Presented at a Meeting of the European Association for Biblical Studies at Groningen, The Netherlands 25-29 July, 2004.

 Joy in the Torah: Experiencing Delight in God’s Instruction

Ps. 1:1-2; 119:1, 11, 14, 35, 40, 70, 77

Lenore Mullican

This paper focuses on Psalm 1 and Ps 119, with particular reference to the phrase “I delight in your law.” The Psalms have had a profound effect upon people of faith from ancient Israel throughout the history of the Jewish people as well as from earliest Christianity to the present time. They have greatly influenced the worship and prayer both of individuals and their respective communities of faith. As Wilson so aptly states, “The book of Psalms—particularly those penned by David--allow us to peer into some of the deepest emotional crevices of the human heart. And in our recitation of them, the Psalms provide a vehicle for us to express our own emotions before God.”^[1] Many, if not most, western Christians, however, encounter some degree of difficulty in fully identifying with scriptures that describe experiencing joy in the Torah when Torah is translated as “law.”  This paper explores how the translation of Torah as “teaching” or “instruction” may prove a liberating experience as one endeavors to identify with the Psalmists’ declaration of joy and delight in the Torah.

Psalm 1 introduces the book of Psalms by making it clear that the Psalter is to be seen as instruction (Torah in v. 2) for righteous living.^[2]  “By placing a reference to Torah at the beginning of this canonical section, the centrality of the first part of the canon, the Torah, is reinforced.”^[3] Ancient Hebrew sources compare the five books of Moses with the five books into which the Psalms are divided, thereby identifying Torah with the Psalms (Sipre 52b). Psalm 1 and Ps 119, generally categorized as wisdom psalms, give insight into the impact of religion upon the life of the community of faith. These psalms abound with expressions of delight in the Torah, of joy in following the guidance of God by walking in His ways.

Psalm 1 begins with the word ashrei (from asher, cog: yashar, kashar, to go straight, to advance) ashrei haish asher lo halakh…. Most frequently translated “blessed” the meaning of the Hebrew is happiness, blessedness. The literal meaning, “the happiness of the man” is a phrase found often in the Bible that may signify either pleasure because of material bounty, or peace and tranquility as a result of trusting God.  This latter sense is the meaning in the Psalms.^[4]  The first verse describes a truly happy person in a negative expression, by stating what he does not habitually do.  In verse two the truly happy person is described in a positive expression as one who delights in the Torah ki im betorat adonai khaftso and  who meditates day and night on the Torah of The LORD ubetorato yehege yomam valailah. The Psalmist delights, not merely trusts, but takes great pleasure in the Torah. The Hebrew verb khefts, here translated “delight,” has the meaning of “taking pleasure in, desire” or “will.”^[5]

Psalm 119 is generally classified as a hymn in honor of the Torah and the LORD who gives it. The longest Psalm, it contains 176 verses that form an acrostic connecting twenty-two strophes, each one consisting of eight verses. The first word of each of the eight verses begins with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet.  All twenty-two letters of the alphabet are included.  Within that acrostic is another device in that the eight names or synonyms for the Torah are given within each stophe except for three verses.^[6]  This Psalm is a powerful devotion to the Torah and to the LORD.  Every verse speaks about God or to him.  The whole Psalm is devoted to the Torah of God which it mentions in almost every verse. 

The word ashrei begins Psalm 119 as it does Psalm 1. This exclamation of joy and happiness sets the tone for the Psalm.^[7]  This psalm exemplifies the extraordinary declaration of joy which Torah brings to those who conduct their lives by its direction. In Ps 119:70b we read, “I delight in your Torah,” ani toratkha shashati, the word here translated delight comes from the root shaa. The “I” is emphasized in the Hebrew by adding the independent personal pronoun, which implies a more forceful reading as “I myself.”

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines delight as “1. Great pleasure, gratification: joy. 2. Something that gives great pleasure or enjoyment.”^[8] It seems incongruous to suggest Torah as a source of joy to many western Christians, whose understanding of Torah is limited by their theology that sets “the Law” in opposition to “grace” and thereby precludes any relevance of “the Law” for them. While there is a protective aspect inherent in “law,” there are also the elements of fear and restriction. “Instruction,” on the other hand, is a much friendlier term, suggesting the teaching of proper behavior in a liberating sense by providing understanding. It connotes the revealed will of God as imparted to humanity for its guidance and is not a burden but a delight.  The psalmists viewed their acts of fulfilling God’s instruction as done not for merit, but as a joyful response to a loving God.

In the Hebrew Bible the word torah occurs 208 times with twelve additional times in the plural torot. From the verb yarah meaning to project, to point out or teach the Torah of God. It is that which points out his will to humanity.  It is God’s instruction, his will.  Torah is almost always translated “law.” The Septuagint translated the Hebrew torah as nomos in Greek which in turn was translated into the English “law” and thus it has been used almost exclusively in English translations. However, the Jewish Publication Society 1985 edition translated torah more accurately as “teaching, “teachings,” instructions,” “directions,” “ritual,” and “obligation.” but never “law.”^[9]  Torah is instruction or guidance for living a life of joy and of blessing. Translating torah as “law” has promoted the negative idea of burdensome legalism, while translating it as “teaching” or “instruction” promotes the positive idea of God providing guidance for humankind that contributes stability to life. 

Quite striking in Psalm 119 is the use of synonyms for Torah.  The Torah of the LORD is presented in every possible light. The writer passionately longs for and delights in following this revealed will of God.  As Girdleston has stated, “Certainly, no student of the Psalms can doubt that the pious Israelite found the revealed will of God anything but a heavy burden or an intolerable yoke.”^[10]  Eight different synonyms are used and all first appear in verses 1-11.

      1. In v 1  torah  teaching, instruction, guidance, direction

      2. In v 2  ed  testimony from od to bear witness

      3. In v 4  pakad  precepts, a charge, to visit, appoint

      4. In v 5  khok  statute from khakak  cut in, inscribe, decree

      5. In v 6 mitsva  commandment, a general term for the law of God

      6. In v 7 mishpat  judgment, ordinances

      7. In v 9 davar  word, expressed will of God

      8. In v 11 imra  word, a poetical variant of davar.

The purpose of the Torah is to teach, to instruct. It is not a matter of obedience to a set of rules, but acceptance of the Lord by accepting his instruction. Thus the word Torah has the basic meaning of “instruction.” As Delitzsch states in his discussion of Psalm 119 “. . .not having the notion of a fixed doctrine but that of living, empirical instruction.”^[11] Israel understood her value in the eyes of God as a people who accepted God’s Torah and lovingly fulfilled it.^[12] The obligations of the Torah were not that of an oppressive servitude but one of joyous service to God which led to the sanctification of the individual life.^[13] Since ancient times the study of Torah has been done not only ‘to learn proper conduct and action,’ but as an act of worship as well in bringing the student closer to God.^[14]

The strong sense of joy and happiness in the Torah is demonstrated by the Rabbis. In rabbinic literature we find the expression simkha shel mitsva “the joy of the commandment.”  This is the requirement that commandments should be carried out with happiness, with joy.  Schechter points out that the enthusiasm which the rabbinic Jew felt upon accomplishing that which he considered to be the will of God is rarely understood by theological writers.  He says that this “joy of the Law” is so essential an element in the understanding of the Law, that it can never be conceived by those who have not actually experienced it either from life or from literature.^[15] A formal expression of this joy is seen in the Jewish holiday of Simkhat Torah (Joy of Torah), developed in the Middle Ages to celebrate the completion of the yearly cycle of Torah readings.  During the festival, the Word of God is honored with joyous singing and dancing.  It is an expression in the Jewish community of one’s great love for the Torah, focusing on the joy of rejoicing with the Torah.  It is a time of unrestrained joy without restrictions or a sense of burden. Frequently, in Tannaic literature, Israel is praised for its joyful acceptance of the kingdom of heaven (rule of God) at Sinai.  The phrase, “Moses did as the Lord commanded him” (Num 27:22) is explained as meaning that he fulfilled the Law with joy. Another expression torah lishmah “Torah for its own sake” is found in rabbinic literature.  This expressed the importance of Torah not as a means to human ends, but for its own sake.^[16] 

In Christianity, law and love are often taught as opposites.  This was not the view of Jesus.  He kept the whole Torah while at the same time living a life of love. Flusser concludes, “the Synoptic Gospels, if read through the eyes of their own time, still portray a picture of Jesus as a faithful, law observant Jew.”^[17]  In Matt 5:17-18 Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.  I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” As Bivin has pointed out, “When Jesus said, ‘Not one yod or even one “thorn” of a yod will pass from the Torah’ (Matt 5:18) he was referring to God’s Torah or ‘instruction’ given to Moses at Mt. Sinai.”^[18]  The yod is the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet and the word often translated “tittle,” is the Hebrew kotz, a decorative spur on some Hebrew letters.^[19]  Jesus came to fulfill God’s law not to destroy it--but what does that mean?  Consistent with the NIV translation above, most English translations usually render the Greek phrase katalusai ton nomos as “to destroy the law” or to “abolish the law.” However, Bivin maintains that the Hebrew levatel is the probable Hebrew equivalent of the Greek verb.  Levatel literally means “to cancel” and was a term used in scholarly rabbinic discussions of Jesus’ day as a technical term for violating a biblical commandment.  According to Bivin:

When a sage felt that a colleague had misinterpreted a passage of Scripture, he would say, “You are canceling (or, uprooting) the Torah!” In other words, “You are so misinterpreting Scripture that you are negating or canceling part of it.” Needless to say, in most cases, his colleague strongly disagreed. What was “canceling” the Torah for one teacher was “fulfilling” it for another. What one encounters in Matthew 5:17-18 is a rabbinic controversy. Someone had apparently accused Jesus of “canceling” the Torah. He was being charged with so misinterpreting the Scripture as to nullify their intent. Jesus strongly denied the allegation, using the usual technical terminology for such situations (the Hebrew verbs levatel and lekayem.).^[20]

Jesus was faithful to the Torah, with all its jots and tittles.  According to Flusser, “He gave the Torah a humanitarian explanation, at the same time taking the view that the smallest commandment weighed as heavily as the greatest.”^[21]

The Apostle Paul quotes from the law about eighty times.  He speaks of the goodness of the law in Rom 7:12 “So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good,” and in Rom 7:22 “For in my inner being I delight in God’s law. Paul’s apparent negative statements with regard to the law relate primarily to his strong stand against the necessity for Gentiles to first convert to Judaism before accepting Jesus as Messiah. There is evidence, however, that Paul himself continued to adhere to the Mosaic Law in matters such as circumcision (Acts 16:3), the Nazirite vow (18:18), and purification ritual (21:20-26). Near the end of his third missionary journey, his strong desire to get to Jerusalem in time for Pentecost (20:16) is further evidence of Paul’s continued faithfulness to Judaism.^[22]

In conclusion, this paper has addressed the problem that many, if not most, western Christians encounter in attempting to identify with the scriptures that describe experiencing joy in the Torah. We have suggested that translating Torah as “teaching” or “instruction” of God may prove a liberating experience as one endeavors to identify with the psalmists’ declaration of joy and delight in the Torah. Further understanding of the meaning of Torah was presented in Psalm 119’s use of synonyms for Torah: teaching, guidance, instruction, to bear witness, precepts, statutes, commandments, judgments, ordinances, word or expressed will of God. It was emphasized that Jesus was an observant Jew and that his statement regarding destroying and fulfilling the law involved idioms relating to scholarly discussions meaning to interpret the law correctly rather than incorrectly. He maintained that he validated the law by his correct interpretation. 

When one meditates upon the great love of our Heavenly Father in providing instruction and guidance for our life in His holy word, gratitude demands that we respond as the psalmists with nothing less than unrestrained joy.  In so doing, we acknowledge the authority of God’s word in our life and our servanthood to His will.  When Torah is understood in its proper perspective, Christians can experience a deeper dimension of joy in God’s Torah.