Psalm 111:1,2 – “Delight”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

Praise the LORD.

¹I will praise the LORD with all of [my] heart, in council of the upright and assembly. ²Great [are] the doings of the LORD, being sought to/by all of delights of them.

Before I move on to verse 3, I want to record a couple observations from the Hebrew text of verse 2.

The NIV translates the verse, “Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them.” The word translated “pondered” is interesting. It is “darash” in Hebrew and gets translated many different ways by words like “searched,” “sought out,” “treasured,” “desired,” “kept in mind,” “studied,” “examined,” etc. This is one of those places one has to get in a Hebrew mindset and remember the Hebrew mind didn’t present “facts” but rather painted pictures. The picture the word paints is of taking something and beating it, thrashing it, rubbing it, trying to glean something from it, like beating up corn kernels to work out the starch.

So the picture is that we take the works of the Lord in their greatness and do just that – we rub them, and turn them over and over, and look at them from this way and that, pull them apart, and basically just do “all of the above.” That is why the word gets translated so many different ways. Everyone is trying to express this idea in English, which, unfortunately is a great language for presenting facts, but a poor one for painting pictures. One can see why the NIV “pondered” is not at all a bad choice – it just doesn’t say enough.

What we can take from all of this is that the Lord actually wants us to “darash” His works, to ponder them and study them and search them out, to “beat them and thrash them and rub them!” And note, in this case, it isn’t His words, but His works. “The heavens declare the glory of God.” Some people think the only legitimate studies are purely religious, that scientific inquiry is a waste of time or even profane – and certainly nothing the Lord has any interest in. But Psalm 111:2 would beg to differ. I obviously love to study the Word itself, and to “darash” it right down to the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek letters. To study God’s Word is profoundly rewarding. But I am also a scientist. I love to study the math and the physics, the chemistry and biochemistry, the astronomy of the universe and the atomic structure beneath it all, to understand why water freezes at 32º and boils at 212 º, why iron rusts but gold does not, why the sky is blue and sunsets are red. But in all of that, it isn’t the “knowledge” in and of itself I enjoy. What makes it breathtaking is to see in all of it the absolutely amazing workings of my awesome God, the Creator, the Maker of it all; the “works of His fingers, the moon and the stars which He set in place …”

The very essence of being an engineer is the belief that our universe is ruled by very orderly laws and that, understanding those laws, we can take them and use them and in a million different ways do good to the human race. Our world is not run by magic. It is ruled by laws, like the familiar “law of gravity.” And where do all those laws come from? May I introduce you to their Creator? His name is Yahveh, Adonai, Jehovah, the Lord, the God who came to earth and walked among us, Jesus, the Savior of the world! And so anyone reading this can see why we should study not only the words of the Lord but His works as well – they all lead us back to Him and leave us amazed.

The other word I wanted to note needs little introduction at this point, but is the word translated “delight” – “pondered by all who delight in them.” It is the word “hafatz” and in the Hebrew it isn’t really clear whether we are delighting in God’s works or if they are delightful. In English we demand to know which it is. In Hebrew, I doubt they cared. It’s back to their “picture” mindset. They would probably ask, “Why do you need to know? The fact is God’s works are delightful and so anyone who really ponders them will delight in them. Yes?” Yes. As I hope anyone else feels, one word that overarches all of the considerations of God’s Word and His works (and anything else to do with Him) is “delight!” I can think of nothing else so true. To know God is to know delight, to be delighted at every turn. “Hafatz” is simply part of knowing Him.

He is amazing. It is true – His works are glorious. He is glorious.

As the Psalm begins, “Praise the Lord!”