Psalm 25:12,13 – The Blessing of ‘Good’

Here is my literal translation of these verses:

¹²Who is this, the man fearing YHVH? He will teach/shoot him [in] the way he should choose.

¹³His soul shall lodge in good, and his seed shall possess [the] land.

In my last post, I recorded my thoughts regarding verse 12. Verse 13 continues expressing blessings that come to the man who fears the Lord.

The beginning of verse 13 says “His soul shall lodge in good …” Spurgeon notes, “He who fears God has nothing else to fear.”

Then the latter half says, “His seed shall possess [the] land.” Barnes observes, “Next to our care concerning our souls is our care concerning our seed, and God has a blessing in store for the generation of the upright … their children shall fare the better for their prayers when they are gone.”

Those two quotes pretty much sum up my thoughts.

But a few technical details:

I think it significant that the verb in the first phrase is “lodge,” not “dwell,” which is probably the more common translation. There is a Hebrew word yashab which means “to dwell, settle, remain” and carries the idea of a settled existence. That word corresponds to the Greek verb oikeo (an oikos is a house). But yashab is not the word here. It is lavan or lun, which means literally “to lodge, to spend the night.” The Hebrew word for an inn is malon, where the last three Hebrew letters are the same as the verb lun. The Greek word that corresponds to lun is aulizomai, which means “to lodge, to bivouac, to pass the night in a place” and the Greek word aulai refers to the unroofed courtyard in the middle of a typical oriental house. In the Septuagint, aulizomai is the Greek word selected to translate lun in this verse. Both the Hebrew lun and the Greek aulizomai are words expressing a sense of transience, contingency, impermanence, even uncertainty, as compared to yashab or oikeo, which express settled permanence. My conclusion is that the first phrase of this verse should at least express some sense of transience rather than settled existence, and so I translate it, “His soul shall lodge in good, ...”

Someone will object that I’m splitting hairs, but, as always, my answer is that this is the Word of God. My first goal in studying is to do my very best to understand exactly what He has said (and what He has not said). With that (hopefully) crystal clear in my mind, then I feel free and confident to suggest translations, meanings, applications, even extrapolations and interpolations. But first we need to be precise. Just in case someone reads this and still thinks I’m trifling, is it not true that you wish people were more careful to understand what you say? Is it not a common grief that people listen carelessly to your words, then run off and inaccurately report to others you said this or that? How much more important must it be to listen carefully to God, to spend the extra few minutes trying to be sure I understand exactly what He has said (and not said)?

Anyway … case in point: One commentator suggested that this first phrase refers to the believer’s eternal dwelling in Heaven, “His soul shall dwell in good, …” It is true that believers’ souls will dwell in good for all eternity. Even sweetly true. But would you not agree that, understanding the difference between lun and yashab, that is not at all likely the Lord’s meaning here? Once again, the word chosen expresses some sense of contingency or transience. That being the case, it has to refer somehow to our earthly existence. In Heaven there will be no transience, only settled security. Only here (and only here(!)) is a believer’s bliss transient.

So somehow it is true that, while living in this world, a believer (the man who fears the Lord) will lodge (transiently) in good. Being completely frank with one another, doesn’t that rather perfectly express our experience? I do enjoy “good” here. The Lord is good. He does good things for me. He provides me with good. But even as I enjoy a “good,” I’m very aware that enjoyment here is temporary. I can be sitting comfortably in my chair counting my blessings only to have one phone call shatter it all and leave me reeling and struggling to once again see the “good.” Yes? God is good. I’ve been born again. I’m His child. But I still live in a threatening world. And, as if demonic hosts and an evil world system weren’t enough, I have my own sin nature always working overtime to kill me. Yes, as a believer here on earth, I fully expect to enjoy the good things of the Lord, but I also know reality says to enjoy them with an open hand. While logically I “dwell” in good, experientially I “lodge” in it.

I wonder why it is “His soul shall lodge in good, …” Why “soul”? The mention of the word is probably what sent the one commentator suggesting the verse was referring to eternity. I don’t think David is meaning to distinguish “soul” from body. Hebrew isn’t usually that technical. I would rather think the more common Hebrew use of the word is to express man in the totality of his existence. “The Lord breathed into him the breath of life and the man became a living soul.” I would rather think that is the idea. “Who is the man who fears the Lord? His whole being, the totality of his existence, every corner of his life shall lodge in good.” As discussed above, this is not to say he doesn’t know pain and heartache. But that said, still there’s no corner of his life where he doesn’t experience the good of the Lord. I must hold His “good” things with an open hand, but, when they come, they touch every corner of my being.

And it is “good.” Back in verses 7&8, David said, “… remember me, in answer to Your goodness, Lord. Good and upright is the Lord …” Some versions translate it “ease,” “his soul shall dwell in ease.” I don’t care for that translation. It is limiting the simple word “good” to only one small expression of its meaning. And, if I may add, I don’t even think the translation, “His soul shall dwell in ease” communicates the meaning of the verse. Where it is going is this: The Lord is good. It is His very nature to be good, to do good. That’s precisely why one will “lodge in good” if he tries to walk with God. The Lord is good. To walk in Antarctica is to be cold, because it is cold. To walk in the Sahara is to be hot, because it is hot. To walk in the rain is to get wet, because it is wet. To walk with God is to “lodge in good” because He is good. It is not a cliché: The Lord is good. Our minds need to settle on the Lord’s goodness like a fence post in concrete, like a spike in a wall. Even when it seems we are only “lodging” in good, yet we must fix our thoughts on His goodness. The Lord is good. All that He does is good. He can only do me good, because He is good. If Eve had not doubted God’s goodness (… the Lord knows [there’s something He’s holding out on …]”, she would never have reached out and taken the fruit. And you and I would not sin except in some way we think there’s something “better” out there that God is holding back from us. We must settle our hearts upon His goodness.

And speaking of good, the Lord really knows the very deepest recesses of our hearts – what is the good He mentions in this verse? “His seed shall possess the land.” Our children. As Barnes noted, “Next to our care concerning our souls is our care concerning our seed, and God has a blessing in store for the generation of the upright … their children shall fare the better for their prayers when they are gone.”

Their children. Barnes is right. I certainly want to spend eternity in heaven. But I feel in my heart that right next to that (and even completely overlapping it) is my care for my children. To the very deepest recesses of my soul I feel that as long as they fare well, my soul is satisfied. I wish the best for the rest of the world, but I can think of no greater “good” the Lord can do for me than to “know my children walk in truth,” that they are blessed, happy, that they marry well. I have said before and I still think it true: If I could know that all my children will walk with God and be blessed and all my grandchildren and their children after them will walk with God and be blessed, I could simply die today and be gone. My work would be “done” here. In a sense my soul’s deepest desire to live at all is for whatever opportunity I might have to do my children good. The language “shall possess the land” is exactly the same wording for Israel’s “possessing the land” and I would suggest David’s intent is to paint that same picture. In a Hebrew mind there could have been no greater blessing than to know his children would live on in the Promised Land. And I can think of no greater good the Lord could do for me than to see that my children live on in the Promised Land of the Lord’s amazing good.

The Lord is good. All that He does is good. He has promised to always do me good.

May I live like I believe it today. May I enjoy all these privileges. May my soul know it is “lodging in good” and may my children lodge in that same goodness all the days of their lives. Now that’s blessing.