Hebrew Word Study – Splendor – Hadar   הדר   Hei Daleth Resh

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Psalms 90:16-17: “Let thy work appear unto they servants and they glory unto they children. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.”

This Psalm was written by Moses, he knew a few things about the glory of God.  He had asked God to reveal His glory to Him and God did. The only thing is God revealed his chasad to Moses, that is His lovingkindness. Then Moses says that God will reveal his hadar to his children. Hadar is beauty, majesty, and splendor. 

Now, this gets a little confusing as God is going to reveal his works to his servants. The word for works in Hebrew is pa’al which is activity, deeds, or what you have done.  To the servants, he shows them what He has done and will do for them,  but unto the children, He shows his beauty.  

In the next verse, Moses talks about the beauty of the Lord being upon us. Here the word beauty is not hadar in Hebrew but it is noam which is a word for pleasure. This, in other words, is in a cohortative form and thus it should be rendered as a blessing.  A cohortative expresses a desire. So we would render this as may God do good works for his servants and may his splendor and majesty be upon their children and may the pleasure of God be upon us all.

The rest of verse 17 is a little difficult. “And establish thou the work of our hands upon us: yea the work of hands establish  thou it.”  The word established in Hebrew is kun in its root form and has a variety of applications.  I feel the application here is success or prosperity.  Thus Moses is saying: “And make the work of our hands prosperous or successful.  

Taking a very close look at the syntax of verse 17 it would appear this success or prosperity is related to the beauty or pleasure of God being upon us. In other words: “May all our works be successful in bringing pleasure to God.” Both servants and children bring pleasure to God, but there is a difference between the two.

So God will do good deeds for his servants and his beauty will be revealed to their children so all that they do will bring pleasure to God. I think at this point I would like to be a servant. The beauty of God is not as important as getting this good work from God.

Now that fits me just fine because I am sure not bringing much pleasure to God with my present attitude toward my situation sitting around feeling sorry for myself and worrying about the future. I am crying out to God that I am his servant, now start doing some work in me. I’m seventy years old and the message burning in my heart is not lighting any fires.  I haven’t had that many more years to get a blaze going.  

Yet, I wonder, even at seventy-two years of age, if God is not bringing me into the state of a child. The word for servant is avad which literally means slave or bondage. I am wondering if I really allow myself to be in total bondage to God, to be a slave to God.  

Moses understood this word avad, he knew about slavery. He understood the slavery of God’s people in Egypt. Your life, your existence, and your next meal were all in the hands of the slave master. You were totally dependent upon the master for everything. When the children of the Hebrew slaves left Egypt, they were free to experience the beauty and splendor of God. They had a new slave master, one who feed them and took loving care of them. Only this new slave master was beautiful and majestic. But they were so wrapped up in getting their basic needs from this new master, just like from the old Egyptian masters, that they did not bother to see His majesty.  In fact, they told Moses, “You go into the cloud and find out what our new master wants from us and report back to us.”  I imagine when Moses returned from the cloud he told the people: “Our Master is so beautiful, splendid, and wonderful, you gotta see it, you just gotta see it.”   But the people were not interested in their new Master’s beauty, they were only concerned about their next meal. 

I have been redeemed from the old slave master of sin. I have a new Master who is beautiful and splendid and wants to show me his hadar or beauty, but I am too focused on myself. I’d rather someone else go into that cloud and they can tell me what he says, once I get these needs met, maybe I will appreciate the cloud better. 

Perhaps I should go into the Word of God itself to seek his hadar (His beauty) rather than his pa’al or His works. You may notice that my little studies lately have centered around the pa’al rather than the hadar his beauty and splendor.  Maybe it is time to move beyond being an avad, his slave who looks to the master to open the doors to sharing this message burning in my soul and realize that this message may just get out if I start appreciating the beauty of God and spend my time talking about that. 

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