“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and ALL that is within me bless His Holy name!”   (Ps 103:1) 

God is good and He is faithful this we know, but that doesn’t mean that life is always good.  Nevertheless the soul is called to bless the Lord.

How is this possible?  How can the soul – our emotionally based facility (the soul/nephesh (Strong’s #5315) is literally the seat of our emotions and passions) – bless the Lord when the sky is falling all around it?  How do we “proclaim it” when we are not “feeling it”?  We know faith is not a feeling – yet when God breathed into us we became nephesh a living soul with feelings that are very much a part of us. 

The answer is Bitachon -  Trust in God. 

This month we have been talking about trust and faith even in the midst of our disappointments.  We learned two Hebrew words for trust.  One was chacah  (pronounced CHaw-saw) which has the unique quality of being something the soul can take refuge in.  “He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust [chacah]…” (Psalm 91:4)

The second and most common word for trust that we learned was batach (pronounced: baw-taCH).  From this word we get the Hebrew phrase bitachon.

Bitachon, (pronounced beet-ta-CHon) is a Hebrew term which means, “Trust in God.”  It comes from the root batach (Strong’s #982) meaning: to trust, to have confidence in, to be secure, and most significantly for this message…to feel safe.  It expresses a sense of well-being and security that comes from having someone or something to place your confidence in. 

It’s interesting to note that the LXXThe Septuagint, or simply “LXX”, is the Koine Greek version of the Hebrew Bible. translated in stages between the 3rd and 1st centuries BCE. Tradition attributes the translation to 70 or 72 elders, thus the name. translates it as “to hope” or “to be persuaded” but not as “believe in” or “faith.” 

“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  (Romans 8:38-39)

You see, bitachon is not about believing in God per say, but rather trusting that everything He wills, everything that occurs, will be for the good because He is good and in control.  It is similar to Romans 8:28 that, “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

Bitachon is an affirmation that God is perfect and full of infinite wisdom and unfailing love….in all circumstances…all, even in the circumstances that are unfair and unclear. 

Because of that and only because of that (bitachon), the soul can bless the Lord with everything that is within it.

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and ALL that is within me bless His Holy name!” (Ps 103:1)  Amen and Amen.

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Bitachon