Hebrew Word Study – Long Life – ‘Oreke Yamim   ארך ימים Aleph Resh Kap  Yod Mem Yod  Mem

Psalms  91:16:  “With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.”

I have often had a problem with this verse.   It appears from reading this verse in every modern translation and commentaries that if we trust God, keep our eyes on Him, love Him, and bond with Him we will have a long life.  Yet, I read about so many Christians in other nations who are more bonded with God than I am and they face persecution and death at a relatively young age.  I mean what about these Christian children who were beheaded by ISIS for declaring their love for Jesus.  Does this verse not apply to them? Do they not deserve a long life for their love for Jesus?  Does it only apply to us who are lucky enough to be born in a land where we do not have to face death for our faith?   

Yet, even in this land, Christians die early deaths.  I have personally known devoted Christians whose love for Jesus was very deep.  I remember a young woman in my first pastorate who was married with a small child.  She developed cancer and died at the age of 24. Why was she not granted a long life? I really don’t think the rendering of this verse stands up to the simple facts of this life on earth.  History is filled with many devoted believers who died at an early age.  I think of Keith Green a gifted Christian musician during the Jesus movement in the seventies whose love for Jesus just poured out not only through his music but his life as well.  He refused to make any money off his records and would often just give them away or tell someone just pay what you can and if you can’t pay you can just have it.  His love and life for Jesus has been a model for me and that is why I do not want to receive personally any money from my books.  Here was a gifted, talented believer who loved Jesus with all his heart.  If anyone should have been granted a long life to continue blessing the thousands, yea, millions with his talents it should have been him.  Yet he died in a plane crash at the age of 28.  Did not this promise in Psalms 91:16 apply to him?

It is for this reason that I am not walking in lockstep with all the translators and commentators on this verse.  It just doesn’t wash. There is another way to render this verse that makes more sense and is a wonderful promise.

The phrase long life is oreke yamim which literally means length of days, not long life, that is only an inference made by translators.  This is followed by the word ‘asabi’ehu from the root word saba’ which is rendered as satisfied. Alright, this word is in a Hiphal imperfect form and it would suggest that our modern translations are using the proper syntax. However, I read where one rabbi once said that there is really no definitive syntax in Biblical Hebrew.  I doubt I would go that far.  I tend to believe there are definite rules of syntax in Hebrew but there are many exceptions to these rules.  I used to half-jokingly tell my new students in their first year of taking Hebrew in Bible College that for the first semester we would learn all the rules of Hebrew grammar and then second semester we would learn all the exceptions to those rules.  As the traditional rendering for this verse just does not fit reality, I believe we are faced with an exception to the accepted rules of syntax here and rather than render this that he will give us a long life and He will fill us with satisfaction, I would render this as We will be satisfied with our length of days.  In other words, whatever time God gives us on this planet, He will fill those days with satisfaction.  Every day we live will have meaning, there will be a purpose to each day of life that God grants to us. Lamentations 3:22-23 is a very profound verse when viewed in the Hebrew. “[It is of] the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. (23) [They are] new every morning: great [is] thy faithfulness.”  Mercies is the word chasad and compassions is the word racham.  Two very powerful words of the depths of the love of God and they are new every morning. Every morning we wake up is a gift from God to experience his chasad, mercies, lovingkindness, and racham, His perfect unconditional love. Each day there is a buried treasure filled with chasad and racham and we are given a full day to dig up that treasure.

The word saba’ means to be satisfied, fulfilled.  Some time ago a pastor published a book about finding your purpose in life. That book became a New York Times Best Seller. Christians all over the country were purchasing this book.  The writer followed up a study guide and small study groups were breaking out all over with Christians trying to find some purpose in their life. Another use of the word saba’ is filling one with purpose. 

Why would a book on finding a purpose in life become a national bestseller among Christians?  Does not the Bible in Psalm 91:16 tell us that God will give us a purpose when we are bonded with him and love Him?  I can only conclude one of two things.  My rendering of this verse makes no more sense in reality than the traditional rendering that God will give us a long life.  Apparently, not only is a long life unrealistic but a life where we are filled with satisfaction and purpose is also unrealistic.  The other conclusion could be that maybe if by some odd twist of fate my rendering is this verse is correct and that if we learn to trust God, develop a love relationship with Him, and bond with Him we will have purpose and satisfaction in our life, then multitudes of Christians who say they are Christians but find no purpose in their lives, or are searching for a purpose, have not really explored the depth of the love of God and His heart. They are, as we used to say in the Baptist church, saved so as by fire.  In other words, they got saved for the sole purpose of gaining a get-out of hell free card and have no desire to learn to love the one who purchased that card with His life. 

I remember reading a book about a man who was sent to the Gulag in the old Soviet Union. He struck up a friendship with another prisoner and began to tell him about the family and career he left behind and his plans to return to them after his 25-year sentence was up.  The other prisoner stopped him and said: “Look this is the Gulag, not many leave here alive. You do not know if you will be alive tomorrow. If you are to survive you must think about what is important.”  The man asked what was more important than his family and career?”  The older prisoner said; “The present, the here and now, you and me talking, forming a friendship, a bond, that is what is important.”  More important than anything is the here and now and building a bond with God.

Jesus said: Matthew 6:34: “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day [is] the evil thereof.” My father used to always ask me what I would do if a doctor told me I had only one month to live.  I would always reply with the answer he gave me, “I would live one day at a time.”  We do not realize the miracle of life, that every morning we wake up and the sun comes up, we get out of bed and we are alive.  That very thing is a gift from God.  A gift is meant to be enjoyed and when you bond with God you will enjoy it, no matter what the day may bring because He promised it in Psalms 91:16.  We do not need to focus on past mistakes, they are over with, we focus on the future but there are no guarantees.  What is important is right now, God and you becoming friends, bonding together, that is what is important. Then whatever the future holds good or bad, you can still rejoice and you can smile at a rain storm. 

Keith Green was granted a oreke yamim, not a long life as we interpret a long life being many years, but a length of days or satisfaction with each day given. He may have had only 28 years on this planet, but he spent each day finding the chasad and racham of God and that he live a purpose-filled finding more purpose in his 28 years than many would find in 80 or 100 years. The goal is not to live as many days as you can, God has that already numbered, already prepared before you even enter this world.  The goal is to use each day He has given us to uncover his chasad and racham. We need never face our worst fears but when we do God gives us chasad and racham at the moment we need it and He will not let us leave this world one minute less than the time he has granted us. 

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