HEBREW WORD STUDY – (I HAD FAINTED) UNLESS – LULE לולא  Lamed Vav Lamed Aleph

Psalms 27:13: “[I had fainted], unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.”

There is much debate as to the occasion of this Psalm but most Bible scholars agree it is during a time of war where David witnessed the cruelty, savagery, and horrors of war.  In Psalms 27:13 the words “I had fainted” are not in the original text, yet there is nothing in the text to indicate what David would have done if not for his belief to see the goodness of God.  So it is left to the imagination of the reader and/or translator to determine what would have happened to David after experiencing the trauma of war.  I am not sure fainting is expressive enough.  The word in Hebrew for unless is lula which has the idea of but for, if not for, etc.  If not for David’s belief in the goodness of God he would have fainted, given up, been depressed, suffered PTSD?  I believe David leaves it to your imagination.

If not for his belief to see the goodness of the Lord.  The word belief is a verb which is in a Hiphal perfect form.  Thus, he was made or caused to believe that he would see the goodness of the Lord. David witnessed or experienced something that caused him to believe in the goodness of God in the midst of the horrors of war.

The word to see is indeed an infinitive in a simple state.  The word see comes from the root word ra’ah and can mean either physical or spiritual seeing or both.  It can also mean to experience.  One interpretation, which I believe is a good interpretation, is that even in the midst of war, one of the evilest experiences one may have, even there he could experience the goodness of God or maybe even see it. The compassion was given to the wounded, the many evil things that could have happened but didn’t.

I believe David both saw and experienced the goodness of God.  The word good is tov which means to be in harmony with something or someone.  Is it possible that even in war you can find something in harmony with God?

Looking unto Jesus is not just looking at him but making yourself transparent to Him as he makes Himself transparent with you. It is like a bride and groom looking at each other as they commit themselves to each other for the rest of their lives. At that moment they become transparent, sharing something with each that they will not share with anyone else in the world.

The wedding motif actually carries on through this entire verse.  Jesus endured the cross and the shame associated with the cross for the joy that would result from it.  He did it not only for us but for the joy that the sacrifice would bring to Him.  Just as the bride and groom sacrifice their personal lives and their singleness for the joy of being together.   Yet, that word joy is an amazing word to use here in this passage. It is the word chadotha in the Aramaic.  This is the word used for the joyful dancing at a wedding.  This again carries that wedding motif. The vows have been said as we and Jesus gaze at each other sharing our vows.  We tell Jesus that we are giving Him our lives and our hearts and now we enter that wedding feast where there is a wedding dance. In the traditional wedding dance couples line up opposite each other. Depending on the culture and whether traditional orthodox or not either men and women face each other or members of the same sex face each other, the symbolism still remains the same. They then move toward each other and then back away, always chor, gazing at each other, never taking the eyes off each other. Each time they back away, they move back to each other only this time drawing closer to each other.  This is to declare that the bride and groom will have times when they will struggle in their marriage and they will momentarily separate from each other, but as they look chor or gaze at each other they will be drawn back to each other only this time a little closer. This is what the Apostle Paul is describing in this wedding motif that we will dance this wedding dance. It is a joyful time of expressing our commitment with Jesus and He with us.  Even though we may sin and draw away from Jesus, He will always keep His gaze on us and we will be drawn back to Him only each time we return we will be drawn closer to Him.  Jesus will use our human frailties that the enemy would seek to use to draw us away from Him only Jesus will use it to bring us closer to Him.

So we have the wedding ceremony where we gaze at Jesus in transparency leading us to the joy of the wedding dance and now the groom takes his place at the right hand of the Father at his daqurasih in Aramaic from the root word quras which is a chamber with an upholster chair or a divan, what we call a love seat, that is a chair made for two people to sit closely together. It could also be a bedroom and the way the syntax word suggest we could read this as the bedroom in His Father’s house.  This is where the groom Jesus would take us His bride to consummate our marriage to Him.

So next time you hear this verse, stop and consider that the Apostle Paul might be sharing something even more intimate than we the surface understanding of this verse indicates. It is also speaking of our marriage relationship to Jesus and the intimacy that He longs so much to have with us that he endured the suffering of the cross in order to obtain it.

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