How do you read Hebrew poetry?

[Michelle]

Up there in the Radio Program Topics area, there is a very interesting discussion going on about love, hate, God and us. One of the passages that is being discussed is Psalm 139 which I read a couple of times so I could follow the discussion. It made me think of a question about Hebrew poetry, and rather than disrupt that discussion, I decided to ask it here.

Here's the psalm:

• O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
  2 You know my sitting down and my rising up;
  You understand my thought afar off.
  3 You comprehend my path and my lying down,
  And are acquainted with all my ways.
  4 For there is not a word on my tongue,
  But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.
  5 You have hedged me behind and before,
  And laid Your hand upon me.
  6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
  It is high, I cannot attain it.
  
  7 Where can I go from Your Spirit?
  Or where can I flee from Your presence?
  8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
  If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
  9 If I take the wings of the morning,
  And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
  10 Even there Your hand shall lead me,
  And Your right hand shall hold me.
  11 If I say, "Surely the darkness shall fall on me,"
  Even the night shall be light about me;
  12 Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
  But the night shines as the day;
  The darkness and the light are both alike to You.
  
  13 For You formed my inward parts;
  You covered me in my mother's womb.
  14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
  Marvelous are Your works,
  And that my soul knows very well.
  15 My frame was not hidden from You,
  When I was made in secret,
  And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
  16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
  And in Your book they all were written,
  The days fashioned for me,
  When as yet there were none of them.
  
  17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
  How great is the sum of them!
  18 If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
  When I awake, I am still with You.
  
  19 Oh, that You would slay the wicked, O God!
  Depart from me, therefore, you bloodthirsty men.
  20 For they speak against You wickedly;
  Your enemies take Your name in vain.
  21 Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate You?
  And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?
  22 I hate them with perfect hatred;
  I count them my enemies.
  
  23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
  Try me, and know my anxieties;
  24 And see if there is any wicked way in me,
  And lead me in the way everlasting.
  
  New King James Version, © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved.

My question is: Are there certain rules about reading Hebrew poetry? Like, should it make sense? (Not really sure I can make this make sense)

This is one of the most beautiful of the psalms, at least in my opinion. It has 18 verses about how God knows us more than we know ourselves, how there's no place that we would be apart from God, how He even was aware of our development before we were born, and how great and wonderful are His thoughts. Then suddenly for 4 verses, it shifts to this rant about the enemies of God and how the psalmist has come to hate them. Then it finishes up with him asking God to search his heart to see if he's wicked.

If I read this as a psalm written in, like, say the last couple of hundred years, I would think that either the psalmist was making that abrupt and jarring contrast in order to make a striking point about how wicked the enemies of God are when they speak against Him in the face of His great love, omniscience, and omnipresence; or he wasn't making a contrast at all, he was responding to all those wonderful attributes by aligning himself with God, loving what He loves, hating what He hates. Or maybe both.

If you told me that this modern poet wasn't doing that at all, he was just composing lines and decided to throw in a few about hating God's enemies, I would think that he had A.D.D., or something, because that part of the psalm doesn't seem to fit.

So, is there some trick to reading Hebrew poetry that would either help it make sense, like, by providing contrast or something like that, or were the Hebrews not that concerned about the psalms holding together as a complete unit? Was Hebrew poetry just a collection of verses that didn't necessarily paint a picture in your mind? Am I looking for meaning where it isn't meant to be?

[RickC]

Hi Michelle,

On Wisdom Literature:

Imprecatory Psalms
The word imprecate means to invoke the wrath of God down upon one's enemies. Examples of these type Psalms can be found in Psalm 35, 58, 69, 109, 137 and others. These have perplexed Christians, especially in the light of the New Testament teaching of loving one's enemies. How can the two things be reconciled.

Click also Hebrew Poetry.
This is a good site for a basic overview.

[Michelle]

Thanks Rick. Somehow I knew you would have a link for this.

[mikew]

I think that King David was having trouble on his staff with people he may have trusted before. Now he was seeing that these guys were bloodthirsty.

David then was reflecting on this and was checking his own heart to make sure that David's motives weren't vengeful. Then on the otherhand how could David still have these guys on his staff?

King David knew the need to be humble before God, to turn away from pride that easily arises for someone ruling over a country.

Though I may be assuming too much to say these were guys on David's staff, the aspects of David's humbling and introspective attitude seem apparent in the face of a decision David is having to make. It seems therefore that David is being careful not to be acting as a bloodthirsty man of vengeance.

[Paidion]

In another thread, Steve expressed the idea that this "hate" is not hate as we know it, but is merely "dislike", and that "loathe" is also a synonym for "dislike".

However, I think David was indeed a man of hate and vengeance, though he could be kind and loving also.

Concerning our enemies, Christ taught quite the opposite; He taught his disciples to love their enemies, to do good to those who hated them, and to pray for those who mistreated them.

[mikew]

If King David were some completely wild bloodthirsty king, he would not have been singing this prayer before God. Instead David would have exercised his power and brought forth his own will immediately.

This psalm is a sharp contrast to what horrible things would have happened by a king whose heart was not toward God.

[MoGrace2u]

David was declared to be a man after God's heart and his psalms reflect that this is his heart's desire. A righteous man has a love for goodness and a hatred of evil, and he correctly discerns and judges accordingly. A wicked man does the opposite, calling good evil and evil good. He perverts justice to let the guilty go free for a bribe and afflict the needy to take away his right. This is the contrast that Hebrew thought always present to make this distinction more clear. The negative example thus gives us a clearer parallel by its contrast. Man has to learn righteousness because he is already too familiar with his own evil heart!