Language Studies

Difficult Sayings

The Law ... converts the soul
Psalm 19:7

"The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul;
The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;" (Psalm 19:7, NKJV)

Psalm 19:7 describes the Torah/Law as תָּמִים tâmîym (Strong's #8549) which means "complete", "perfect", or "good". The same verse, however, goes on to describe it as "converting the soul", in Hebrew this is, tôrâh YHWH t^emîymâh m^eshiybhath nophesh.

The word translated as "converting" in most translations is strictly speaking "returning" from the Hebrew, שׁוּב shûbh (Strong's #7725) and from which later Hebrew created the word תְּשׁוּבָה teshûbhah "repentance". Other translations render it "reviving" (NIV, NRSV) or "restoring" (JPS).

According to Christian interpretation in the New Testament the Law does not have the power to "convert the soul", in Paul's words it is "weak through the flesh" (Romans 8:3). So how can something so "weak" also be described as "perfect"? Perhaps, it is the "through the flesh" that clarifies the law's area of weakness. For, elsewhere, Paul argues that the Law is good:

"Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and goodgood ... the law is spiritual but I am carnal" (Romans 7:12,14)

By Hebrew parallelism, the idea that two halves of a verse poetically or idiomatically attempt to reflect only one meaning between two statements, we can draw some inference from the second half of the verse. The phrase "making wise the simple" is about ethical education of the open-minded, those that are teachable rather than "simple" in the sense of dullards. Thus "converting the soul" must be akin to teaching good behaviour to those willing to learn. A very similar phrase to the first half of the verse, using the same verb and the word "soul", appears in the famous passage in Psalm 23:3, "He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness". Again, parallelism indicates that "restoring my soul" might mean "leading me down righteous paths". The Law leads, we should follow, but it cannot drag us down the path, unwillingly.

The Hebrew in Psalm 19:7, then, may be taken to mean, "restoring the soul", either, nourishing and refreshing it, teaching the heart-mind how to think and how to walk or, more literally, causing the soul to repent and return to God. Thus the Law has its "perfect" side, making the man who delights in it moral, upright, strong, healthy, and blessed. The Law is in one sense powerless, it cannot cause us to walk uprightly for it is we who are weak through the flesh, but it does direct us and make us wise, it can return the soul to God, but only if we in our flesh let it.

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