We sing these words frequently at Edge Kingsland, and for good reason…Yahweh (the LORD) is worthy of all praise. And sometimes we need to remind ourselves of this…but do we mean what the psalmist meant when he said the same thing? (Psalm 103). What did he mean when he spoke to (or sung to) his “soul”?

It surprises many Christians to discover that the concept of humans having an immortal soul that would live on after the body died is a concept that comes from Greek philosophy rather than from the Bible. The Greeks separated humans into body, mind and soul. The Hebrews, on the other hand, had a far different concept.

The word “soul” in Psalm 103 is the Hebrew word “nephesh”. One Hebrew dictionary defines “nephesh” as “that which breathes”. In Genesis 2:7, when God breathed into the body he had formed, that body became a living nephesh (being). This nephesh was, in Hebrew thought, completely inseparable from the body. It was what gave the body life…so much so that they believed that when you died – that is, when the breath of God was removed from your life – you had some sort of existence in death, but that existence was NOT life! In that deathly existence, you were no longer a living nephesh because the breath of God – the very breath of life – had been separated from the body. It was only in resurrection, they believed, that the breath of God was reunited with the body, once again creating a living nephesh.

As such, to speak of one’s nephesh is to essentially speak of one’s entire being…for without it you do not have life.

So when we echo the Psalmist’s cry we aren’t speaking to some inner part of us that is separate and immortal, but rather to the life in us…and the body connected to that life. Singing “Praise the LORD O my soul” is exactly the same as singing “Praise the LORD with all my being”. It is not to sing to some part of us that is really alive inside of this body, but rather to sing to that which makes this body alive.

And surely we have very good reason, even if reflecting for only a second on just Genesis 2:7 and the breath of God that means we have a nephesh, to continually encourage that same nephesh to praise Yahweh!!

Praise the LORD O my soul

We can see this fascination with the heart especially well in the Psalms:

Psalm 9:1 (TNIV) I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.

Psalm 28:7 (TNIV) My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.

Psalm 62:8 (TNIV) Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.

Among other definitions, Mirriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines ‘heart’ as ‘the emotional or moral as distinguished from the intellectual nature’.  But although this is our understanding of the term, it is not at all what is represented by the word heart in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament.

To divide up the body into various compartments (e.g. body, soul and spirit, or in this case heart and mind) is actually more representative of Greek philosophy than the Hebrew Scriptures.  The Hebrews didn’t think in the same way as we do, and weren’t subject to over-departmentalisation.  ‘Heart’ for them referred to the centre of a person…it was what governed all of a person’s attributes (physical, intellectual and psychological), words and actions.  What we describe as character, personality, will and mind all fit within the Hebrew understanding of the term ‘heart’.  (In fact, what we mean when we say ‘heart’ is better reflected in Hebrew by the term ‘bowels’!)

We can see some of this diverse usage of the word ‘heart’ in some of the stories of Jesus in the Gospels:

Mark 3:5 (TNIV) (the will)  ‘We looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.’

Mark 2:8 (TNIV) (the mind) ‘Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, “Why are you thinking these things?’

Luke 24:32 (TNIV) (feelings) ‘They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”’

In fact, due to the Greek influence leading up to the 1st century AD, the Old Testament command to ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength’ (Deuteronomy 6:4–5) in the New Testament becomes ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength’ (Mark 12:30).  The word ‘mind’ isn’t added in because the Old Testament writers missed it, but because the Greek concept of the ‘mind’ was included in the command right from the start in the word ‘heart’.

So indeed not only is it a good idea to engage with God with our intellect and our imagination (thank you Erin and Linda!), but we are in fact commanded to.  And God promises that if we do, we won’t be let down, for ‘You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart’ (Jeremiah 29:13).

AndyD

One phrase I find fascinating in the Bible is “Jesus is Lord”.  I find it fascinating because it is one of those phrases that has become so common in my Christian-eese language that when I read it I seldom stop to think about what it really means, but when I do, the depth of it blows me away.  The author who used this phrase more often than any other writer of the New Testament was Paul (who wrote Romans through to Philemon) – so what did he mean by it?

‘Lord’ is the Greek word kyrios (pronounced ku-ree-oss) which has a variety of connotations. It was often used simply in a polite sense, just as we might use the term ‘sir’ (it is used in this way many times in the gospels).  It also was used in terms of those who owned slaves (i.e. a master). However, research suggests that Paul had in mind two particular uses of the word ‘Lord’, especially when writing the phrase ‘Jesus is Lord’.

The first of these comes from the Greek translation of the Old Testament. This translation was made from the original Hebrew a couple of hundred years before Christ, and is known as the Septuagint (LXX for short). A part of Jewish culture was that you did not say or write God’s name (and in that way you would not accidentally take God’s name in vain).  Instead, they often used a substitute word, which is exactly what translators did when they wrote the LXX, translating the name Yahweh as Kyrios (Lord). (The English has followed this practice and you will notice that in the Old Testament, God is often referred to as LORD (written in capitals so you know it’s a translation of God’s name).  Almost all of those to whom Paul wrote would have been Greek speakers and would therefore have read/heard the Greek version of the Scriptures.  As one of the first readers of Paul’s letters it would therefore have been near impossible to read ‘Jesus is Lord’ without connecting this to the Old Testament statements about God…and it would have been glaringly obvious to them that Paul was in fact claiming that Jesus is God.

The other major use is the Greco-Roman use of ‘lord’ in reference to their deities (gods), and particularly their emperor (Caesar). As a good Roman citizen, you knew that ‘Caesar is lord’…which meant that you owed him your total allegiance.  To claim ‘Jesus is Lord’ was therefore a hugely controversial and counter cultural thing – to say that Jesus is Lord is to say that Caesar is not!  It is not Caesar to whom allegiance should be given, but to Jesus…it is not Caesar who is to be worshipped but Jesus!   It is not Caesar who is God, but Jesus!

Clearly we don’t have a Roman emperor demanding we call him Lord today…but we do have many things that our culture holds up for us as ‘lords’ – things/people we should give our allegiance to and worship.  These things are the lords of our world.  So when we read and when we proclaim that Jesus is Lord, it is much more than a piece of Christian jargon…it is a reminder that “for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live” (1 Corinthians 8:6).

Jesus is God and Jesus is Lord…and it is to this Lord God (and no other) that we owe our worship and our obedience.

At face value, one who is a son of man is simply a human.  Modern translations like the TNIV translate the phrase ‘son of man’ in Psalm 8 as ‘mere mortals’.  But Jesus isn’t just a son of man, he is the Son of Man…so is there a difference?

In Daniel 7, Daniel records a vision, and part of that vision is “one like a son of man” approaching God (who he calls the ‘Ancient of Days’).  And Daniel writes that this ‘son of man’…“was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed” (Dan 7:14).  This son of man was humanity’s representative before God…

In Daniel’s vision it is clearly ‘a’ son of man…so why does Jesus call himself ‘the’ Son of Man?  He is in fact pointing to this vision and saying, ‘Hey guys…I’m it! I am not only a human…I’m that one!’  Jesus claimed to be the human who would approach God the Father on our behalf…the one with all authority, glory and power whom all the nations of the earth would worship.  And yet he also taught his disciples that “the Son of Man must suffer many things…and that he must be killed and after three days rise again”.  How remarkable that this man, this Son of Man, who had all authority and glory and power, would suffer and die so that he could be our representative before God…

So whenever you read “the Son of Man”, pause a moment and reflect on Jesus…the Son of Man who is still approaching God the Father on our behalf!

NAMES

In the Bible, the Psalmists (among many others) had a fascination with God’s name.
The following are just a few of the verses in Psalms about God’s name:

Psalm 8:1 – Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Psalm 9:2 – I will sing the praises of your name, O Most High

Psalm 22:22 – I will declare your name to my people

Psalm 52:9 – And I will hope in your name, for your name is good

We ourselves often sing ‘beautiful is your name, beautiful is your name, Yahweh.’ So why this fascination with God’s name?  It’s just a name…isn’t it?

In biblical times, someone’s name was not simply a label to help in differentiating them from someone else. The name was thought to reveal something of that person and so names were carefully chosen. Knowing someone’s name implied relationship with them. It is fair to say that someone’s name and their person were considered inseparable:

“The biblical concept of naming was rooted in the ancient world’s understanding that a name expressed essence. To know the name of a person was to know that person’s total character and nature.”

In the Psalms, then, the Psalmists are fascinated with God’s name because they are fascinated with God and who he is. For them, saying “I put my hope in your name” is a poetic way of saying “I put my hope in you”.

And when God told Moses his name was Yahweh in Exodus 3:14 (translated as “I am who I am” in most English versions…and then as LORD on many other occasions), he was doing more than telling Moses his name – the name Yahweh was God’s self-revelation to Moses, which, among other things, particularly stressed his faithfulness.

So indeed we should sing, ‘beautiful is your name, beautiful is your name, Yahweh.’