Song of Peace

The word for “Song” in Hebrew is shur (רושׁ), which means “song,” and the root word in Hebrew for “Psalm” is zamar (רמז), which also means “song.” Yet shur (רושׁ) is a song of peace, joy, and celebration of the power of God, while zamar (רמז) is a song of praise that comes when one is being pruned or tried by God.

Yet this psalm was written in praise to God, and then it was given to the sons of Korah, who made up the temple choir, and to the chief musician. It says it was given upon mahalath (תלחמ), which some say is a musical instrument. No English translation is provided for mahalath (תלחמ), and it is uncertain if the root word is chalah (הלח), which means “to be exhausted,” “to be diseased,” “to be weak,” “to be feeble,” or “to be afflicted,” or if it comes from the root word chul (לוח), which means “to be in pain,” “to tremble,” or “to shake.” Either way, it was given in great distress to the choir and to its director. 

The next word is leannoth (תונﬠל), which comes from the root word ’anah (הנﬠ) and means “to be humbled by affliction.” This word is in a piel* infinitive form and suggests this rendering: “He has been humbled like no other man.” The following word is maschil (ליכשׂמ), which comes from the root word sakal (לכשׂ) and means “to prosper” or “to understand.” This word is in hiphil participle* form, so we could render it as “He has caused him to understand,” or “He has caused him to prosper.”

The experience of the Heman in this psalm does not fit the profile of any other Heman in Scripture. However, in Jewish literature, I have found a description of a Heman that does fit the profile of the Heman of Psalm 88. Jewish literature and tradition teach that this Heman was a gifted musician and vocalist—but he was also a leper.

Here, then, is the picture we see in this psalm. Heman is a diseased, broken, poverty-stricken beggar. He has called out to God all his life to be healed of his leprosy, but he has not been healed. Nevertheless, God has still done a wonderful work of healing in him. He has healed his soul. Although God gave him a beautiful voice, Heman was not allowed to sing in the temple because of his affliction. However, he could sing on the street corner; and, if Jewish literature is correct, that is what he did.

- Chaim Bentorah, Hebrew Word Study, Vol 1 

Language as a Medium of Expression, Reasoning, and Communication

Human languages are structured systems for making articulated thoughts fully explicit both internally (mentally) and externally (in a form perceptible to other humans), and linguistics studies all components of such systems, together with the ways in which they are used……

 

Most communication, even between humans, has nothing to do with language (think of frowning, winking, shrugging, grinning, eyebrow-raising, caressing, or glaring). Some of it isn’t even voluntary (blushing, limping, trembling).

 

The systems that linguists study connect virtually unbounded numbers of sentence meanings (arbitrarily complex thoughts) to external realizations, in a medium-independent way (a given sentence can be presented in either written or spoken form). Thus the subject matter for linguists extends from the study of the ways in which speech sounds are made (phonetics) to the study of how meaningful sentences are used in context to convey implicit meanings (pragmatics).

 

Sentences can instruct or query or exhort or signal emotion, and crucially they can express claims, either true and false, and can be used not only externally, for communication or easing of social interaction, but also internally, for reasoning.

 

--- Geoffrey K. Pullum, Linguistics: Why It Matters. 2018.