As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of this verse:
4Memory
He has made to His ones being amazed;
gracious and compassionate [is] the LORD.
The first line of this verse is another place where I think
the Hebrew is very difficult to translate. In Hebrew it has only three words.
The first is something like “memory” or “a memorial” or “a remembering,” and
the second is a simple verb “He made.” What is puzzling is the third word,
which is a passive participle of “palah” (“to amaze”) with a third person
masculine singular suffix, which I think most directly translates to “His ones
being amazed.” The NIV translates the line, “He has caused His wonders to be
remembered …” Hmmmmm. The verse is definitely talking about memory and has
something to do with amazement, but as you can see, a direct translation from
Hebrew to English doesn’t immediately make a lot of sense. As I am studying it,
the one thing I think might be helpful is to put the entire verse together into
a single thought, so that in order to understand it, you have to at the same
time consider the statement, “Gracious and compassionate is the LORD.” It looks
like perhaps all the other verses are comprised of two lines presenting a
single thought, so I think it reasonable to take these two lines together.
Albert Barnes noted the difficulty and offered the
translation, “Memory hath he made for his wonderful works.” To look at his
translation, first of all one should note that the word “wonderful” has changed
meaning in the last 200 years. It originally meant literally “full of wonder”
and I would suggest is better translated “amazing” today. We take “wonderful”
as just a “Golly gee, isn’t this nice?” kind of word instead of having to do
with “wonders.” So today, Barnes would probably translate it “Memory He has
made for His amazing works.” My problem is that the participle is in the Niphal
stem which makes it passive. Somehow we have to bring out this sense that
something is itself being amazed. Unless I’m missing something (which is
entirely possible, especially with Hebrew -- which at times is downright
cryptic!), I don’t see any way to translate it except as “amazed ones” (a
passive form) rather than “amazing works” (which contains no passive element at
all). And I note, whatever they are, they are definitely “His.”
Of course I should note that (apparently) no one else in the
recorded universe translates it like this. At such times, I’m always reminded
of John Eadie’s warning, “Interpretations are generally false in proportion to
their ingenuity.” To be alone in a translation or interpretation is usually not a good thing! Unfortunately, until I
learn something different, I don’t know how else to translate these three
(seemingly) simple words while trying to be faithful to the original.
So allowing me to be (dangerously) alone, I’m going to run
with my “His amazed ones.” If that is the case, He’s referring to us, the same
ones who in verse 2 were searching out His works and finding them delightful.
Now, in verse 4, there is something being remembered by us and we’re being
amazed.
This is precisely where, if we take the verse as a whole, it
would tell us what is being remembered by us who are being amazed. And what is
it? The second line is “Gracious and compassionate is the LORD.” That is what
we’re remembering and leaving us amazed!
Could I suggest that, to us who are sinful and twisted and
deserving of hell, there is no wonder greater than to find the Lord “gracious
and compassionate?” From my own life: Once very early in my Christian life, I
was studying the 23rd Psalm and came to the line, “He restoreth my
soul.” I realized as I studied that the picture there was of a “cast” sheep.
When sheep get very heavy with wool (just before they’re sheared), it is
possible for them to get upside down like a turtle and then be completely
unable to right themselves again. If left in that position they simply die
there upside down kicking their little legs in the air and bleating for help.
That in the Psalm is, of course, me.
That is precisely where the Lord found me – upside down, helpless, and doomed –
although not innocent like the sheep, but rather the very one (idiot) who got
me into this mess to start with! And what does He do when He finds this idiot
sinner hopeless and helpless, upside down with his legs in the air crying for
help? His justice would say, “You reap what you sow. You got yourself into
this, get yourself out. You made the bed, now sleep in it. You got here
ignoring Me, why shouldn’t I ignore you?” But what does He do? “He restoreth my
soul!” He reaches down and uprights my silly body.
When I saw that picture, I sat and cried my eyes out for
about ten minutes. Why? Because I was overwhelmed with amazement – that He
really is gracious and compassionate! Today I am still amazed by grace. I often
resort to Hebrews 4:16, “Let us therefore come boldly unto the
throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of
need.” I have plenty of “times
of need” but to this day I find my heart reluctant to go to the Lord aware of
all my sins and failures. What He should do is just send down fire from Heaven
and be done with me. But that verse reminds me it’s all about Jesus, my great
high priest, and because of Him I am freed to go boldly to God’s throne and
find that indeed, “Gracious and compassionate [is] the LORD!”
I would go so far as to say this is to me the wonder of
wonders – to find that God is gracious and compassionate. When one sets out to
“know God” I suppose we all have our preconceived notions of who He is and
what He is like. Everyone’s natural assumption, it seems, is that He is very
stern and demanding, that He will like you only as long as you keep all the
rules, that He is utterly disgusted by all our miserable failures and
weaknesses. But as you get to really “know” Him, you find that isn’t true at
all. Oh, yes, He wants us to do right, but that is because He loves us and
wants the best for us. In fact, it is no coincidence that one of His names is
Father. He sees us not through the eyes of His justice but rather through the
eyes of a parent seeing their child. To any of us who have children, that
should immediately make total sense to us. No matter what they do, no matter
how they might fail, they are and always will be precious in our sight. And,
because of Jesus, that is exactly how the Lord sees us. In this light, I love
Zeph 3:17: “The Lord thy God in
the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He
will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing.”
What Psalms 111:4 seems to be saying is
that the Lord wants us to be amazed while we remember His grace and compassion,
that it is a good thing to be so amazed and to choose to think on and remember
who He really is – not the stern demanding bully most people think He is, but
rather our Father who loves us beyond our wildest imagination!
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