HEBREW WORD STUDY – SWIMMING IN HIS PRESENCE
Quick Word Study – Seek Him Early – Meshachari – משחרי Mem Shin Cheth Resh Yod
(This Word Study is excerpted from Chaim Bentorah’s book: Swimming In His Presence: A Hebrew Teacher Reflects on Worship & Praise)
Proverbs 8:17: “I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.”
This is a little odd in the Hebrew. I love them is in an imperfect form, hence it should correctly be rendered as I will love them. Of course, no one will translate it that way for two reasons, one, it implies that God does not love everyone and He is waiting for a little love coming from the other side before He decides to love in return. Another reason is that the following words that love me is in a participial form and mean those who are loving me. Thus grammatically you would render this as; I will love those who are loving me. This would again suggest that until we start to love God, He will not love us. However, when put into the context of the proceeding phrase, those that seek me early… then the grammatical strangeness would start to make more sense.
The word love here is ahav which not only means love but in its Semitic root carries the idea of filling someone’s heat with your presence. Thus in this context it is God filling our hearts with His presence. When you love someone in the sense of ahav, that person has entered your heart, and has taken control of your heart. They are constantly in your mind, your thoughts, and your heart is no longer your own, they have seized control of your heart and can cause you to do some really strange things. A very normal, articulate, intellectual person is reduced to speaking nonsense to a little baby like “Goo, Goo, Da Da.”
However, let us assume that this garment of holiness or sacredness is really our lives consecrated to God and our bodies as the garment that carries this consecration. What would that mean for us? For one thing, it would mean we could worship Him. Worship has two possible roots, shacah which is to fall prostrate, and sacah, which means to swim or surround yourself with water. Since ancient Hebrew does not distinguish between a Shin (sh) and Sine (s), I believe both meanings apply here. I rarely see people fall prostrate in worship, but I do see them standing with arms lifted, just basking in the presence of God. I see more sacah swimming or surrounding in the presence of God than shacah falling prostrate.
If the word beauty really means a garment, then beauty could be a reference to the covering of your body. The covering of your body in holiness, your body being consecrated or set apart. When you worship God, you are allowing God to just cover your body and consecrate you, that is, wash away all that sinful crap and make you white as snow. When that happens, you can worship Him sacah, that is, swim in His presence, surround yourself with His presence as the water surrounds you when you are swimming. I believe that is what it means to worship Him in the beauty of His holiness; he covers all your sins so that He can consecrate you, set you apart from everything that would separate you from Him so he can just drown you in His presence.
Actually, this is where the idea of baptism by immersion, as we call it, which to the Jews is Mikveh which, is an immersion in water by a woman to achieve the ritual of purity after menstruation or childbirth. It is a picture just a picture or illustration of being surrounded by the presence of God to purify you and to worship.
I challenge you to do this. Just hold out your hands like you are holding out your hands to receive a gift. Close your eyes and simply pray: “Come, Holy Spirit.” Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The word hope in the Aramaic is sabra, which means a positive imagination. Faith is the evidence of things not seen. You don’t see it but use your imagination, your sabra. Picture in your imagination a cloud descending upon you, a cloud of love, peace, and beauty; imagine it. God gave us an imagination; we use it to read novels, plan social events, and many things; why not use it to imagine God covering you in a cloud of love, swimming in His presence because you know what? That is exactly what is happening. You just have to believe it, and it will be. That is faith, and that is worshipping him in the beauty of His holiness. I know it feels like a mind game. I don’t believe God is into games. He is into faith and believing. He promises to fill you with the Holy Spirit if you ask, then just ask and practice faith by sabra, imagining what is not seen. Worshipping Him in the beauty of his holiness is simply letting Him surround you with his love and presence like a cloud, like sachah, swimming in His midst. Just sabra, imagine it, and believe it is Him.
(This Word Study is excerpted from Chaim Bentorah’s book: Swimming In His Presence: A Hebrew Teacher Reflects on Worship & Praise
Thanks & Blessings, it means a lot to me!
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