Ramblings

It has been several months since my last blog entry.  In case you were wondering where I have been, I am still fully engaged in memorizing Psalm 119 which also implies learning the Hebrew language.  At the moment, I am up to verse 30 (only 146 more verses to go, and I am still intending to finish this project). I estimate it will take about 3 more years to finish memorizing Psalm 119—which is right on track with my initial estimate from last September.

So, here are some personal subjective observations about this exercise to this point:

1. I find that the more time I spend studying Hebrew and Psalm 119, the more I can notice my perspective changing about the way I view life.  Some examples:
   
   • I don’t think so much about what my intentions are for the future. Instead I am more focused on what I am doing now, both in terms of my completed actions and my ongoing actions.  This is a predictable consequence of thinking in a language that has no future or past tenses.
     
   • I am becoming increasingly aware that all of life, both personal and societal, is governed by the proclamations of God as contained in His word.
     
   • I am starting to pray more and more in the Hebrew.  This has been part of my goal and I am delighted to be able to start thinking and praying in the same language and with the same words that my Lord used when He was walking this earth in His incarnation.
     
2. This is a great way to learn a foreign language. In my previous attempts to learn a foreign language (and for me that has been French, German, Russian, ancient Greek, and smatterings of several other languages) the process involved learning the grammar, and then adding vocabulary.  Along the way, there were some practical applications such as memorizing dialogs and later reading literature in the language.  But the focus in these previous language-learning attempts was to learn the language structure and rules first, and then using it later. 
   
   In my Hebrew-learning process, EVERYTHING I learn is directly related to understanding the text of Psalm 119.  Consequently, every new lesson–whether vocabulary or grammar or etymology–is urgent, relevant, important and exciting (or as a friend of mine would say, “salient”). There is nothing boring or even pedantic about this approach to learning a foreign language.
   
3. I have found that I already understand much of the rest of the Old Testament when I wander off into other portions of the Hebrew Bible. So, here is a corollary to this exercise: if you understand everything about 30 consecutive verses of Psalm 119 in the Hebrew, then you probably have already acquired a great deal of the language skill necessary to understand a good bit of the rest of the Hebrew Bible. This was a surprising result for me.  For example, it has been fascinating and VERY eye-opening to read the first chapter of Genesis in the Hebrew. I can see much more in those Genesis verses than I used to understand by reading only an English translation of them.
   
4. In my previous blog posts for this blog I tended to focus on lessons I was learning about single verses in the Hebrew. I now am more focused on the trends and themes of Psalm 119 and the way they interweave and reinforce each other.  It is now more like listening to a full symphony, and therefore harder to describe what I am learning by telling you what one instrument of that symphony is doing for a few measures.  I think this is partly why I haven’t posted to this blog in while—I am a bit overwhelmed by the symphony and less inclined to want to talk about a single instrument.
   
5. Bible Hub at biblehub.com should be considered one of the seven most important wonders of the modern world. (I am not exaggerating.) I am continually impressed and even stunned by the wealth of EXTREMELY valuable knowledge available at this Web site for people who are serious about understanding the original intent of the Bible texts. It is not all great (for example: I am not a fan of much of what Brown-Driver-Briggs have to say, but even they often present interesting background tidbits worth pondering), but much of the content at Bible Hub is indispensable scholarship for the serious Bible student.

Well, that’s enough for one blog post.  Let me know if you find any of this particularly interesting.