HEBREWS – Undefiled

 

tāmiym

 

Psa_119:1 also stands out as a verse that speaks of being blessed: “Blessed are the undefiled in the way.” The Hebrew here for undefiled is tāmiym (H8549), an adjective that speaks of being “blameless, complete, and without blemish.”

 

In more than half its OT occurrences, tāmiym describes an animal to be sacrificed to the Lord, whether a ram, a bull, or a lamb, since such animals were required to be “without blemish” (e.g., Exo_29:1; Lev_4:3; Lev_14:10). It is also used to refer to time, as in a “whole” day (Jos_10:13), a “complete” seven Sabbaths (i.e., “weeks,” Lev_23:15), and a “full” year (Lev_25:30). When used in a moral sense, as it is here, tāmiym speaks of truth, integrity, virtue, uprightness, and righteousness. It appears, for example in Psa_18:23, where the psalmist again declares, “I was also upright before [God], and I kept myself from mine iniquity.” Solomon echoes this principle in Pro_11:5 : “The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way: but the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness.” (See also Jos_24:14, “sincerity”, and Pro_2:21, “perfect”).

 

Added to this word is the word way (derek, February 23), once again a marked-out pattern of life. True bliss and contentment, then, come when our pattern of life is characterized by unblemished behavior. How ironic (and tragic) that the world looks for happiness in the exact opposite, pursuing it in lawlessness and just living their own way, but they will never find it there. Every young person should be challenged with this principle. They might think they will be happy by doing what they want, but they will not. Hopefully, they will not have to find out the hard way that true contentment, bliss, meaning, purpose, and peace will come by a life of unblemished behavior, a lifestyle that is characterized by purity. Charles Spurgeon put it well when he wrote in his classic The Treasury of David: “Doubtless, the more complete our sanctification the more intense our blessedness.” In other words, and let us mark this down: The holier we live, the more content we will be.

 

Scriptures for Study: Who is spoken of as being undefiled (“perfect”) in Gen_6:9; Gen_17:1? In Psa_15:1-5, what other traits characterize those who will abide with God (“uprightly” is tāmiym)?