we go through it. Finally, when the process is completed, it is not an end, but a new beginning.
I recently read a short biography on Colonel Sanders and how in 1955, at the age of 65 he was forced to close a small restaurant due the expansion of the interstate. He was left almost penniless with just a small savings and a $105 a month social security pension,. That is when he decided to start to franchise his chicken concept in real earnest. He went to restaurant after restaurant selling his chicken recipes for .04 a chicken. He and his wife would package the herbs and spices at home and send them out to the restaurant. Soon he began to open restaurants exclusively selling his special recipe chicken and called it Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). In just a few years he went from living on a small pension to becoming a multimillionaire.
He and his wife accept Jesus as their Savior at their later age and were baptized by Billy Graham in the Jordan River. His wealth went to support many charitable organization. All his life he lived just above poverty, worked hard and at the age of 64 had virtually nothing to show for it. For 64 years he lived through the process with a million dollar recipe that never saw any financial success until he was 64 years old, the age when most men retired but he was just beginning and lived the next 25 years building his empire. He passed away at the age of 90 after God did his gamar or perfecting work on him. He did not give up, if he did there would be no KFC.
God can only perform his gamar, perfecting or completing process on us if we do not give up.
Recent Comments