Psalm 31:1-3 – “Faith-Talk 2”

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

¹In You, YHVH, I have taken refuge. Do not let me be ashamed to ages. In Your righteousness, deliver me. ²Incline to me Your ear. Quickly rescue me. Be to me to a rock from strength, to a house of fortresses to save me, ³because You [are] my Rock and my Fortress and for the sake of Your name You lead and guide me.

In the last post, I pondered over the “Be to me because You are.” There is a little more to the “because” I want to think about before I move on to v4.

David says, “Be to me a Rock and a Fortress because You are my Rock and my Fortress,” but then notice in my translation, the “because” clause continues: “Because You are my Rock and my Fortress and for the sake of Your name You lead and guide me.” It is this final “and” clause I want to think about.

First of all, I should note this clause is variously translated. Both the NIV and the old KJV translated the phrase as imperatives:  “For Your name’s sake, lead and guide me,” while the NASB translated it as futures: “For Your name’s sake You will lead and guide me.” As usual, I recognize that the translators are far better Hebrew scholars than I will ever be, but, on the other hand, this is a good example of exactly why I personally have to be able to examine the original text. While they may all be great scholars, yet they don’t agree on how to translate it – which means it is subject to judgment.

It is precisely these places where I want to be able to form my own opinion. I want to know exactly why they are disagreeing, exactly what the Hebrew text does say, and then be able to decide for myself what I think is the best translation. A general rule I try to follow is, at least at first, to render the simplest possible translation of each of the Hebrew words. Only after that do I look back and consider perhaps the simplest translation is for some reason not the best.

For example, consider this decision of whether the verbs are indicative (as in my translation), imperative (as in the KJV and NIV), or futures (as in the NASB). The form of the Hebrew verbs could be any one of the three – but the simplest translation is to leave them as indicatives … and so I do.

Also notice in my translation this final phrase begins with an “and.” None of the three major translations even include the “and,” even though there is in fact a Hebrew “and” in the text. Once again, I include the “and” in my translation just because it’s there, then look back to see if for some reason I think there is some reason to ignore it. In this case, in my opinion, I see no reason to ignore it and, in fact, if we leave it in, we see that the thought in our larger “because” clause is actually continued.

In my opinion, the entirety of vv. 2&3 form a single sentence, based on what I think is the simplest translation of each word all compiled together. For whatever it’s worth, this is also why I always start these posts with my “fairly literal translation of these verses.” What I’m trying to record (for my own later perusal) is what I think is the simplest possible translation of each word. It makes for very awkward English translations, but, what I’m trying to avoid is that, in order to “smooth out” the English translation, any would-be translator has to make a lot of decisions. As in this text, the old KJV or the NASB try to reflect the original text, to be as “literal” as possible, which sometimes leaves them (like me) reading a little awkwardly. The NIV translators, in an effort to make the Bible very readable (and in which I personally think they did a very admirable job), often depart further from the original text than I personally am comfortable with. What we are all reflecting is the difficulty of translating from one language to another – do you try to translate exactly what they said or is it more important to translate what they meant? The problem with the first is that it may be awkward. The problem with the second is that it is subject to the translator’s judgment (and biases … and errors).

What I’m trying to do with my “fairly literal” translations is to reflect the simplest possible translation from the original words without inserting my own judgment. “It is what it is.” In this case, however, one does have to make some decisions in order for the English to make any sense at all, and so, in the end, my translation just becomes one of many. Being fundamentally arrogant, of course I think I’m right, that mine is the simplest (and best) translation of the words. Honestly (and I hope humbly) I do think my translation is the most defensible – and so, going forward, my thoughts are candidly based on my own translation.

I had to say all of that so I could comment on this final “and” clause of indicative verbs. David, again, is praying, “Be to me a Rock and a Fortress because You are my Rock and my Fortress and for Your name’s sake you lead me and guide me. I personally think this “and” clause is highly significant. As I pondered in my last post, we, in faith, ask the Lord to be to us who He is. But there’s more to it than even that. We can ask Him to be who He is to us, but we also can remind ourselves that it is all “for His name’s sake.”

There is something going on here much more important than my own personal comfort and desires. Even as I struggle on in my little corner of the universe, the Lord Himself is engaged in the great eternal battle of the ages. It is “for His name’s sake” that He leads us and guides us. Fortunately for us, the Lord’s greatest glory is always our greatest good. Recognizing this, we can pray for whatever we think we need or what we think should happen in the confidence that He will in fact do what is best. This, of course, is just more faith-talk. Confidence in Him is faith in Him.

“Be to us because You are and because we’re confident You always do what’s best.”