119: Nun

The letter Nun [נ] is the symbol for soul, the heavenly spark housed in the earthly container of the body. The soul is the self, taking in intellect, will and heart. The shape of the letter leads many to associate it with humility: nun is “the servant bent over”. Hebrew numerology students love to add up the sum of the letters in words to figure out what they signify. The letters in the name “David” add to fourteen, so they associate the great King of Israel with this letter, as well as Messiah, his descendant; the perfect servant and the epitome of humility. (Nun is the fourteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet.)

Nun is also the word for “fish” in Aramaic, and Hebrew scholars refer to it as the fish that swims in the water of the Torah. Some of this is a bit too mystical for me, but I find these things of interest.

Psalm 119:105-106 — Lamps and Lights

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. I have sworn an oath and confirmed it, to keep your righteous rules.”

The first line of this section is one of the most famous verses in all of Psalm 119, and a staple of Sunday School memorization. The word “lamp” here is the same word as the seven oil-fueled lights on the candlestick in the tabernacle that burned continually before the Lord. It was literally “a light that never goes out”, as is the word of God to his servant. Light is a frequent metaphor for spiritual insight in the Old Testament, especially throughout the Psalms. No matter how dark the situation, the obedient believer is able to navigate through life using the illumination of his understanding gained by meditating on the Lord’s righteous edicts.

Just out of interest, guess which Old Testament character earned himself the name “the lamp of Israel”. That’s right, David. Go figure. The tribe of Judah and the city of Jerusalem are also called David’s “lamp”, the testimony to God’s presence. David, Judah and Jerusalem accumulated a rather spotty collective record as a testimony to God’s presence, but his word remains an impeccable guide to those in need of light.

Psalm 119:107-108 — I Will Choose Freewill

“I am severely afflicted; give me life, O Lord, according to your word! Accept my freewill offerings of praise, O Lord, and teach me your rules.”

Speaking of the tabernacle, the materials from which Moses had it built were supplied by the freewill offerings of Israel, which they brought every morning until commanded to stop. Freewill offerings were not just a one-time event but also an ongoing part of the sacrificial system under the Law of Moses. Unlike tithes, which were a regular duty, and offerings associated with sins of one sort or another, by which fellowship with God was maintained, freewill offerings were not part of the annual sacrificial routine, the sole exception being during the Feast of Weeks. Even then, the freewill offering was not like a tithe in that there was no prescribed requirement, no lower or upper limits. It was “as the Lord your God blesses you”, an individual decision about what to give. The freewill offerings under the law came from the overflow of grateful hearts and prefigured Christian giving, which comes from love and gratitude rather than the burden of law.

The freewill offering does not speak of Christ in the way other offerings do, but rather of what the believer returns to him. We know this because less-than-perfect animals were acceptable for freewill offerings alone. It’s a reminder that as children of God, we give what we can, but it may not always measure up so long as we are in this world. Perhaps it is also a reminder to be patient with one another when we attempt to express imperfectly our gratitude and appreciation to the Lord in a public forum. In the Old Testament, we read about freewill offerings of bulls, sheep, silver and gold. So far as I am aware, this is the only time we read about “freewill offerings of praise”. Literally, it reads “the freewill offerings of my mouth”, and perhaps anticipates the days in which we live, where believers worship in Spirit and truth, and not through the sacrificial system.

Psalm 119:109-110 — A Life in the Hand

“I hold my life in my hand continually, but I do not forget your law. The wicked have laid a snare for me, but I do not stray from your precepts.”

The word for “life” here is actually “soul”, taking us back to the meaning of nun in our introduction. A soul held in the hand — something the psalmist says he does continually — is a Hebrew metaphor for taking a huge risk, as we find from the lips of Jephthah and the witch of En-dor, both of whom put their lives on the line, although for very different reasons. David held his life in his hand when he stepped out against Goliath, or so said Jonathan in his defense of David to Saul. To refuse steadfastly to forget God’s law under such stressful circumstances demonstrates real faith, and a sense that the only reliable salvation in times of trial comes from God, not from one’s own ingenuity.

Verse 110 repeats the idea in other words: “The wicked have laid a snare for me, but I do not stray from your precepts.” The snare may be literal or figurative. Most likely it is a moral trap. Satan seems to love those. One of my favorite verbal snares, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?”, put the Lord in a seemingly impossible position. Either he would find himself accused of provoking a tax revolt or he would appear to deny his own kingship of Israel by knuckling under to the Romans. How adroitly Jesus handled it, but it was because he never strayed from God’s precepts, and his Father gave him an answer nobody expected or could fault.

We can certainly trust the Lord and his word to help us avoid similar snares.

Psalm 119:111-112 — Two of Hearts

“Your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart. I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever, to the end.”

Again, we come back to this idea of nun, the human soul, of which the heart is a very big component. Sometimes the things we read and internalize inflame our affections. The psalmist writes, “Your testimonies … are the joy of my heart.” I’ve had that experience, connecting with the word of God in an unexpected way. But we are not dependent on emotions that come and go. The believing heart can be “inclined”. Maturity in the word teaches us to persist in our study of scripture even when we feel dry and, more importantly, not to “grow weary of doing good”. It is the performance of the Lord’s statutes that is most important, not just our knowledge of them, though the word must come in first before it can go out effectually.