WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

The other night I asked the Lord what I should read before bed. “Psalm 51.” I love that Psalm but there are verses that I don’t fully understand. I know that happens to you too. But there are easy resources online for doing a quick study, or even an extended one. So, I decided to take a closer look and do a word study on verse six:

“Behold, you desire truth in the innermost being: and in the hidden part you will make me know wisdom.”

When I look up the words in their original language, I get a deeper understanding of what the verse really means. It’s a way to meditate on a scripture and let it make a deeper impact, sinking into my heart, because I’m taking the time to focus on it longer than the time it takes to just read it and move on.

In this verse, David is talking to God. David says, “You, God, desire truth in the innermost part of me.” The first word I want to look at is “desire.” The Hebrew word is “chaphets” and it means “delight in, take pleasure in, like.” But there’s more, something I wouldn’t have known about, unless I looked it up: In the definition of “desire” is the idea of bending down toward someone, inclining yourself toward them. So this tells me God actually takes so much pleasure in us having truth, that He bends down toward us, delighting in when He sees truth in us.

So, what is this “truth” God likes bending down to see in us? The word “truth” is the Hebrew word “emeth,” and it means all kinds of amazing things. Among them are: “faithfulness, reliability, trustworthiness, peace and stability.” But again, there is more to it. This is “truth that is spoken,” “truth as it pertains to divine instruction,” “truth in ethical knowledge,” and “truth in judgment.” So God delights in leaning down toward us to smile on our faithfulness, our trustworthiness, His truth that we are speaking, our receiving the truth of His divine revelations to us, doing the right thing when we have ethical decisions to make and truth in good judgment.

Where does God see these wonderful truths in us? The verse says He sees them in our “inward parts.” The Hebrew word for “inward parts” is “tuwchah” and it means “the seat of the mind and thoughts.” In other words, these truths are not just the flighty thoughts off the top of our heads, but they are coming from a deeper place in our minds. These are the things that if someone took the time to seriously ask you, “What do you really believe?” You would go to this part of your heart and mind and say with the most conviction, “This is what I believe.”

God bends down lovingly toward us to see if we have embraced His truths and if they live steadfast and unmovable in the depths of our hearts.

The rest of Psalm 51:6 tells us what God does when He sees His truth in our hearts:

“In the hidden part you [God] will make me know wisdom.”

The “hidden part” is the secret part. The word “know” is the Hebrew word “yada” which means to “see and know, to be sure of, discover and know by experience, feel, understand, and be able to teach.”

Then the final word, “wisdom,” “chokmah” in Hebrew. And this is the most exciting of all. Wisdom always means how to apply knowledge. But when you look at how this word is used, it is wisdom in specific areas.

It is wisdom concerning skill in war. It is wisdom in administration. It is shrewdness. (Matthew 10:16 says “Be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.”) This wisdom is discretion in religious matters and wisdom concerning ethical matters.

In studying the words used in this one scripture, we find that our loving God is inclining Himself down to us. He likes, and in fact delights in seeing the things He’s taught us dwelling in the deepest parts of our hearts. When He finds them there, He can attach the blessing of discovering, experiencing, understanding, feeling and even being able to teach great skill in war (physical and spiritual), administrative skills in all categories of life, shrewdness, wisdom in religious matters and godly ways to handle ethical matters as well.

For me, this verse in Psalm 51 is a great one to think about for a while. Studying the words God chose to put here, really helps to see the significance of the verse and the bigness of God’s own heart toward us and how much He is willing and desiring to give us great wisdom in the everyday decisions of life. This verse tells us how to receive that wisdom.

Studying a verse is easy to do online. Just go to this link, put a word or scripture reference in the search box, choose the Bible version and click the arrow. Then click where it says “STRONGS.” That gives you the option of looking at the definitions of the original words. I found in this resource that I had to use the KJV or the NASB, but there may be other sources if you read a different version. https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/psa/51/6/ss1/t_conc_529006

Try this, even if you only look up a couple words. I think you will really be blessed.

Love, Carolyn