Kaph -- Psalm 119:81-88 -- Advent Blog Day 11

The eleventh letter of the Hebrew alphabet is "Kaph".  It is pretty much pronounced like the English work "cough" with a distinct Bostonian accent.  It has two forms -- the form on the right is when it is the final letter of a word; the form on the left is for elsewhere (middle or beginning of a word).  We don't really have anything like this in English, but the Greek Sigma has similar morphology.  Remember that Hebrew was written without breaks until the eighth century A.D.; letters changing shape at the end of the word helped the language "self-parse" for the reader.  Five other letters still to come have this function.  Conceptually, the letter "Kaph" refers to an arm or a wing.  The text reads:
         I long for Your deliverance; I hope for Your word.
         My eyes pine away for Your promise; I say, “When will You comfort me?”
         Though I have become like a water-skin dried in smoke, I have not neglected Your laws.
         How long has Your servant to live? when will You bring my persecutors to judgment?
         The insolent have dug pits for me, flouting Your teaching.
         All Your commandments are enduring; I am persecuted without cause; help me!
         Though they almost wiped me off the earth, I did not abandon Your precepts.
         As befits Your steadfast love, preserve me, so that I may keep the decree You proclaimed.
     I don't know about you, but I take great comfort in the passages of Scripture such as this one where the writer is visibly agitated and in full wail for God.  Jeremiah 18 and 19, many of the Psalms, and plenty of other Scripture passages contain a similar cry out to God for immediate relief and rescue.  The tone is almost complaint--like the cry of a new baby that is partly to complain, partly to express anguish, and partly to the parent for immediate relief and reassurance.  The fact that the Biblical authors went through this so human condition and their words made it into the Scriptures without full rebuke from God gives me great hope when I feel the same way.  Lately, I have been much less reticent to express myself to God in this manner and wonder why I am so hesitant to cry out for relief.  The Psalmist clearly knows the promise of God with respect to his condition and simply cannot wait for God to accomplish it!  I wish I had this much faith and this kind of view of the God who made us and Whom we serve.
     Jesus, looking at Jerusalem, said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her!  How often I wanted to gather your children together, just a hen gathers her brood together under her wings, and you would not have it!" (Luke 13:34, NASB)  The Psalmist clearly cannot wait for Yahweh, the covenant maker and keeper to extend His arm and for the Psalmist to scurry under it.  How many of us have seen a duck with a line of ducklings behind her.  The mother has her own agenda and is busy going here and there and the little ducklings do their best to keep up.  Why is it we are so content to head off in our own direction, looking for those things we think we need to have for ourselves or in which we will find greater delight than when we are with our source of protection, sustenance, and guidance!   How much time do we spend on our own poking about here and there before we see the hawk or cat and cry out HELLLLPPPP!  Elsewhere in Psalms it is written, "You have also given me the shield of Your salvation, and Your right hand upholds me, and Your gentleness makes me great" (18:35) and "my soul clings to You, Your right hand upholds me" (63:8). 
     Once again, the writer cries for deliverance -- not so he can go back to whatever he was doing that got him in the predicament -- but for the purpose of obeying and ever growing in the pursuit of God's commandments.  Most of the time I find myself looking for succor so I can return to my folly once more; this is not what the Scriptures commend but rather a radical shift in our lives to solely follow and seek after Yaweh Himself.  Jesus said, "Abide in me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.  I am the vine; you are the branches.  Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." (John 15:4-5, ESV)  Let us cease from hiding out from God and persisting in our own ways and instead cry out to Him so that we may return to Him and be His people and for Him to be our God.  Let us take pleasure in Him alone, for Him alone; may He preserve us so that we might live to keep His decrees.
Here is a great song to accompany these thoughts.
Jewish Publication Society, Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1985), Ps 119:80–88.
 The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Jn 15:3–5.