HEBREW WORD STUDY – DEAL BOUNTIFULLY –  GAMAL  גמל     Gimmel Mem Lamed

Psalms 13:6: “I will sing unto the Lord because He has dealt bountifully with me.”

If the Lord would deal a little bountifully with me I might also do a little singing. Of course with my musical talents, or lack thereof, I could clear a room pretty quick when I start to sing. Still I would express my gratitude in some way if God should deal bountifully with me. But lately bountifully has not been the best adverb to use in my life. Lucky for David, he gets to have the Lord deal bountifully with him. So where is my piece of the pie? 

As this verse have absolutely no meaning for me at this time I will need to go to some other possible usages of the word bountifully and see if there is one which fits my case. So let’s see, the word bountifully in Hebrew is gamal. This is a word used for weaning a child. Weaning a child is a sign of maturing, of not being so dependent upon the mother. In a way it is almost the opposite of what you think of when you think of bountiful. The bountifulness of the mother’s nourishment is no longer necessary; the child is free to explore new options of nourishment.  So really it is a good thing to receive gamal or bountifulness from God.  It shows that you are ready to move on to bigger and better things.

Too often Christians are just not ready for this bountifulness from God.  They are satisfied to remain that infant in God.  I have meet people who have been Christians for twenty and thirty years who have not accepted God’s offer of gamal being bountifully blessed by God.  Then they wonder why they get bored in their Christian walk, why the same milk of the Word does not excite them anymore. Why the praise and worship service just doesn’t have the punch it used to.  They assume it is the fault of the church so they leave. 

There is an old story I read in Jewish literature of a young man who came upon a town and met an old timer standing at the gate of the town.  The young man said: “I am looking for a town to live in where all the people are friendly, caring, loving and compassionate. What are the people like in this town?”  The old timer simply asked: “What were the people like in the town you came from?”  The young man replied: “Oh, they were a bunch of selfish, self-centered, unfriendly and untrusting people.”  The old timer then said to the young man: “Well, I am afraid you will find the people in this town to be the same way.”   The young man left disappointed.  The next day another young man came to the gate of the town and asked the old timer, “I am looking for a town to live in where all the people are friendly, caring, loving and compassionate. What are the people like in this town?”  The old timer asked: “What were the people like in the town you came from?”  The young man replied: “Oh, they were all just so friendly caring, loving and compassionate.”  The old Time said: “Welcome to our town, the people here are just like that.” In the words of Cassius from Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar: “The fault dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves.” Act I Scene II. 

I’ve met a number of church tramps in my day. They bounce from church to church looking for that church where people will appreciate their talents and knowledge of Scripture, where they can really praise the Lord and feel His presence. I remember I met a guy who had been bouncing around from church to church.  I thought he had finally found a church home, but a few months later I ran into him and asked how it was going in that church.  The guy said: “Oh, I left that church. The pastor started off good, I was really feeling the presence of the Lord but then he changed and he quenched the Spirit because I could no feel God’s presence in that church anymore.”  I knew this pastor and knew him to be a real man of God who had not changed at all.  However, this guy probably was about to be blessed with gamal, bountifulness or weaned off the milk and ready for the meat, but he still wanted that milk. I have this really bad habit of speaking before I think and I told him I had just read where a Christian in Iran was thrown into prison for his faith and he told how he felt the presence of God in that prison and was able to really praise and worship God in that prison.  I suggested he might want to try that prison. Needless to say that did not go over well. 

Ok, maybe God has not dealt bountifully with me in the way I want a bountiful. But then, maybe the mere fact that He is not dealing with me bountifully in my definition might mean He is dealing with me bountifully in the gamal or Semitic sense.  Maybe God is saying, “Come on old boy, you are long past those things which you think are bountiful, I could give it to you but that will not be what you really want. Come on, step into you next level of maturity and discover what it is that you are really seeking.”  To David when God dealt bountifully with him it was weaning him off those petty miracles and little signs that he always depended upon to be reminded that God was with him. That was old school.

You know Moses did not enter the Promised Land because he struck the rock with his rod to bring water from the rock when God told him to just speak to the rock. That old rod sure came in handy, it turned to a snake, it was used to part the Red Sea, and at Rephadim he used it to strike a rock and bring water. Why speak to the rock when he had a sure fire way to bring water from the rock. But God wanted to deal gamal, bountifully with him and move him forward to the next level of maturity so they could face the challenges of entering the Promised Land.  “Moses you don’t need the rod, the crutch anymore, your faith has grown; now all you need to do is just speak to the rock and water will come from it.” Oh, but Moses wanted to pass on receiving that gamal and as a result God passed on him to lead the children of Israel into the Promised Land.  

Are you bored with your church and with the worship?  Maybe God is trying to gamal wean you off of that and bring you into something new and exciting. You don’t need to leave the church to find it, God may have it just sitting there waiting for you right where you are at. It just takes a little faith, faith Moses did not exercise, but faith that David did.