Psalms 73:1: “A Psalm of Asaph. Truly God [is] good to Israel, [even] to such as are of a clean heart.”
So what is a pure heart? It sounds really good that God is good to those with a pure heart. I am all for experiencing the goodness of God and in order to get it I need a clean heart.
Actually, the word good is tov which means to be in harmony with something. Thus, God is in harmony with those with a clean heart. Now to be sure Scripture makes it clear that we cannot produce that clean heart out of our own initiative. That is the whole idea of Jesus dying on the cross so that He alone can bear our sins, remove them and nail them to the cross leaving us with a pure heart.
So when Jesus gives us a pure heart, the question is not how do we get a pure heart, that comes simply by putting our trust in Jesus. The question is what happens when we get that pure heart, what is manifested in a pure heart? So let’s take a look at this word for a pure heart.
There is an interesting play on the words pure heart in the Hebrew. The word pure has a preposition before it. The preposition is a Lamed representing the preposition to, for or unto. The word pure is barar in its root form and is found in the passage as labara. This word has the idea of cleansing and rejuvenating. With the preposition you would render this passage as God is good to the pure heart. Not to those who are pure in heart, but He is in harmony with a pure heart. The idea is that God relates to the heart, not our bodies or our minds, but our hearts. The heart can be deceitful according to Jeremiah 17:9.
I’ve seen on Christian blogs on the internet where Christians get into some real knock down drag outs over some obscure theological position. They go back and forth trying to convince each other that they are right and the other person is wrong. The tragedy is that each feels their heart is in the right place and they are sincerely serving God’s purpose by calling their Christian opponent a toad and blasting them out of the water. You read these things and it is so obvious that the two competitors are not really serving God they are just trying to control the other person and prove that they have some superior advantage over that person. But to the two arguing they only see that they are speaking from a pure heart.
But you see God has given both a pure heart. If they were arguing from their hearts, there would not be a conflict. What they are doing is arguing from their minds and souls. The mind and soul can do some pretty impure things. God only gives us a pure heart. From Jeremiah 17:9, I believe the Hebrew words for pure heart tells us that a pure heart can clean up the mind and soul. In fact we are to seek to allow our pure hearts to clean up our minds and souls. Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding(mind), in all your ways (body or physical actions) acknowledge Him and he will direct your paths. When you put your heart before you mind and body you will be walking that halach or righteous life.
Let me take a closer look at what God is doing when He gives us a pure heart or a barar levav. It has already been established that barar means to cleanse or rejuvenate. When we invite Jesus into our hearts He cleanses it and rejuvenates it. But He does other things as well.
The Jewish sages teach us that the word barah is related to barar. Barah means to be bright. When Jesus enters our heart he cleanses it such that he is in harmony with your heart and thus His light will shine from your heart. Jesus commanded us to let our light shine before men (Matthew 5:16). Engaging in meaningless arguments or trivia matters with other believers as just one example is not letting your light shine. It is letting your mind and your intellect shine and unbelievers will not be impressed.
Another word related to barar is and bara’ which is the word for creating something new. When Jesus gives us a clean heart He is creating in us a new heart, the thing that David prayed for in Psalms 51:10.
In a Niphal form barar is a descendent form the old Akkadian word nibiru . Now if you are a conspiracy theorist you are in for a big thrill towards the end of this month when the planet Nibiru is predicted to appear in the sky as it passes close to earth in the next few months bringing all sorts of catastrophes, storms, floods, volcanos erupting, earthquake and the end of life as we know it on earth, real Old Testament stuff. I tell you, if we make it through September a lot of conspiracy theorist will be out of business. Since there are enough websites dealing with all these things I will just get back to an area that I do understand.
The word nibiru in the Akkadian means a crossing like a river crossing or a crossing over. The Noah flood is a scientific fact and some scientist believe the flood was brought about by a close encounter with an asteroid or planetary body that nibiru, crossed over the earth close enough to cause the catastrophe. We know the flood was a cleansing of the earth which is a perfect example of what God does when He cleanses our hearts, he just washes away all that sin and filth leaving you with a pure heart.
The rest is up to us, we now have a pure heart, we must as the Apostle Paul talks about and that is to disciple our minds and bodies to the Word of God and fill it with praise and worship so that our pure heart can be expose and the light of Jesus can shine through us to the world.
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