HEBREW WORD STUDY – SAFELY HOME – BATSAR – בצר Beth Sade Resh

Psalms 18:6: “In my distress I called upon the Lord and cried unto my God.  He heard my voice out of his temple and my cry came before Him in His ears.”

It is believed by Biblical scholars that David wrote this Psalm toward the end of his life as he was reflecting over the many times God delivered him. He is thinking particularly of the times he was in distress. 

The word in Hebrew for distress is batsar which could come from two possible roots words.  The context suggest that the root is tsarar which means to be narrow or closed in. It also carries the idea of being bound up or in bondage. It has a definite article so it is the distress. He is speaking of a specific distress or a sense of feeling closed in or bound.  Did you ever have a problem or situation that had you so distressed that you couldn’t think of anything else. It was like you were in bondage to this distress. You couldn’t enjoy life, all you could do was think about this problem. That is the type of distress David is talking about here. But there is another possible root word which would suggest a word play. The word itself batsar which is actually root form for a word which suggests 

The protection of home or feeling secure in your home.  At the same time David is feeling distressed, squeezed into a situation he cannot escape from, he thinks of the security of being home.

This makes me think of that old hymn His Eye Is On the Sparrow. In that song there is a line which puts this verse into its emotional context. We do well to put a verse in its Scriptural context, cultural context and even historic context, but we often fail to put it into its emotional context which is so important in poetry. The line in that song goes like this: “Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows fall, why should my heart be lonely and long for heaven and home.” In that phrase you get a feel for the longing that David must have felt during his time of tsarar and his thoughts of batsar. 

He calls out to YHWH but cries to Elohim.  YHWH is a word used to describe the feminine attribute of God, his mercy, caring, loving and nurturing nature. This longing for home is like a little lost child crying for his mother. In fact the word call in Hebrew is qara’ which is a loud audible cry like a baby crying for its mother. In fact this word is in a Qal imperfect form. He is still calling out to YHWH, crying for heaven and home even as he writes this poem.  But then he also cries to Elohim.   

This is a different word name for God in the Hebrew and a different word for cry or call. The word cry here is ‘ashu’ which has a Piel stem. He is crying to his God or Elohim which is in a masculine form and suggest the masculine nature of God, the provision, the protection and the guidance of the Spirit of God. His cry or ‘ashu with the Piel stem would make this a wailing or pleading. ‘Ashu comes from the root word shava’ which is a specific cry. It is a cry for physical help, like for a healing or financial deliverance. 

Note that God will hear him. This is in an imperfect form which suggest God is still listening to his cries.  Oddly, David is saying that God hears from his temple or his hikal which means temple but also means His splendor. The temple of God was not yet built on earth but David could have believed a temple existed in heaven and was calling to heaven in his longing for heaven and home. We are not sure of this. However, this does create a poetic picture of a wealthy king hearing the crying of a peasant, and personally drawing upon his wealth to respond.  

This cry came before Him in His ear or his azan which means an ear but God does not have ears so likely the intent is God’s immediate attention. Literally it is a picture of God dropping everything He is doing to give His full, undivided attention to this lowly peasant that David sees himself as. Again the picture is not one of just a king hearing the cry of desperation, but one of a king sitting in his palace listening and waiting for this cry to come, knowing it will come and preparing to take action. Actually, it is more like a mother laying awake in bed waiting for her baby to cry and then once that cry comes she springs into action.

But what is the action that God is to take? David is confirming that God does hear and does take action, but often we don’t see His action because His response is just not what we were expecting.  You see the picture here is that God does not hear the cry of our voice but the cry of our heart. The appeal being made here is to the heart of God. God hears and responds but if we are not in tune with our heart or the heart of God we may miss His response. He may respond in something very simple as the song of bird, or comforting word, or even a simple Scripture verse. 

In Genesis 42:1 during a time of great famine Jacob declares to his sons: “Why are you looking at each other.”  The Talmud teaches that this should be read as “Why are you displaying yourselves” or “Why are you creating a perception.”  In other words, the sons were creating a perception of faith by waiting for that manna from heaven. They were expecting God to send a miracle like they figured a miracle should be i.e., raining manna from heaven.  Yet God’s miracle laid in a totally unexpected place,  Egypt where they would not only be fed but also experience the miracle of reconciliation with their brother Joseph but the favor of the most powerful empire in the known world.

Sometimes we pray and then we plan out how God should answer that prayer and say; “Well, God. now be sure you answer that prayer this way. Now that you heard my plan don’t you agree that I figure that out rather nicely?”  When we call out to YHWH and cry out to Elohim, maybe we can leave the solution up to Him.

I remember as a child we had a pet cat. I am not saying he was smarting than me, but somehow when faced with the same situation he always came up with the better solution. He was guided by instincts given to him by God. God just gave me a finite brain to figure things out and usually, I don’t figure them out the amazing way God can. 

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