HEBREW WORD STUDY – LIKE A DREAM 

Psalms 126:1: “A Song of degrees. When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.”

Last night I had trouble sleeping.  I must have woke up four times during the night.  Each time I awoke I saw Psalms 126:1 in my mind.  I would go back to sleep then another hour or two I would wake up and I would see Psalms 126:1 again.  I could not remember the dream that accompanied this but I clearly remember the verse.  

Do you ever wonder why God created us to have a relatively short lifespan and then design us to spend one-third of that lifespan in an unconscious state we call sleep? The Talmud teaches that during the day our body and soul rule over our spirit such that God cannot really communicate that clearly with us because the needs and desires of the body and soul get in the way of the spirit and it is our spirit through which God communicates.  However, when we are asleep the body and soul are out for the count and God is free to commune with our spirit if we so order our spirit to do so.  That is why before you go to sleep you should spend some time in the Word of God and in prayer for you are commanding your spirit to be open to God while you sleep.

When you are joined with God in spirit your spirit knows what God knows, past, present, and future.  God knows that we cannot handle all that knowledge so he causes us to forget our dreams or replays the events in symbols.  Jewish literature teaches that the waking dream, the dream that you have as you awake is often prophetic.  

I am not sure how much I buy into this idea but when I wake up all through the night with a  Bible passage going through my head, I do not easily discard it, I believe God is trying to convey a message to me through His Word.  I cannot say I fully understand the message of Psalms 126:1 but I invite you to join me as I journey through this verse. 

Rabbi Samson Hirsch in his commentary on the Psalms suggests that the message in this verse is telling us that when the children of Israel returned from exile it was like awakening from a dream. There was so much that they did not understand about this great change of moving from captivity freedom in their homeland. 

That is one interpretation and considering the 70 faces of Torah, there are other messages embedded in this passage. The word dream is chalam which has a number of meanings and usages.  In its Semitic root, it is used for the white of an egg.  My study partner explained that in ancient times it was believed that there were healing properties in the white of the egg, sort of like an aloe and that it makes sense as the word dream also carries the idea of healing. As there is much emotional healing in dreams.