TheBibleNet: Psalm 138

Psalms:

Bk 1: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41

Bk 2: 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72

Bk 3: 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89

Bk 4: 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106

Bk 5: 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119a 119b 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132
133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150

Additional Psalms: 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 Samuel Chronicles

Essays: Intro - Music - Form & Language

No title. Dedication - "to" or "for" David, please, but definitely not "by" him.

138:1 LE DAVID ODECHA VE CHOL LIBI NEGED ELOHIM AZAMRECHA

לְדָוִד אוֹדְךָ בְכָל לִבִּי נֶגֶד אֱלֹהִים אֲזַמְּרֶךָּ

KJ: (A Psalm of David.) I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto thee.

BN: For David. I will thank you with all my heart; in the presence of the gods I will sing praises to you.

ODECHA: Who is the "you" here? Tradition has this written by David, addressing the Omnideity, but that is not what the text says, and tradition is the late theology of Hasmonean Yehudism and Talmudic Judaism, not the polytheistic cult of the ancients. The answer lies in verse 7.

138:2 ESHTACHAVEH EL HEYCHAL KADSHECHA VE ODEH ET SHEMECHA AL CHASDECHA VE AL AMITECHA KI HIGDALTA AL KOL SHIMCHA IMRATECHA

אֶשְׁתַּחֲוֶה אֶל הֵיכַל קָדְשְׁךָ וְאוֹדֶה אֶת שְׁמֶךָ עַל חַסְדְּךָ וְעַל אֲמִתֶּךָ כִּי הִגְדַּלְתָּ עַל כָּל שִׁמְךָ אִמְרָתֶךָ

KJ: I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.

BN: I will prostrate myself, facing your holy Temple, and give thanks to your name {N} for your loving-kindness and for your truth; {N} for you have made every facet of your name great through your words.

ESHTACHAVEH EL HEYCHAL KADSHECHA: also found in the Aleynu.

EL HEYCHAL: The following is excerpted from my book "A Myrtle Among Reeds" (pp 23/24):

The direction of prayer, of course, is inwards, and upwards, but the body has to face in some direction too. The matter is open to dispute - facing east, or facing Jerusalem? Daniel 6:11 faces Jerusalem. In Europe, when a synagogue is built, or even when a room is converted to contain a synagogue, the Ark is placed on the wall that faces east. Is this true of Los Angeles, of Adelaide, of Pietermaritzburg, of Baghdad? The answer is yes. However a tale in the Mishnah records the priests who drew the water reaching the east-facing gate and turning round to face the Temple in order to face God - suggesting that it’s neither east nor even Jerusalem that is the axis, but the Temple itself. Ezekiel 8:16, however, records precisely the opposing custom:
“And he brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house, and there, at the Temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were some twenty-five men with their backs towards the Temple of the Lord and their faces towards the east; and they worshipped the sun towards the east.”
The importance of this passage is that it was intended critically - what was being described was common practice, but also anathema, and in the following verse would be described as an “abomination”. And yet the practice wasn’t outlawed.
The argument continues in the Babylonian Talmud, where the most marvellous compromise is reached - one may face any direction one chooses, since God is everywhere. I wonder then, why an Orthodox Jew may not pray in a cathedral, or a mosque, or a mandir, or a field, or a mountain-top, or even a Reform synagogue, all these being houses of the One God Who Is Everywhere? The blind Rabbi Shesheth, a Babylonian amora of the late 3rd century CE, insisted that it mattered not a jot which way one faced. His argument coheres with mine. When one prays, the direction one should face is neither Templewards nor eastwards nor upwards nor Jerusalemwards - but inwards.
But of course there is a definitive answer to this question - any answer given by Maimonides is definitive. In the Hillel Tefillah (5:3), he states that one should face Israel, not the east, to pray, while worshippers in Israel should face Jerusalem, and worshippers in Jerusalem should face the Temple Mount. And in a variation of my own conclusion - hugely satisfying to discover this - “those who do not know which way to face should simply direct their prayers to heaven.”

IMRATECHA: I have explored the difference between the IMRAT and the DAVAR in Psalm 119, and recommend that my reader follow the link to there. Essentially and elementally, the DAVAR is the essences and the elements, where the IMRAT, so to speak, are the written instructions in the Oral Law.

138:3 BE YOM KARA'TI VA TA'ANENI TARHIVENI VE NAPHSHI OZ

בְּיוֹם קָרָאתִי וַתַּעֲנֵנִי תַּרְהִבֵנִי בְנַפְשִׁי עֹז

KJ: In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.

BN: On the day that I called out, you answered me; you helped my soul to grow strong.

TARHIVENI: The root is RAHAV, which is a PhD thesis all on its own. See the link for an outline of what that thesis would require.

And as to what might have been the intention behind choosing this root here. Not a clue. Sorry.
My translation is therefore stopped at red. I think this is what it means, but without understanding why TARHIVENI has been used, I cannot turn on the green light that says go.

138:4 YODUCHA YHVH KOL MALCHEY ARETS KI SHAM'U IMREY PHIYCHA

יוֹדוּךָ יְהוָה כָּל מַלְכֵי אָרֶץ כִּי שָׁמְעוּ אִמְרֵי פִיךָ

KJ: All the kings of the earth shall praise thee, O LORD, when they hear the words of thy mouth.

BN: All the kings of the Earth will give you thanks, YHVH, for they have heard the words of your mouth.

IMREY: Again the IMRAT not the DAVAR. This is about the Torah, not the nature of the Cosmos.

138:5 VE YASHIYRU BE DARCHEY YHVH KI GADOL KEVOD YHVH

וְיָשִׁירוּ בְּדַרְכֵי יְהוָה כִּי גָדוֹל כְּבוֹד יְהוָה

KJ: Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the LORD: for great is the glory of the LORD.

BN: And they will sing of the ways of YHVH; for great is the glory of YHVH.

DARCHEY: Rather than HALACHAH. The DERECH is the main highway, whereas the HALACHAH is the road-map: spiritually and theologically speaking, obviously.

138:6 KI RAM YHVH VE SHAPHAL YIR'EH VE GAVO'AH MI MERCHAK YEYEDA

כִּי רָם יְהוָה וְשָׁפָל יִרְאֶה וְגָבֹהַּ מִמֶּרְחָק יְיֵדָע

KJ: Though the LORD be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.

BN: For though YHVH is great, he still takes care of the lowly; but from the haughty he keeps his distance.

RAM: Used to mean both "high" and "great", in different contexts. RAMOT, for example, are tall hills, and the towns in them regularly get the name included, such as Shemu-El's home-town of Ramatayim Tsophim (1 Samuel 1). But then there is the patriarch Av-Ram, "Great Father"...

138:7 IM ELECH BE KEREV TSARAH TECHAYENI AL APH OYEVAI TISHLACH YADECHA VE TOSHIY'ENI YEMIYNECHA

אִם אֵלֵךְ בְּקֶרֶב צָרָה תְּחַיֵּנִי עַל אַף אֹיְבַי תִּשְׁלַח יָדֶךָ וְתוֹשִׁיעֵנִי יְמִינֶךָ

KJ: Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.

BN: Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you quicken me; {N} you stretch forth your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand saves me.

TSARAH...OYEVAI: On so many occasions I have criticised King James for mistranslating TSAR as "enemy", when it means "troubles", and OYEV is the word for "enemy". How pleasing then to find both words in the same sentence, and it turns out that KJ did know the difference all along.

YEMIYNECHA: See my note at Psalm 137:5. The point being that YHVH is really only the essential and the elemental, the DAVAR, the creator of the DERECH. For humans to travel that highway, they need the road-map which is HALACHAH, but also the societal organisation that enables it: the Kohanim as its priests, the Leviyim as its administrators and craftsmen, the Prophets as its teachers, and RAM, the highest and greatest of them all, the surrogate of the deity, the anointed one, the Melech who is Mashiyach, the right-hand man, the beloved son: David.

TOSHIY'EN: And yes, the other so-similar word is here too, the Moshi'a... but see the next verse. David surrogates for the deity on Earth, but he is only Mashiyach. The Moshi'a remains YHVH.

138:8 YHVH YIGMOR BA ADI YHVH CHASDECHA LE OLAM MA'ASEY YADEYCHA AL TEREPH

יְהוָה יִגְמֹר בַּעֲדִי יְהוָה חַסְדְּךָ לְעוֹלָם מַעֲשֵׂי יָדֶיךָ אַל תֶּרֶף

KJ: The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.

BN: YHVH will complete whatever concerns me; your loving-kindness, YHVH, endures for ever; do not abandon the work of your own hands. {P}

TEREPH: Is that the same root that gives TREYF for prohibited foods? If so, are "forsake" and "abandon" really the full or even accurate translation? "Do not spoil" might be more precise.

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Psalms:

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