גַּ֤ם כִּֽי־אֵלֵ֨ךְ בְּגֵ֪יא צַלְמָ֡וֶת לֹא־אִ֘ירָ֤א רָ֗ע כִּי־אַתָּ֥ה עִמָּדִ֑י שִׁבְטְךָ֥ וּ֝מִשְׁעַנְתֶּ֗ךָ הֵ֣מָּה יְנַֽחֲמֻֽנִי׃
내가 사망의 음침한 골짜기로 다닐지라도 해를 두려워하지 않을 것은 주께서 나와 함께 하심이라 주의 지팡이와 막대기가 나를 안위하시나이다
Malbim
Elihu concludes his address by arguing that man's intellect is also incapable of attaining a complete understanding of the natural sciences. This being so, how can he presume to climb God's mountain (Numbers 14:44) and obtain a correct and full understanding of that which is beyond Nature.39Traditional theology presumed that metaphysics is more important than physics. The implication here is that metaphysics is also more difficult to understand than physics, and so if man cannot understand the latter, a fortiori, he cannot comprehend the former. In traditional theology, the design revealed by science is viewed as evidence of the existence of an Intelligent Creator. This teleological argument is found in numerous medieval sources:
Just as the garment testifies to [the existence of] the weaver...so does the universe testify to [the existence of] the Holy One, blessed be He, who created it' (Midrash Temurah, 3).
But if the design is evidence of His existence, then the clearer this design becomes the more redundant and irrelevant that Intelligent Creator is made. As Gillespie has written:
...the empirical proof that God was also an active force as a moral agent in the universe was derived from the supposed necessity of assuming that divine interventions accounted for the physical phenomena which were inexplicable on purely scientific grounds. The proof of the existence of God, therefore, was based on what science had accomplished, and the proof of His continued activity on what it had not...as more and more events in physical history were explained naturally, there were fewer episodes to be explained supernaturally and fewer empirical illustrations of God's immediate control over the material world' (Genesis and Geology, p. 220).
Governance and supernatural explanations may indeed have little or no place in modern western man's understanding of his physical environment, but, however improbable they may seem, they are still the only non-medicinal therapy there is for his fears and uncertainties. Belief in an improbable and untestable notion is the one alternative an individual has to the stimulating or tranquilizing drugs he otherwise needs, in order to see himself through 'the valley of the shadow of death' that he must daily traverse. He should be satisfied that these priceless perceptions of the integrity of God's judgments, of reward and punishment and of the immortality of the soul, are to be found in his soul, impressed upon it from its incipience. And apart from this, Divine messages are at times communicated to him in a vision or dream. For God has not abandoned him in the valley of darkness (Psalms 23:4), without a Divine lamp to enlighten his soul and to illuminate the night (1 Samuel 3:3).
Just as the garment testifies to [the existence of] the weaver...so does the universe testify to [the existence of] the Holy One, blessed be He, who created it' (Midrash Temurah, 3).
But if the design is evidence of His existence, then the clearer this design becomes the more redundant and irrelevant that Intelligent Creator is made. As Gillespie has written:
...the empirical proof that God was also an active force as a moral agent in the universe was derived from the supposed necessity of assuming that divine interventions accounted for the physical phenomena which were inexplicable on purely scientific grounds. The proof of the existence of God, therefore, was based on what science had accomplished, and the proof of His continued activity on what it had not...as more and more events in physical history were explained naturally, there were fewer episodes to be explained supernaturally and fewer empirical illustrations of God's immediate control over the material world' (Genesis and Geology, p. 220).
Governance and supernatural explanations may indeed have little or no place in modern western man's understanding of his physical environment, but, however improbable they may seem, they are still the only non-medicinal therapy there is for his fears and uncertainties. Belief in an improbable and untestable notion is the one alternative an individual has to the stimulating or tranquilizing drugs he otherwise needs, in order to see himself through 'the valley of the shadow of death' that he must daily traverse. He should be satisfied that these priceless perceptions of the integrity of God's judgments, of reward and punishment and of the immortality of the soul, are to be found in his soul, impressed upon it from its incipience. And apart from this, Divine messages are at times communicated to him in a vision or dream. For God has not abandoned him in the valley of darkness (Psalms 23:4), without a Divine lamp to enlighten his soul and to illuminate the night (1 Samuel 3:3).