Aha, Aha

Psalm 70: 1 – 5

Aha, Aha

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. To bring to remembrance.

1 Make haste, O God, to deliver me! Make haste to help me, O LORD! 2 Let them be ashamed and confounded who seek my life; Let them be turned back and confused who desire my hurt. 3 Let them be turned back because of their shame, who say, “Aha, aha!” 4 Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; And let those who love Your salvation say continually, “Let God be magnified!” 5 But I am poor and needy; Make haste to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O LORD, do not delay.

I have heard many native speakers in the United states answer with a brief and cold "aha" when someone says, "thank you". So, a question I want you to help answer for me ‘Is it appropriate to answer like that?’ I myself feel offended when I receive such a response from someone I don't know.

I figure that it seems to depend on the intonation and facial expression. It may also be a wave of dismissal like ‘Don't mention it’ or ‘Think nothing of it’.–

I think what we are hearing is a short, simple "uh-huh", which is intended as an acknowledgement that they have received your thanks and consider the exchange complete. It is not intended to be rude; in fact, ignoring someone who says "thanks" is much ruder. It's very informal and is probably mostly used when whatever answer they gave that prompted you to thank them was a small, barely noteworthy thing.

Other utterances that we may hear include:

Sure

yup

you bet

no prob

mm-hmm (or even just mmm)

To a peer or a social inferior, aha may indeed be appropriate in casual situations— in fact, a mere mmm or wave of the hand would be sufficient. It is an acknowledgement of the thanks, but simultaneously a dismissal of it as if it were unnecessary.

I tell you that aha is much more respectable than no response at all , it is American normal way of responding to thank you , I am myself not originally American , I notice that mostly non-Americans are offended by this normal aha , I had a non-American friend who was going really crazy if Americans said aha after he said thanks.

Sometime though someone might add another ‘Aha’ to their response which changes the attitude. When one responds this way, it was not initiated by saying a thank you. What they are doing are agreeing that whatever happened to you, you finally ‘get what is coming to you.’

This is what is happening to our brother David. When he was being bombarded by hardships many Anti-David’s just responded as he informs us in verse 3, “Let them be turned back because of their shame, who say, “Aha, aha!”

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. To bring to remembrance.

We have here another Psalm of David dedicated to the chief musician. It is said to be to ‘to bring to remembrance’. Compare Psalm 38 where we find the same phrase. Alternately we may translate as, ‘to make memorial’.

The thought is that he wanted to bring to God’s remembrance his sufferings and need and that he wanted by his words to remember how God was with him in his extremity.

The Psalm divides into three parts:

1). A cry to be delivered from those who would dishonor him (70.1-3).

2). A call to believers to rejoice and magnify God (70.4).

3). A general plea for help (70.5).

There are three types of people from whom he wants to be delivered. Those who seek his life; those who delight in his hurt; and those who say, ‘aha, aha’. And he prays that they may all be confounded and shamed.

1 Make haste, O God, to deliver me! Make haste to help me, O LORD! 2 Let them be ashamed and confounded who seek my life; Let them be turned back and confused who desire my hurt. 3 Let them be turned back because of their shame, who say, “Aha, aha!”

Psalm 40 reads as the first line, ‘be pleased, O YHWH, to deliver me’, which may be an expansion on this, for the abrupt form is acceptable in a Psalm. His cry is for deliverance, and what is more, deliverance in a hurry. He has a number of enemies. He wants those who seek his life to be both ashamed and confounded. He wants those who delight in his hurt to be driven back and brought to dishonor. He wants those who mock him and seek to shame him, to themselves be desolate because of their own shame. He is clearly confident that YHWH will be aware how much of it is their own fault, and indeed that what is to be done to them is deserved.