The Psalms 13: How Long O LORD

Sometimes blessings don’t always feel like blessings, do they? Sometimes the weight of it all can make us see our blessings as a curse. The trick is to not fall into that negativity. The trick is to allow yourself to see the blessing in it all, even when it can feel overwhelming.

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
1 How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

Is anyone instantly transported to a different verse when you read, “How long O LORD?”

“How long, O Lord, holy and true until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Rev 6:10)

Should we see a correlation here? Is the similarity more than just coincidental? I know that there are other places in the Bible that the same thing is said. Is it possible that when we read this we’re supposed to remember the ones that have happened before? If we pay attention to the context in this verse it certainly echoes the same sentiment found in the verse in Revelation. In Revelation it’s the souls who have been slaughtered because of their testimony in the Word of the Lord. I don’t have an answer for this, but it’s certainly something that I’m intrigued by and have been giving a decent amount of study over the past year, or so. Just what do the souls beneath the altar have to do with spilt blood and altars? There’s something there.

2 How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

Again with the “how long…”. David’s exasperation is palpable. There’s something important to point out here: while David is “a man after God’s own heart”, he is overcome with emotion about God forgetting about him. We know that God hasn’t forgotten him as that’s not an attribute of God, but David is still calling God out for it. While we should always seek to walk in the footsteps mapped out by God, we shouldn’t beat ourselves up too much should we fall into a zealous temper tantrum. The key is to move on after and learn from it. Don’t just accept it as a part of life, learn from it.

3 Consider and answer me, O LORD my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,

We should remember that David is potentially writing this as he’s running for his life, probably from Saul. He’s in a situation where if he stops to lay his head down to rest, that could be the moment that Saul catches up to him and David really does sleep the sleep of death. Very few of us have actually been in a situation like this, but I think that most of us can relate to lesser version where we feel that if we don’t keep moving then we’ll be overwhelmed by all of the responsibilities we have.

How do we best deal with this? Is it to keep running? Maybe sometimes… Very often we’re guilted into feeling like we’re not “giving it all to God” (and maybe this is actually the case some of the time) but we see here that David was following God’s calling for his life and yet he still had to keep moving if he wanted to stay alive. In this instance (like many of the instances in our own lives) God’s blessing was only provided because David did keep moving. It was all part of the plan. The hard part is being able to discern God’s voice while we’re keeping moving. David was apparently able to do this, and maybe this is one of the reasons why we hear him called, “a man after God’s own heart.”

4 lest my enemy say, "I have prevailed over him," lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

So the thing about this verse is that it has an underlying sentiment that is buried under the actual statement. If the enemy in question here is actually King Saul, then what he would actually be saying would be, “I have prevailed over God,” since it was God who had said that David would be King.

5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

Just a quick reminder here that the name “Jesus” comes from the Hebrew word “Yeshua”, which has a meaning of Yahweh’s Salvation. So, hidden in this verse (and don’t worry, I’m not saying that this was the sole intent of the verse) is the statement that he will rejoice in Jesus.

6 I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me.
(Psa 13:1-6 ESV)

Look at this statement right here. We’ve just chronicled how David is running for his life, and here he says that the LORD has dealt bountifully with him. Let’s go back to what I said after verse 3. When we have to just keep moving because we’re overwhelmed because of all of the responsibilities that we have, how often do we look at all of our responsibilities and thank God for all that He has given us? This is easy to overlook. It’s so easy to turn our bounty into our headache, but when we have responsibility it’s because we’ve been found worthy of being trusted with it. Are there times that we wish we weren’t given some of these things? Sure, but don’t let yourself get caught up in that. Remind yourself that you are a child of the King and that your King thinks so much of you that He knows that you can handle it.

This may be “easier said than done” right now, but if we keep acknowledging it then we’ll eventually be able to see life through those God-colored lenses!

Have a great day, and Shalom!

God Almighty vs. The god With Breasts

In a recent news article it was noted that the U.S. Episcopal diocese has voted to not only start using gender neutral pronouns for God (despite the fact that Jesus chose to call Him Father), but there was even an attendee (the Rev. Linda R. Calkins from a congregation in Maryland) which made the argument that anyone who took the time to look into the Hebrew language would see that the title of God “El Shaddai”, which is always translated “God Almighty” is better translated as “god with breasts”. The reason this kind of thing can happen is because people hear words in a language that they don’t really understand and, because they sound alike, they think that they are related, or maybe even the same. In this instance the two words in question are Shad (שׁד) and Shaddai (שׁדּי). As you can see, the two words appear very similar. There’s even a possibility that both of them may come from related primitive root words. “Shood” (שׁוּד) which has a meaning of to swell up, or to devastate, is the root word for the word that became ‘breasts’. ‘Shawdad’ (שׁדד) is the word that is thought to be the root for ‘Shaddai’, and it means powerful and destructive. Look, I’m sure there are good lexical reasons that these two words grew up around each other, but the truth is that without reading into the etymological history of the words, all we really know is that the two words are as closely related as “sheep” and “sheik”. While those two words do look and sound similar, there are very few people out there who would argue that all sheiks are sheep.

I thought we might take the time and look at every single time that the two words in question occur anywhere in the Hebrew Bible so everyone has the opportunity to see exactly why bad scholarship like this can happen. The first thing we’ll have to call out is that Hebrew is a language which doesn’t really have any letters which are vowels. That’s not to say that the spoken language doesn’t include vowel sounds, it’s just that a native speaker of the language who is reading it doesn’t need the vowels in order to read it accurately. So, in order save space on the ‘paper’ (as paper wasn’t that readily available at the time), they weren’t initially developed. Over the years a system of vowel pointers were developed around the consonants which help out with pronunciation but these are just a series of dots and dashes which end up getting placed around the actual letters. Honestly, I only barely understand this so you’ll get a much better tutorial by looking elsewhere; I’m only mentioning it because it appears that part of the problem with the “god with breasts” translation comes from a poor understanding of Hebrew vowel pointers and grammatical rules attached to them. For instance, in the word ‘Shaddai’ (שׁדּי) you can see a dot in the middle of the dalet (ד). This is called a dagesh lene and it doesn’t technically change the dalet to a different letter but when you see that dagesh lene in every form of Shaddai and you don’t see it in any of the forms of Shad then you should probably be able to conclude that these two words are supposed to be different words. Again, the purpose of this isn’t to be a Hebrew grammar lesson, I just wanted to point out that it’s easy to mistranslate and mispronounce things when you’re not a native speaker of the language you’re intending to translate. So when you see the words ‘shadayi’ (שָׁדַ֖י) and ‘Shaddai’ (שַׁדַּי֙), it’s tempting to think that they’re the same word, but those little dots and dashes mean things, and we can’t change what they mean just because it would help us make an argument that we want to make.

Now we’re going to take a look at each of the words in question (with the Strong’s information) as well as each individual occurrence of both of the words throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. Included with the occurrences will be the address, the actual Hebrew for that occurrence, the transliteration, and the translation that the KJV gives the word. This is going to be tedious and boring and you don’t have to read every one if you don’t want to, but they’re being provided just in case you do want to.

Breasts
Shad (Shode) – שׁד
H7699 – Probably from H7736 (in its original sense) contracted; the breast of a woman or animal (as bulging): - breast, pap, teat.

H7736 – שׁוּד (shood)A primitive root; properly to swell up, that is, figuratively (by implication of insolence) to devastate: - waste.

Gen 49:25 – שָׁדַיִם Shadayim (Breasts), Job 3:12 –שָּׁ֝דַ֗יִם Shadayim (Breasts), Job 24:9 –  מִשֹּׁ֣ד Mishod (Breast), Psalm 22:9 – שְׁדֵ֥י Shadayi (Breasts), Son 1:13 –  שָׁדַ֖י Shadayi (Breasts), Son 4:5 –שָׁדַ֛יִךְ Shadayik (Breasts), Son 7:3 – שָׁדַ֛יִךְ Shadayik (Breasts), Son 7:7 –  וְשָׁדַ֖יִךְ  veShadayik (Breasts), Son 7:8 – שָׁדַ֛יִךְ Shadayik (Breasts), Son 8:1 – שְׁדֵ֣י  Shedei (Breasts), Son 8:8 – וְשָׁדַ֖יִם veShadayim (Breasts), Son 8:10 – וְשָׁדַ֖י veShadai (Breasts), Isa 28:9 –מִשָּׁדָֽיִם׃  mishShadayim (Breasts), Is 32:12 – שָׁדַיִם Shadayim (Teats), Is 60:16 –וְשֹׁ֥ד veShod (Breast), Isa 66:11 – מִשֹּׁ֣ד Mishod (Breasts), Lam 4:3 –שַׁ֔ד Shad (Breast), Ez 16:7 – שָׁדַיִם Shadayim (Breasts), Ez 23:3 – שְׁדֵיהֶ֔ן Shedeihen (Breasts) (also in this verse is H1717 (teats) where teats is sexualized), Ez 23:21 – שְׁדֵ֥י Shedei (Paps)(this verse also has H1717 in use), Ez 23:34 – וְשָׁדַ֣יִךְ veShadayik (Breasts), Hos 2:2 – שָׁדֶֽיהָ׃ Shadeiha (Breasts), Hos 9:14 – וְשָׁדַ֖יִם veShadayim (Breasts), Joel 2:16 –שָׁדָ֑יִם Shadayim (Breasts)

H1717 – דּד (dad) Apparently from the same as H1730; the breast (as the seat of love, or from its shape): - breast, teat.

Now we’ll look at “El Shaddai”. Or, more realistically the “Shaddai” part of this title for El (God). There are 48 occurrences of the different forms of this word (H7706) in the Old Testament and 31 of them are in the book of Job. That’s right, a full 65% of the times this word is used, it’s being used in the book of Job. There are many reasons for this but to sum it up I’ll just say that Job is the oldest book in the Bible and El Shaddai is one of the more archaic titles for God. In fact, 9 more of the occurrences are in the Torah so 40 out of the 48 time this word is used it’s happening in what are, by far, the oldest books in the Bible.

It should probably also be mentioned that every time the word is used it’s being translated as “Almighty”. Now, I guess you could say that this choice of wording was used because the translators were part of the patriarchy, but a little more study will disprove that. First of all, just like the Hebrew word for ‘breasts’ the root word (which is a different root word, by the way) has a meaning of power and strength (it will be listed below). Secondly, the translators of the Septuagint also translated this word into a Greek word meaning “almighty”, or “lord”, or some derivation we would normally understand as a title of God, and not “breasts”. Now, you could try to argue that those who translated the Septuagint were also part of the patriarchy but on closer inspection this would be a ridiculous claim. It’s ridiculous because they are the same people who you’re claiming intended ‘El Shaddai’ to be ‘the God with Breasts’. If a person were inclined to argue that the Septuagint translators wouldn’t translate it because they were oppressing women, then you undo the entire argument because these same people would’ve never named their god the “god with breasts”. Let’s take a closer look at each of the occurrences now:

El Shaddai
Shadday – שׁדּי
H7706 - From H7703; the Almighty: - Almighty.

H7703 – שׁדד (shawdad) A primitive root; properly to be burly, that is, (figuratively) powerful (passively impregnable); by implication to ravage: - dead, destroy (-er), oppress, robber, spoil (-er), X utterly, (lay) waste.

Gen 17:1 – שַׁדַּ֔י Shaddai (Almighty), Gen 28:3 – שַׁדַּי֙ Shaddai (Almighty), Gen 35:11 – שַׁדַּי֙ Shaddai (Almighty), Gen 43:14 – שַׁדַּ֗י Shaddai (Almighty), Gen 48:3 – שַׁדַּ֛י Shaddai (Almighty), Gen 49:25 – שַׁדַּי֙ Shaddai (Almighty), Exo 6:3 – שַׁדָּ֑י Shaddai (Almighty), Num 24:4 – שַׁדַּי֙ Shaddai (Almighty), Ruth 1:20 – שַׁדַּ֛י Shaddai (Almighty), Ruth 1:21 – וְשַׁדַּ֖י veShaddai (Almighty), Job 5:17 – שַׁ֝דַּ֗י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 6:4 – שַׁדַּ֡י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 6:14 – שַׁדַּ֣י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 8:3 – שַׁ֝דַּ֗י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 8:5 – שַׁ֝דַּ֗י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 11:7 – שַׁדַּ֣י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 13:3 – שַׁדַּ֣י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 15:25 – שַׁ֝דַּ֗י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 21:15 – שַׁדַּ֛י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 21:20 – שַׁדַּ֣י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 22:3 – לְ֭שַׁדַּי leShaddai (Almighty), Job 22:17 – שַׁדַּ֣י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 22:23 –   שַׁ֭דַּי Shaddai (Almighty), Job 22:25 – שַׁדַּ֣י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 22:26 – שַׁדַּ֣י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 23:16 – וְשַׁדַּ֖י veShaddai (Almighty), Job 24:1 – מִ֭שַּׁדַּי mishShaddai (Almighty), Job 27:2 – וְשַׁדַּ֖י veShaddai (Almighty), Job 27:10 – שַׁדַּ֛י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 27:11 – שַׁ֝דַּ֗י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 27:13 – מִ֭שַּׁדַּי mishShaddai (Almighty), Job 29:5 – שַׁ֭דַּי Shaddai (Almighty), Job 31:2 – שַׁ֝דַּ֗י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 31:35 – שַׁדַּ֣י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 32:8 – שַׁדַּ֣י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 33:4 – שַׁדַּ֣י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 34:10 – וְשַׁדַּ֖י veShaddai (Almighty), Job 34:12 – וְשַׁדַּ֖י veShaddai (Almighty), Job 35:13 – וְשַׁדַּ֖י veShaddai (Almighty), Job 37:23 – שַׁדַּ֣י Shaddai (Almighty), Job 40:2 – שַׁדַּ֣י Shaddai (Almighty), Ps 68:14 –  שַׁדַּ֓י Shaddai (Almighty), Ps 91:1 – שַׁ֝דַּ֗י Shaddai (Almighty), Isa 13:6 – מִ֭שַּׁדַּי mishShaddai (Almighty), Ez 1:24 – שַׁדַּי֙ Shaddai (Almighty), Ez 10:5 – שַׁדַּ֖י Shaddai (Almighty), Joel 1:15 – מִ֭שַּׁדַּי mishShaddai (Almighty)

One of the first things I noticed as I was putting each one of these in is that there are very few form changes when compared to ‘shad’ (שׁד), and the transliteration almost never changes. But the biggest thing that you notice is that while the two words at question in this blog are very similar they are also very different. Also, it’s very easy to use peoples lack of understanding against them when you’re telling them about a different language. I’m not saying that the woman in the article was intentionally tying to deceive people by telling them that ‘El Shaddai’ should be translated as the “god with breasts”. It’s entirely possible that she was told the same thing, and she’s just repeating it. But… we need to be able to look into things and research them, and not just take the things we read on the internet as ‘gospel’, and I think that’s something that a lot of us are guilty of. I can admit that I’ve done this. As representatives of our King, we need to hold ourselves to higher standards, for His sake.

I would like to add here that I tried my best to make sure that I got the correct form of each of the Hebrew words but it's possible that I flipped some of them. If there's anyone out there who actually wants to look into each occurrences, and then you find that I messed up one of them, you truly do deserve a cookie, and I wish that I could give it to you! ;-)