Hebrew Word Study – From Old – Ma’olem – מעולם  Mem Ayin Vav Lamed Mem

Psalms 25:6b:  “Remember, O LORD, thy tender mercies and thy loving kindnesses; for they [have been] ever of old.”

“Ever of old” sounds a bit contradictory.  It is forever and it is old.  Forever suggest His tender mercies have no beginning or end, old suggest that it had some beginning and some end.  I suppose we could interpret it to mean that His lovingkindness is forever and has been known in old times.

Still, let’s look at this rather unusual phrase in the Hebrew and see if there are some layers of meaning to search out.  I looked at about twenty different modern English translations and practically everyone used different words for this ever of old. It falls into two categories.  One that these tender mercies are eternal and the other is that they existed from olden times, which suggests that they were not eternal. Of course, when we view the context there is no argument.  Both sides would agree that the tender mercies of God are eternal it is just that in this context the Psalmist is trying to deliver comfort and is it more comforting to know that His tender mercies were displayed in olden times and that they existed forever?   

You see, grammatically both sides are correct. The ambiguity of the language allows for both renderings and most likely the Psalmist wanted to express both ideas, that the tender mercies of God are eternal and from times past. 

The word used forever of old is ma’olem, literally from old.  The root word is ‘olem which has a broad range of renderings.  It could mean a long duration, antiquity, futurity, forever and ever, everlasting, evermore, perpetual, old ancient, and continual existence.  It also has the idea of conceal  as the past and future are concealed from us, we only know the present.  It also has the idea of rejuvenation and maturity.  When you change the vowel from o to a, you have “alam which is the word for a young man, and add the feminine ending of ah and you have alamah for young woman, both still from the same root. 

There is an interesting twist with alamah young woman coming from the same root as the word for eternity.  An alamah is used for a young woman as in Isaiah 7:14 where an alamah or young woman will bear a child.  This is a prophecy of the virgin birth of Christ.  There is a question as to why the writer did not use the word betulah as that is the word for a virgin, but instead, he used the word alamah for young woman. Actually, it is used for a young unmarried woman and they were usually virgins.  So the Gospels and the Septuagint are correct to use the Greek word parthenos or virgin when they quoted Isaiah 7:14 as a fulfillment of this prophecy.  

The most likely reason why the word alamah was used was because the prophecy of Isaiah was twofold.  There would be an immediate fulfillment when a young woman would bear a child as a sign to King Ahaz that before this child reaches the age of knowing right from wrong his enemies would be neutralized.   It was also a prophecy of the future coming of the Messiah who would do spiritually what God was going to do in the natural for Ahaz.   So you could not use the word virgin or betulah as that would mean the immediate fulfillment would require this young woman to give birth as a virgin, yet the fact that we are talking of a young, unmarried woman it could apply to Mary as a virgin because alamah was often used for a virgin.  

I think there is another reason why the word alamah is used and that is because its root word carries the idea of eternality. This young woman, Mary, would bear a child that was eternal. That is it had a spirit that existed before birth.

With that in mind and with all these ambiguities in the language, I believe God has created a beautiful picture when he says that his tender mercies and loving-kindness are all ma’olem or eternal and of old.  God’s loving kindness and mercies are found in the past as demonstrated in Scripture, they were also present for the Psalmist and they are future in the coming of the Messiah.  

That same love that took Israel out of slavery in the past, that saved the Psalmist in the present from his enemies, and that brought the Messiah in the future, the Son of God, to suffer and die on the cross and rise again is never, ever-changing 

What this means to us is that we can read the records of past saints who have experienced the tender mercies of God.  Take for example a woman like Madam Guyon who lived in the eighteenth century.  She once wrote: “I have learned to love the darkness of sorrow; there you see the brightness of His face.”  Madam Guyon was locked away in prison, the Bastille in France for no other reason than she just wanted to love Jesus.  Yet, in it all, she learned the tender mercies and lovingkindness of God in the notorious prison known as the Bastille.  History is filled with such testimonies and these were people no different than you or I except that they lived in a different time, in days of old.  

Psalms 25:6b assures us that that same mercy that carried Madam Guyon through the Bastille and not only carried her through but also became a source of remarkable joy is the same mercy to carry us through our trials today, it is unchanged and will never change.

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