Read Psalm 138 at Bible Gateway.
Hebrew root words.
TO PERFECT. The word for “to perfect” in Psa 138:8, is Strong’s H1584 גמר gamar, a primitive root whose first occurrence in Scripture is in Psalm 7:9:
O let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the righteous: for the righteous God tries the hearts and minds.
The 3-letter root is gimel + mem + resh.
gimel ג = foot, thus foot, walk, gather
mem מ ם = water, thus chaos, mighty, blood
resh ר = head of man, thus head, first, top, beginning, man
The story: To walk (gimel) through the highs and lows (mem, as expressed in waves of the sea) of a man (resh), to his end is implied, that is, to complete from beginning to end. The Ancient Hebrew Lexicon says:
To come to an end in [either] perfection or failure.
This connection of perfection to completeness isn’t the first time I’ve seen it recently. A few days ago in my personal Bible study, I ran across the Hebrew word for all, every:
EVERY. Strong’s H3605 כל kol, a concrete noun meaning, “the whole, everything;” from Strong’s H3634 כלל kalal, a primitive root meaning, “to complete, perfect.” The 3-letter root is kaph + lamed + lamed.
kaph כ ך = open palm, thus bend, open, allow, tame
lamed ל = shepherd’s staff, thus teach, yoke, to, bind
lamed ל = shepherd’s staff, thus teach, yoke, to, bind
The story: When something is tamed (kaph) to the teaching (lamed) of the shepherd or husbandman (lamed), then it has been perfected.
When a garden has been wrought out of a wild patch of weeds; when a horse has been tamed to the command of the horseman, when a child has been tamed to the teaching of his parents, and when we have bent our wills to the teaching of our Shepherd contained in Torah, then we are perfected.
The Hebrew is painting quite a different definition of “perfect” from what we have been told, and it is quite liberating for those, like myself, who are recovering perfectionists.
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