The Addict

Who has woe? Who has sorrow?
Who has contentions? Who has complaining?
Who has wounds without cause?
Who has redness of eyes?  Proverbs 23:29  NASB Woe – This verse describes the alcoholic, but it might as well be attributed to any addict.  Consider the characteristics.  This person feels woe.  What does that mean?  He despairs of life.  It’s…

Red, Yellow, Green

He said to His disciples, “It is inevitable that stumbling blocks come, but woe to him through whom they come!  Luke 17:1  NASB Woe – Forget blue.  The Bible doesn’t come in blue.  Blue is not an obedient color.  The Bible comes in red, yellow and green.  Green is for obedient living.  Green is good. …

Be Prepared

Yes, let all who hope in You be not shamed.  Let the treacherous be shamed, empty-handed.  Psalm 25:3  Robert Alter translation Hope – After our recent discussion of batah, you might expect to find that word behind the English “hope.”  To trust is to hope.  The result is a public display.  But that’s not what…

Shamed or Ashamed?

My God, in You I trust.  Let me be not shamed, let my enemies not gloat over me.  Psalm 25:2  Robert Alter translation Be not shamed – The Hebraic world is public.  Its concepts of integrity, reliability, honor and disgrace are public.  What happens in the world of the community determines character.  The Greek world…

Watertight

My God, in You I trust.  Let me be not shamed, let my enemies not gloat over me.  Psalm 25:2  Robert Alter translation I trust – When I read these words from the psalmist, I get discouraged.  He trusted in God in everything.  Why can’t I be like that?  Growing up in Hellenism, I learned…

In God We Trust

My God, in You I trust.  Let me be not shamed, let my enemies not gloat over me.  Psalm 25:2  Robert Alter translation Trust – Trust in God is more than a motto on the back of a coin.  In fact, we might wonder if biblical “trust” can even be understood apart from Hebrew thought. …

Canceling the Debt

For David.  To You, O LORD, I lift up my heart.  Psalm 25:1  Robert Alter translation To You – Lamentations and Psalms use a form of poetry called acrostic.  In poems of this type, each new line begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet.  In this psalm, every letter is represented except the…