Psalm 68 - Miradors

I am a total language geek and I love finding new cool words. My new recent favorite it one that I learned when we were in Spain a few weeks ago. That word is “mirador.” It simply means “lookout” in Spanish but it is used to talk about places with big views around. So when we first arrived in Barcelona, our son introduced us to the term. I fell in love with the word as we hiked up to one of the miradors in Barcelona and I photographed this view of the city and the Mediterranean.

And then when we headed to Granada, we visited several other miradors. El Mirador de San Cristobal, El Mirador de San Nicholas, El Mirador de la Abadia del Sacromonte, and El Mirador de San Miguel Alto. Here are some of the photos from those miradors.

I so fell in love with the word. It is such a beautiful word isn’t it?

As I shared above, I am a word geek. I love words in different languages that have a depth of meaning beyond what we can easily translate to english. I love that Greek has three words for different types of love. I love how the Hebrew word “hesed” might best be translated mercylovingkindness. I love the Xhosa word “ubuntu” refers to a way that another’s existence is tied in with ours. I love the Sanskrit word, “mudita” and how it speaks of taking joy in the well-being or success of others (in contrast to the German word, “schadenfreude” which refers to taking pleasure in the misfortune of others). My wife is still somewhat fluent in Mandarin and she has shared some of the beautiful ways in which Mandarin Chinese expresses concepts through its symbology and writing. There’s so many more I could share but you get the idea. Language is such a beautiful thing to explore and to soak in the beauty of languages other than our native tongues. (Side note, I really want to get my Spanish back up to par - I forgot how much I loved the langauge while I was triyng to get it back when we were in Spain).

When I was reading Psalm 68, I stopped at the 2nd half of verse 4 (in bold):

Sing to God, sing praises to his name;
lift up a song to him who rides upon the clouds—
his name is the LORD—
be exultant before him.

You may notice how LORD is in all caps. That’s not an accident. Many English translations translate the unpronouncable name of God in the Hebrew scriptures with LORD written that way. It is to denote that it is that specific Hebrew word and not the one referring to a “generic” lord. Traditionally, Jews would not even try to pronounce this name because it was considered too holy to even speak (not to mention that the way that it is initially written, it is virtually impossible to pronounce). The transcribed letters are YHWH. Try pronouncing that without adding in vowels - it doesn’t work too well. But when vowels are added, it becomes Yahweh.

But when I read that verse, I snickered a bit because the way we have to translate it into English is so weird. His name is...The LORD. The LORD is a pretty odd name, don’t you think? YHWH, however? That’s a name...

I heard one time that maybe YHWH is the name of God because it connects back to the Hebrew creation story of how God breathed into the first human the breath of life (Genesis 2). This person shared how when you say the the name, Yahweh, the two syllables are like a breath in and a breath out. Breathe in---Yaw, breathe out---Weh. Yaaaaah....wehhhhh. It is a sense that we are praying with our very breath.

There’s another Hebrew word that speaks to me with this (which is not the one used in Genesis 2) but still has a connection. It is the word “ruach.” The word can mean wind, breath, or spirit. It is the word used in Genesis 1 where it talks about the spirit moving over the waters and it is used well over 300 more times - sometimes to just refer to a simple natural wind and other times to refer to a spirit within a person or the spirit of the divine moving. It is such a beautiful and powerful word.

Not sure what the takeaway here is but maybe this - may you be blessed by the richness of the multiplicity of words and languages throughout the world. May you see the depth of meaning that others have in their words and be blessed by that richness.

Here are a few photos from “local” miradors from Tuesday as well - from our morning walk and then from where I recorded some things for my Easter sermon overlooking Cincinnati from the Kentucky side.

Grace, Peace, Love, and Joy,
Ed

PS - Here is Scout locked in Tuesday morning seeing 3 turkeys wandering along the edge of the creek…