If you ever read Psalm 16 in the old King James Version, you came upon an oddity in verse 9. “Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.” What in the world does “my glory rejoiceth” mean? The NRSV translates the troublesome phrase “my soul rejoices,” but the word soul does not appear in this verse in the Hebrew text. Any Hebrew Bible available today clearly has the word “glory.”

Fortunately (or maybe not), I took a course on the Psalms in seminary where we read two scholarly commentaries in addition to listening to our professor’s words of wisdom. We learned that this problematic phrase should be translated “my liver leaps with joy.” Does that make any better sense? Maybe.

For the ancient Hebrews, the heart was the organ of thinking. Emotions came from the liver. So having your liver leap for joy was roughly the equivalent to the English expression “my heart leaps for joy.” The problem lies in the fact that ancient Hebrews wrote using consonants alone. Vowels were only added about 1,000 years ago. The words glory and liver both have the same consonants, KBD. It would be easy to confuse the two words.

I’ve never had to use this information for any practical purpose in church work other than to pop it into my devotional blog for today. All I can say is that I’ve learned never to trust someone who claims to know EXACTLY what the Bible says. I’m not sure they know their glory from their liver.

Read Psalm 16 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne