PERFECTION:
Hebrew is God's "alef-beyt." Hebrew is so much more than letters. The letters themselves tell a story and reveal God.
Before I show you some examples of how God uses Hebrew to speak of perfection, here are a couple basics.
There are 22 Hebrew letters. In the Torah there are no vowels. This is one of the things that makes it more difficult to read directly from the Torah, versus modern Hebrew. Each Hebrew letter is also a number. The first letter, alef, is the #1. The second letter, beyt, is the #2 and so on.
Each Hebrew letter also has an original primitive (ancient), also known as paleo form. (Think of hyrogliphs.) In other words, Hebrew is a picture language. The image of the letter is synonymous with the meaning of the letter. For example the paleo image of first letter, alef, and number ONE is an OX head. The letter alef is synonymous with strength. And the number ONE is associated with God.
God loves math like he loves his alphabet. God uses hebrew letters and numbers to provide us a deeper understanding of his Word. There are amazing mathematical patterns within the Torah! ONE of my favorite examples of this is the 23rd Psalm, the Song of David. There are "perfect numbers" (triangle numbers) all through the Psalm. There is even the math for a Magen (Star) of David to be found in the letters of the Psalm.
"The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want."
Psalm 23
The Psalms are the makings of wonderful songs. King David was a wonderful musician. The whole Torah has been called a song. Rabbi Lord Sacks explains why as follows:
"And why call the Torah a song? Because if we are to hand on our faith and way of life to the next generation, it must sing. Torah must be affective, not just cognitive. It must speak to our emotions. As Antonio Damasio showed empirically in Descartes’ though the reasoning part of the brain is central to what makes us human, it is the limbic system, the seat of the emotions, that leads us to choose this way, not that. If our Torah lacks passion, we will not succeed in passing it on to the future. Music is the affective dimension of communication, the medium through which we express, evoke and share emotion. Precisely because we are creatures of emotion, music is an essential part of the vocabulary of mankind."
There are several literary techniques used in the Torah to emphasize points. ONE of the ways God shows us His perfection is through the use of acrostics. An acrostic is a poem, word puzzle, or other composition in which certain letters, often the first letter, in each line form a word or words. We find this pattern in the Bible. Here are some examples. In each of these cases the pattern is found in the first letter of every verse, and what the pattern forms is the Hebrew Alphabet. (Note: The Acrostic pattern is lost in translation to English.)
- Psalm 112 - About the Perfect Man
- Proverbs 31 - About the Perfect Woman
- Psalm 119 - Praises the Completeness of God’s Word, the Law - each set of 8 verses starts with a different letter.
- Lamentations - The Perfect Fullness of Sorrow
Psalm 145 is also an acrostic. This is the only Psalm, aka chapter, in the Book of Psalms, that identifies itself as a תְּהִלָה (tehillah) --namely, a hymn of praise.
Tehillah is derived from the Hebrew word תְּהִלָּה} meaning "praise, song or hymn of praise", which itself is derived from הָלַל (halal) meaning "to shine; to praise, boast, be boastful".
"I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever". Psalm 145.1
Psalm 145 is also an alphabetic acrostic. The initial letter of each verse is the Hebrew alphabet in sequence. (The Hebrew numbering begins at the first verse, not the title. It begins at ארוממך Aromimkha, "I will exalt You," verses the title, "A Psalm of David."
Psalm 145 is the last Psalm attributed explicitly to David and also the last of the nine acrostic Psalms in the Book of Psalms
There is notable exception in Psalm 145. There is what someone unfaithful might call "typo," a sign of imperfection, at verse 14. If the pattern were consistent, verse 14 would start with the Hebrew letter Nun, as in the first letter of the words Nimrod and Nephilam.
Nun is the fourteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet
Numerical value: 50
Sound: "N"
Meaning: 1. Deceit 2. kingship 3. fish (seed) 4. miscarriage 5. miracle
It is no coincidence that the number 14 is the numeric (gemetria) equivalent for David. If you add up the numeric values of letters in the name David they equal 14.
Think of David!! His story begins with the miracle of slaying Goliath. His life includes other miraculous events. There is a miscarriage of sorts within the story of his Kingship in relation to King Saul. When it comes to deceit, David performs one of worst acts deceit. As for David's seed, need I say more.
David was the greatest King who united Israel. But he was not the "perfect man." He was a fallen man. He was however profoundly faithful.
The fact the verse 14 omits the letter Nun is coupled with fact that instead it goes to the letter Samekht - which means to hold up, to support. And when Israel and David could have fallen, God held them up. God is our Rock and our Shield.
Here is something I noticed which I find interesting: If we take Psalm 145 (which Praises the Completeness of God’s Word) and subtract Psalm 112 (The Perfect Man) we get Psalm 33. (145-112=33). Psalm 33 praises a nation devoted to God.
"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord..." Psalm 33:12
Psalm 33 is a poem about the blessing that comes from trusting in God. The central word, literally, is the word "blessed" or "happy." In Hebrew there are exactly 80 words before and after it. As is so common in Hebrew poetry this central word or phrase sums up the psalm. We can only be blessed or find happiness when we place our hope in God.
Although this is not an alphabetic acrostic Psalm 33 is uniquely structured with 22 verse lines and a clear parallel structure to the lines. (Note: The are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet.)
Structure of Psalm 33:
Part 1: God is great, good, creator, awesome, sovereign
Part 2: Trust God, Watch God, Rescue, Our Hope
Central word - Blessed.
Psalm 33 seems to have been purposely designed to be a prelude to Psalm 34 which is another alphabetic acrostic Psalm. Psalm 34 describes angels as guardians of the righteous. That brings us back to Psalm 145 and the missing letter Nun.
"The Lord redeems the soul of His servants, and all who take refuge in Him shall not be accounted guilty." Psalm 34:22
Psalm 34:
1 Of David, when he disguised his sanity before Abimelech, whereupon he drove him out and he departed.
2 I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise is always in my mouth.
3 My soul boasts of the Lord; may the humble hear and rejoice.
4 Declare the greatness of the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.
5 I sought the Lord and He answered me, and He delivered me from all my terrors.
6 They looked to Him and they became radiant, and their faces will not be ashamed.
7 This poor man called and the Lord heard, and He saved him from all his troubles.
8 An angel of the Lord is stationed around those who fear Him, and He saved them.
9 Comprehend and see that the Lord is good; praiseworthy is the man who takes shelter in Him.
10 Fear the Lord, His holy ones; for there is no want to those who fear Him.
11 Young lions suffer want and are hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good.
12 Come, children, hearken to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
13 Who is the man who desires life, who loves days to see goodness?
14 Guard your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceitfully.
15 Shun evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it.
16 The eyes of the Lord are to the righteous, and His ears are to their cry.
17 The face of the Lord is against evildoers, to cut off their remembrance from the earth.
18 They cry out and the Lord hearkens, and He saves them from all their troubles.
19 The Lord is near to the broken-hearted, and He saves those of crushed spirit.
20 Many evils befall the righteous, but the Lord saves him from them all.
21 He guards all his bones; not one of them was broken.
22 Evil will kill the wicked, and those who hate the righteous shall be accounted guilty.
23 The Lord redeems the soul of His servants, and all who take refuge in Him shall not be accounted guilty.
In closing this post about "Perfection" in God's Hebrew in the Torah, I offer the following videos by two teachers I like very much:
The first is a teaching by a Pastor in Australia. "I am the first and the last."
My favorite Hebrew teacher is a Christian who doesn't speak Hebrew. John is a math wiz who loves Hebrew. Here are three of his videos about math in the bible. If this doesn't blow your mind nothing will.
Zei Gezunt!
Jonah
P.S. Here is some Bible "trivia."
The Gemetria value of the name David is 14. The Messiah was to be in the line of King David.
The Passover Exodus tells the story of the birth of the nation of Israel. Both "The Book of Exodus," (which is actually called The Book of "Shemot" (Hebrew "Names") and the first book in the Brit Haddasha, Matthew, begin with a list of names.
Matthew 1 then says,
"So all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations, from David until the Babylonian exile are 14 generations, and from the Babylonian exile until the Messiah are 14 generations."
