The Amen of Action

Yahweh promises David an enduring house. David doesn’t take it for granted, but immediately asks the Lord to keep His word (1 Chronicles 17:23). Given a promise of God, David doesn’t merely wait for it to be fulfilled. He turns the promise to prayer.

The prayer has a neat chiastic structure, framed by references to the Lord’s word:

A. Now Yahweh, the word (dabar) which you spoke (dabar) to Your servant and his house

B. establish (aman) forever

B’. and do

A’. according to what you spoke (dabar).

References to “word” and speech surround the prayer, but the heart of the prayer, the actual request, is that the Lord “establish” and “do.” David isn’t satisfied with words. He wants Yahweh to back up what He has promised with action.

Sections B/B’ bring the verbs “establish” and “do” into parallel. If Yahweh does what He has said, then the word He has spoken will be established. If he fails to do what He’s promised, the word will not be established.

“Establish” is the Hebrew word aman, the root of “Amen.” David asks Yahweh to pronounce an Amen to His promise. Amen is a confirmation, nearly an oath-term, a “this is most certainly true.” But here the Amen that establishes and confirms the truth of Yahweh’s word is doing. He pronounces the Amen to His promise by doing what He said. We think of Paul’s claim that in Jesus all the promises of God are Yes and Amen: God’s promises to David are Amen in Jesus as deed; Jesus doesn’t pronounce the Amen to His Father’s word by making additional commitments but by being and doing the Father’s promises in action.

aman is also the root of one of the common Hebrew words for “truth.” According to David’s prayer, the truth of God’s word isn’t known when the word is spoken. We might even say that the word is not yet true until He acts, until He actively fulfills His commitment to David. Truth is not only revealed eschatologically; truth in this sense doesn’t exist until words of promise are realized in the future.

In some contexts, a “true” word or proposition is one that corresponds to what is the case. The truth of a commitment isn’t of that sort. Unkept promises are not true. Promises are true only when the promiser adds to his words the Amen of action.