Hebrew Word Study – Give Over – Titteneni – תִּ֭תְּנֵנִי  Taw Taw Nun Nun Yod

Psalms 27:12: “Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.”

It seems most if not all of our major translations express the plea of the Psalmist that God does not deliver him over to the will or desires of his enemies. That is a chilling thought that God would deliver us over to something really bad.  What is this delivery over business?  When I think of delivering something I picture someone who has possession of something and then turns it over to someone or something else. So it would appear from our English translation that when God takes possession of us, we really don’t have that security that He will hang onto us.  For whatever reason we may just do something that really ticks Him off and He just decides we are too much of a handful, so he un-adopts us and hands us over to someone else. 

I don’t know about you but for the last few years I have been taking great comfort in just resting in the security that God has me safely wrapped in His arms and that He will never let me go, no matter what. Now I read this Psalmist, most likely David, the man after God’s own heart, the man who loved God with all his heart actually lived in fear that God would give him up and turn him over to someone else.  If David was worried about this then I should be and if I worry about it, where is all this security that I believe in?  Is there nothing in this universe that I can feel secure?  Can I not even trust God now?  Do I have to even perform for Him to be accepted? I am tired of performing, I am tired of being the good soldier, I just want to rest in those precious arms of Jesus knowing that there is enough of His shed blood to cover any fault or transgression I come up with.  I mean I try I really do try to be a good person, but dog gone it if I don’t turn around a blow it.  I mean I ended up being so rude and nasty to an insurance adjuster yesterday that I had to call her back and apologize for being such a jerk.  Why do I do that?   Will God deliver me over to something bad for that?   Every time I get the Town Sorehead on my disability bus I lose it with her.  No matter how much I promise myself to be loving and patient, no matter how much I beg God to give me patience with this nasty sour prune-faced bitty of a woman, I still end up being just as nasty to her.  Will God turn me over to something nasty because of that?  Can’t God just accept me for the fallible, sin-filled, old goat that I am and maybe dip a little deeper in the blood of the Son and cover some more of these trespasses before turning me over to something bad?  Does He have to be so stingy with His Son’s blood?  

I just want and long for someone to accept me for my faults and all. To accept me not because I am a teacher or I have a PhD.  Not because I am a published author or any other of my fancied good traits but just because of all my ugliness, insecurities, faults, and failings.  I long just for someone who will give me credit for trying and not demand perfection out of me.  Up to reading this verse, I felt God was this someone, but now I find He is like everyone else, if I don’t live up to His standard, then He will just toss me under the bus.  

So I admit that it is with extreme bias and prejudice that I approach a study of the word titteneni (give over).  I want it to say that God is not going to get so disgusted with me that he will deliver me over to the will of my enemies. So here goes, if it sounds like I am spinning these words to say what I want them to say I plead guilty and you may reject my conclusion.

The first word to examine is this deliver which is titteneni and comes from the root word nathan which means to simply give.  However, this is in a Hiphal (causative) incomplete or future form. This changes things.  This means that He is not willfully giving us up, he is being forced or caused to give us up.  He may have no choice.  He is holy after all and my sinful acts just cannot abide with Him. As an incomplete or future form, it means He has not yet done it, there is hope. He doesn’t want to give us up it is just that His holiness cannot allow it.  He has the remedy, the shed blood of His Son all we have to do is claim that blood and repent and He is just as happy as ever to hang onto us.

I recently saw a movie where a couple had taken in a foster child and loved this young girl with all their hearts and wanted to adopt her.  However, the natural father refused to sign the papers to release the child for adoption.  The child was being abused by her natural father and lived in terror of the home visits with her natural father and the foster parents fought with everything they had to keep the child away from this abusive father.  Yet, there was no legal evidence to prove the abuse, and the laws were preventing the foster parents from protecting their foster child from this abusive parent.  The natural father had remarried and demanded that the child be returned to him which according to the law the courts had to do. The scene in the movie when the foster parents handed the child over to her natural father was very emotional with the foster parents frantic and in tears as the child is screaming not to be taken away but the natural father holding the court papers had every right to take away to continue the abuse which later was finally proven.  It cost the foster parents practically everything they owned to prove the abuse and claim the child for adoption, but they were glad to pay the price.

This is the scene I see in Psalms 27:12, not a frustrated and disgusted God giving us over to our abusive enemy but the devil standing there with his legal papers saying that because of our sin, he owns us.  The Heavenly Father in frantic tears and broken heart is forced (Hiphal) to hand us over to the devil as we are screaming out for mercy, that is when Jesus steps in and takes that legal paper from the devil and says, “I am sorry, but those sins have been paid for by my blood on a cross 2,000 years ago. He tears the papers up and hands us back to our Heavenly Father. 

So as long as there is enough of the blood of Jesus to go around and my claim to that blood is simply repentance, I never have to worry about the devil coming along and dragging me out of the Heavenly Father’s arms kicking and screaming.  I just snuggle closer to the Heavenly Father and say: “Uh, Jesus, would you pour some of your blood over that claim the devil has on me?  I’d sure appreciate it, I don’t want to lose even a moment in the arms of my  Heavenly Father. 

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