Opus 2025-320: The Imperfect Hebrew Shepherd

As I was reading the 23rd psalm on the 23rd day of the month as a regular discipline, I paused a moment and asked myself, “What does the grammar show us?”  I know that’s a regular question that you ask yourself.  One of the clues that got my attention here is in the KJV the verbs at the beginning, at least, ended in “eth.  I’ve been told in the New Testament, which was originally in Greek, that ending means the present tense, which has the idea of continued action.  I’m finding in the Hebrew that ending is usually the imperfect tense, which has the same concept of continued action.

I quickly worked through the entire Psalm and I noticed this consistently.  Almost every verb in this Psalm is in the imperfect tense.  The one that stood out as not being in the imperfect tense was the anointing of the head with oil.  That seem to be a one time process, which would fit together with the idea of being anointed with the Holy Spirit.

What does that say about it a bit of scripture like this?  Does that underlying sense of the Hebrew grammar of continued action speak to us even when we are not aware of the Hebrew?  Is that one of the reasons why this is such a loved bit of scripture?

So much of the Christian walk is a process rather than a crisis.  In my circles, we talked about being saved as a crisis experience, it happens in the moment.  Many theological traditions talk about sanctification as being a process, growth, maturing.  This Psalm is about growing in the main part.  It is a continual lifetime experience.  It makes life into an adventure as we walk into the future by God side.

It’s quite a promise.  And I think as we’re looking at the grammar the promise becomes even more dramatic and more encouraging.

The Shepherd may be perfect, but the grammar is imperfect.

homo unius libri