HEBREW WORD STUDY – LONELINESS – YACHAD – יחד  Yod Cheth Daleth

Psalms 25:16,18: “Turn to me and be gracious to me, For I am lonely and afflicted.” (18) Look upon my affliction and my trouble, And forgive all my sin.”

In 1889 Vincent Van Gogh entered St. Paulde-Mausole, which was an asylum at St. Remy, which was a former 12th Century Augustinian monastery.  Between attacks of his mental illness, he devoted himself to his painting.  This was right at the time psychology was becoming a legitimate science and psychologist were drawn to Van Gogh because it gave them a chance to peer into the mind of one who was insane.  I was told by an art historian that his famous painting Starry Night was what he actually saw in his mind when he looked up at the night sky. During his time at the asylum, he created four paintings of Irises.  The most famous of these four was Les Iris which in 1987 became the most expensive painting ever sold setting a record that stood for two and a half years.  It was sold for $53.9 million dollars which is equivalent to 100 million dollars in today’s money.  It was later re-sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles for an undisclosed amount.  It is currently tenth on the inflation-adjusted list of most expensive paintings ever sold. 

Throughout his life, Van Gogh was tormented by fits of depression and loneliness. If you look up this painting on Google you will find that all the irises he painting were blue and some with a little white in it. Yet, there is one iris that is totally white that stands out among all the irises in the painting. Art historians tell us that this represents his loneliness which was even more intensified while living in the asylum.  He never sold one painting while he was alive and no one ever appreciated his artwork until after he died.  He lived a lonely life as a failure in his attempts to be a missionary, in marriage, and just in making a living.  He died a pauper. 

Loneliness affects all of us to some degree.  We feel it most when we lose a loved one through separation, divorce, or death.  Depression often follows loneliness.  David grew up in a rather lonely life as a shepherd.  He would spend hours, days, weeks, and months alone with his sheep but we have no indication that he ever experienced loneliness or depression.

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Now when he is a king of one of the most powerful nations in the world, a war hero, who had many wives and concubines.  Yet, one evening when his men were off to war and he had to stay behind at the palace he fell into loneliness and tried to satisfy it with an adulterous affair with a married woman named Bathsheba.  How was it that when he was just a young shepherd boy who should have been having fun in his youth with friends but was forced to work with his father’s sheep in a lonely profession, he was never lonely?  Then when he had everything a man could want, he fell into sin because of his loneliness.  Then here in Psalms 25, we hear his cry that he is lonely and afflicted.  The word afflicted is anah which means to be wretched, miserable, and sad. Here David was lonely and sad. How could this be? 

The answer lies in the 18th verse. “Look upon my affliction and my trouble, And forgive all my sin.”  The word trouble is sarar which means to compress, squeeze. In the midst of his misery, he felt like he was being squeezed to death.  Then he gives the secret to his trouble, “Forgive all my sin.”  He realized his loneliness and depression stemmed from the sins in his life. While a shepherd his sins were always confessed and he lived in a state of forgiveness. Thus, he enjoyed the presence of God which has now left him.  Look back at verse 16 where he says: “Turn to me.”  That is the word panah which means before, in front of and it is also a word used for the presence of God. David is pleading with God for His presence.  Because of his sins, he no longer feels the presence of God and he is lonely.  But look at that word for lonely, yachad.  It means to be alone, only and lonely but it is also used for unity. How can lonely be a unity? Well, yachad has the idea of oneness like being in unity with someone who would make you yachad which is the opposite of lonely.  But I believe there is another reason for this word. You can be united with God like David and still feel lonely. Like David, your sin will keep you from the presence of God, but God still remains united with you.  However, we are created in God’s image and if we feel lonely without his presence, how must God feel when He cannot manifest his presence with you.  He too feels lonely, He understands loneliness. 

But there is one final thing.  Van Gogh took his pain and loneliness and put it in a painting. He not only expressed his deepest feelings in his paintings but he made something beautiful out of it. So beautiful it sold for millions of dollars.  David took his pain and loneliness and wrote a beautiful poem that has brought comfort to millions upon millions of people.  God can take your loneliness and pain and together you can also create something beautiful.

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