HEBREW WORD STUDY – SIMPLE – PATHAH  פתה Pei Taw Hei

Psalms 116:6: “The Lord preserves the simple, I was brought low and He helped me.”

“Ich bin anar un ich gleib.”   (I am a fool and I believe)   Rabbi Noach of Lechovitz. 

“You mean people actually believe what we write in there?”  Chief Editor for the tabloid “Globe” during a court hearing.

When you think about it, faith is totally irrational.   Faith means that I am to believe in a God I can not see.  Not only that, faith means that I am devoting my whole life to this someone I can not see.  Not only that faith means that I am offering up words of praise and honor to this someone I can not see.  Not only that faith means I will trust in this someone I do not see to provide for my needs.  Rabbi Noach was a great scholar and student of the Word of God.  He spent his life seeking to understand the mysteries of God.  Then at one point he looked up and asked: “What if I am wrong, what if there is no God.  I have wasted my life studying nothing but foolishness.”    He shrugged and said: “I am a fool, and I believe.”   Rabbi Noach taught that deep study of the Word of God and seeking to understand the mysteries of God has it’s place, but the greatest thing that God desires is simple faith.

Am I the only one?   Do you sometimes find yourself thinking as your pray that you are like Jimmy Stewart talking to his 6 foot invisible rabbit, Harvey?  I remember when I was a student at Moody Bible Institute. It was the time of Midterm exams, everyone was feeling the pressure.   My roommate and I were studying up to 3:00 AM in the morning when we decided to take a break.  We went to the elevators in Culbertson Hall and sat down in one of the elevators and began to just ride it up and down.  Someone walked in and look at us and asked: “What cha doin?”   I replied with a blank look and monotone voice: “We’re riding the elevator.”  “Yes,” said my roommate with the same blank look and monotone voice, “It goes up.”  I added: “It goes down.”   My roommate said: “It goes up!”  I said: “It goes down.”  Our fellow traveler dashed off the elevator at the first floor it stopped at.  It wasn’t even his floor.

Sometimes when I share my faith with someone, I seem to get the same look from that person that I got from our fellow passenger on that elevator.   You know: “Get the net, get the net, this guy really snapped his cap.”  

Psalms 116:6 is such a rich promise: “The Lord preserves the simple.”   One rabbi rendered this as “He watches over the one who has simple faith.”  The word preserves is shamar which is the word for watchman.  It has the idea of guarding, protecting  and preserving.  The word simple is patah. It’s basic meaning is to be wide open.  The Pei, Taw indicates that this openness is speaking and doing what you believe is God’s truth based upon the Hei which represents the presence of God that you feel.  We act many times upon that “right” feeling we get.  We feel the Lord is definitely in what we are about to do.  Sometimes we are wrong, but when we approach it with a pure heart, seeking to honor God He will watch over us and protect us.

Even when we are brought low, he will help us.  The word that is rendered as low is dalal which means to be made poor in health, in finances, or in spirit.  Sometimes when we seek to really serve God and we give our all to him we end up just wasted, financially, physically and/or emotionally.  The promise is that if we do our service to God in simple faith he will help us. The word help is yashua which is the word for saved.  He will save us or rescue us if we make a mistake. You may also recognize the word Yashua as the name Jesus.

I think the Apostle Paul summed it up best in Romans 8:28: “For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose.”    Paul most likely referenced the Aramaic word tov for good or in harmony with God.  When we do things out of a pure heart, in simple faith, God will protect us from our mistakes; in fact He has a way of taking our innocent mistakes and turning them around to be in harmony with Him.  We need never fear to move in simple faith, God has promised to protect us.  Sometimes I wonder if my simple acts of faith amount to anything, maybe I am just making a fool of myself.  But so what, so long as I do it out of a heart for God, that is all that matters.  

We are in a time of political crisis, economic crisis, health crisis with the pandemic.  Churches have been closed or limited in number with the rest only able to enjoy their church experience virtually. I believe many of us are feeling a call from God to return to the very basic roots of our faith. To learn what faith is, to experience that childlike faith. To once again become patah – simple or wide open to whatever God calls us to do and to do it in naïve faith. 

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