Aramaic Word Study – Boast    שבח    Shavach   Shin Beth Cheth

Psalm 34:2: “My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear [thereof], and be glad.”

I recently thought I really had my pride under control until someone told me I was self-absorbed.  After much soul searching, I found this person was right.  Funny how pride creeps in without you even knowing it.  As the old joke goes you really become proud of the fact that you have your pride under control. It is kind of like bad breath, everyone that gets close to you knows it except you.  

This boasting business is not good.  Well, not good, so long as it is not about you and your fancied greatness.  David says it is ok to boast in the Lord.  What does that really mean anyways?  Does it mean I can brag about my books so long as I throw God’s name in there somewhere?  I mean if this is my soul doing the bragging or boasting, how do I brag or boast in the Lord to begin with?  I hear people all the time humbling say: “Yes, Praise the Lord, it was all the Lord that I managed to land that job.”  I remember a student at Moody who was a student pastor and needed a car.  He prayed for a car, we prayed for a car and one day he got a car.  I asked him how he got the car and he said; “The Lord gave it to me.”  I said: “Yeah, yeah, I know that but how did the Lord give you the car?”  He just said he got it from the Lord and started to get a little huffy with me so I let it drop.”  I later found out his father bought a new car and gave him his old one.  I suppose you could say the Lord gave him the car, but the same thing happens thousands upon thousands of times where the old man finds that by giving the kid the old car he can convince his wife it is an excellent opportunity to buy a new one.  Ok, maybe I am being hard on the kid (who is no longer a kid) I didn’t know his heart, perhaps he was sincerely wanting to give God the glory and praise. But you can’t discount the idea that there are people who will give God all the glory so they can get glory for giving Him all the glory. 

Then there are times I hear people saying “Praise the Lord” like they are saying: “Golly gee” or “Whoopee!” I mean if you don’t give God the praise for something the brethren will really look down on you.  So, you tend to get used to saying “Praise the Lord” just to be on the safe side. That is when that old pride creeps in unaware and there is no friend around to tell you that you are being self-absorbed. Eventually you can actually make Uriah Heep look humble and convince yourself you are giving all the glory to God because you uttered the words; “Praise the Lord.”  You remember Uriah Heep from Charles Dickens novel David Copperfield. Mr. Heep was so humble that, he eat humbly, slept humbly, walked humbly and took great pride in being humble. 

I believe this is why David said his soul will boast in the Lord.  That is his nephesh in Hebrew, which is that private part of you that contains your true motives.  Your lips may praise the Lord, but that is no guarantee you are really praising the Lord, it must come from your soul and like bad breath you may not even know that your lips are speaking your mind but not the words of your soul.  

But wait a minute, how can your soul boast in the Lord?  The Targum (Aramaic version of the Old Testament) uses the Aramaic word shavach for boast.  Shavach means to uplift but in the sense of praising and showing honor, not boasting in the negative way. The word for boast that is used in the Hebrew text is titehalel.  It is in a Hithpael form so it is reflexive.  Literally, it is “My soul itself will titehalel in the Lord. This word comes from the root word halal which means to make one shine. Oddly, every translation I read renders the word in our study text as boast.  Well, boasting it shining a light on yourself, someone or something. By making God shine you are causing Him to stand out as the one to be seen and recognized. This follows the Aramaic word shavach for praise or uplifting God. 

There are some other passages where halal is used for praise. There are also cases where it is used for a mad man.  Maybe when I was told that I was self-absorbed what was really meant was that I was acting like a mad man.  Indeed we see someone who is boasting and we begin to think that are a little mad.  Halal is sometimes use to describes a strange behavior or an abnormal type of behavior. It is also a word used for rage in the sense of acting like a fool in celebration.  The only thing I enjoy in watching a football game are the spectators. Talk of halal, right there in the stands, middle aged football player wannabes, acting halal, like fools.  Of course after paying a few hundred dollars for stadium entrance, parking, beer and sausage they earned the ticket to act halal. 

The word originates from the ancient Canaanites who used the word for a full moon.  Yeah, the tradition of luna or lunatic goes back to the Canaanites who observed unusual crazy behavior when there was a full moon.  Out in the desert when there is a full moon it does cast eerie shadows that seem crazy.  But the full moon also shines and hence the word halal also took on the meaning of shinning.  Someone who is praising the Lord may act foolish but if it is really in the Spirit of God they are shinning with the presence of God, it is radiating out of them.  I was in a worship and praise meeting not too long ago where over a dozen people were halal(ing), grown middle aged people, acting like children, acting crazy, yet there was a glowing shine coming from them and like the beer bellied football fan, that shine was their ticket to act crazy.  

I have a problem wrapping my brain around the idea of my soul boasting in the Lord. I suppose I can say it means to praise the Lord from your soul and give Him credit for everything. I don’t deny that as a meaning of this verse.  But after that rather joyful worship event where I found myself also joining in on the halal and acting quite a bit out of character for a PhD/writer/ Hebrew instructor, I fully understood what it means to have my soul boast or act crazy in the Lord. I know in that I was not self absorbed because afterwards I found myself thinking, “My word, did I ever make a fool of myself. God had better get the halal or I will never be able to show my face in that group again.” 

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