Hebrew Word Study – The Depths of God’s Heart – Chaster חצר Cheth Sade Resh

Psalms 100:4, “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: 

Today is Thanksgiving Day.  I read where the woke culture wants to change Thanksgiving Day to the Day of Mourning. Can you dig that self-righteous, hypocritical, sanctimonious culture that thinks they are more moral than God?  We have no business being thankful, we should just mourn the sins of the past.  God moves us beyond mourning. Nowhere does God instruct us to celebrate our sins of the past. The only time the Bible talks about mourning is to lead us to repentance and then once we repent our sins are forgiven and then we rejoice and thank God for our deliverance from sin. If this strange culture does manage to pass through a day of mourning it should be amended to a day of mourning and repentance.   The real emphasis in God’s Word lies in thanksgiving. Only after repentance do we enter thanksgiving and then enter His courts with praise.

“Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise.”  The word in Hebrew for gates is sh’ar. When we hear the word gate we automatically think of a doorway that we pass through.  Actually, this word for gate or sh’ar is not a reference to a doorway or entrance but really expresses the idea of meeting someone.  I have a literary agent who is a gateway to a publisher.  If I sent a book manuscript to a publisher at one of the big five publishers it will be rejected outright or be thrown into a slush pile where it will most likely never get read.  To have an acquisition editor even look at my manuscript I need someone who is recognized by that editor and trusted by that editor to submit my manuscript.  We call this person a literary agent who is a gateway to the editor. So to really understand what this verse is saying, we should express it as; thanksgiving is a gateway to enter His courts.  The conjunction is not found in the Hebrew text and believes me the Hebrew loves its conjunctions and when David uses conjunctions I mean he does an overkill of its use. So if a conjunction is not there you know there is a reason.  The word enter is the word bo’u  in Hebrew which really is most often rendered as you come. This does not have to be considered an imperative, although its form may be imperative (command) but we do find this same form is often used as a simple perfect (completed or past) form as it rendered in Jeremiah 27:18.  Thus, it is grammatically correct to render this as you come to meet Him in thanksgiving, in other words, it is a statement of fact.  When you are thankful to God you automatically meet Him. 

Thanksgiving is a gateway to the courts of God.  The word courts is chatser which means a court, but it is more generally a reference to the innermost compound of an area. In the Syriac/Aramaic it is a dwelling place or a private place where business takes place. When a bridegroom makes a deal with a bride’s father to marry his daughter he will enter into a chatser, a private place to discuss the matter dearest to that father’s heart, the sharing and giving away of his daughter in marriage to a young man. This is done in privacy.  In praise, we enter into serious discussions that are very private between God and us.  This word praise is bitehilah, this is a song of praise or a love song.  A song in ancient times was not meant for entertainment but to express one’s heart.  One would sing if in sorrow or if joyful. One would also sing betehilah in praise of someone.  In other words when we sing a song of praise to God it brings us into the presence of God who shares His heart desires with us. 

You know the old picture of the young suitor who stands outside the window of his beloved and plays his guitar and sings to her in order to woo her to himself.  Music has always been a source of romantic expression.  We call it mood music. Today a young man will take his beloved to lover’s lane, park the car, and put on some mood music in his car’s Bluetooth to stream some romantic music of his smart to soften his young lover’s heart so she will desire to snuggle up with him.  In ancient times they did not have smartphones or streaming music so the old boy had to do the singing himself. He would sing a song from his heart to his beloved, an original song that he himself would compose on the spot, and in that song, he would express what his heart feels. That is betehilah a song from the heart.   We enter the courts or the chatsar the depths of God’s heart when we sing to Him from our hearts. Thus, this verse is really expressing this, “Your thanksgiving is a gateway to the heart of God where you can sing your love song to Him.”  

One other thing about the word for thanksgiving or todah. It is spelled Taw which is the letter expressing thanksgiving and praise followed by the letter Daleth which is a gateway to the last letter Hei which is the presence of God.  Thanksgiving and praise is a gateway to the presence of God.  

In Revelation 3:20 we find this admonishment to the Church of Laodicea,  “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hears my voice, and open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him, and he with me.”  Jesus earlier says that he finds the Church of Laodicea neither hot nor cold and he wants to spew them out of His mouth.  What are they doing that makes them neither hot nor cold?  I believe Jesus is speaking todah to them.  He is standing outside their door wanting to share His presence with them, but they will not express their heart to Him, a heart filled with thanksgiving and praise.  He is knocking at that door reminding them that if they have a thankful heart it will be the gateway or doorway to His presence and with praise, He will sup with them. In ancient times when a tribal chieftain sought to negotiate a peace treaty or reconcile a dispute with another chieftain he would have a meal with him.  This is even practiced today in the Near East.  Thus Jesus is saying that if you will just express your thanksgiving to me you will enter my presence and if you sing your love song to me we will be reconciled.  He took the first step by dying for us on the cross.  The next step is ours, to mourn our sins leading to repentance than then we express our thankfulness and in our reconciliation, we sing our betehilah our love song or song from our heart to Him. 

Thanksgiving is a gateway to the courts of God.  The word courts is chatser which means a court, but it is more generally a reference into the innermost compound of an area. In the Syriac/Aramaic it is a dwelling place or a private place where business takes place. When a bridegroom makes a deal with a bride’s father to marry his daughter he will enter into a chatser, a private place to discuss the matter dearest to that father’s heart, the sharing and giving away of his daughter in marriage to a young man. This is done in privacy.  In praise, we enter into serious discussions that are very private between God and us.  This word praise is bitehilah, this is a song of praise or a love song.  A song in ancient times was not meant for entertainment but to express one’s heart.  One would sing if in sorrow or if joyful. One would also sing betehilah in praise of someone.  In other words when we sing a song of praise to God it brings us into the presence of God who shares His heart desires with us. 

You know the old picture of the young suitor who stands outside the window of his beloved and plays his guitar and sings to her in order to woo her to himself.  Music has always been a source of romantic expression.  We call it mood music. Today a young man will take his beloved to lover’s lane, park the car, and put on some mood music in his car’s Bluetooth to stream some romantic music of his smart to soften his young lover’s heart so she will desire to snuggle up with him.  In ancient times they did not have smartphones or streaming music so the old boy had to do the singing himself. He would sing a song from his heart to his beloved, an original song that he himself would compose on the spot, and in that song he would express what his heart feels. That is betehilah a song from the heart.   We enter the courts or the chatsar the depths of God’s heart when we sing to Him from our hearts. Thus, this verse is really expressing this, “Your thanksgiving is a gateway to the heart of God where you can sing your love song to Him.”  

One other thing about the word for thanksgiving or todah. It is spelled Taw which is the letter expressing thanksgiving and praise followed by the letter Daleth which is a gateway to the last letter Hei which is the presence of God.  Thanksgiving and praise is a gateway to the presence of God.  

In Revelation 3:20 we find this admonishment to the Church of Laodicea,  “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hears my voice, and open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him, and he with me.”  Jesus earlier says that he finds the Church of Laodicea neither hot nor cold and he wants to spew them out of His mouth.  What are they doing that makes them neither hot nor cold?  I believe Jesus is speaking todah to them.  He is standing outside their door wanting to share His presence with them, but they will not express their heart to Him, a heart filled with thanksgiving and praise.  He is knocking at that door reminding them that if they have a thankful heart it will be the gateway or doorway to His presence and with praise, He will sup with them. In ancient times when a tribal chieftain sought to negotiate a peace treaty or reconcile a dispute with another chieftain he would have a meal with him.  This is even practiced today in the Near East.  Thus Jesus is saying that if you will just express your thanksgiving to me you will enter my presence and if you sing your love song to me we will be reconciled.  He took the first step by dying for us on the cross.  The next step is ours, to mourn our sins leading to repentance than then we express our thankfulness and in our reconciliation, we sing our betehilah our love song or song from our heart to Him. 

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