Will Your wonders be made known in the darkness? And Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? Psalm 88:12 NASB The darkness – “Little doubt surrounds the meaning of this denominative verb coming from the noun ḥōšek (darkness). It occurs eighteen times, seventeen times in poetical books. Exodus 10:15 is the only occurrence of ḥāšak in…
If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, and the light around me will be night,” Psalm 139:11 NASB If– Is it really hypothetical? Do we really only imagine a darkness that overwhelms? The translator, also a reader (see yesterday’s Today’s Word about the role of the reader), apparently reads this poem as a theological proclamation of God’s…
Will Your wonders be made known in the darkness? And Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? Psalm 88:12 NASB The darkness – “Little doubt surrounds the meaning of this denominative verb coming from the noun ḥōšek (darkness). It occurs eighteen times, seventeen times in poetical books. Exodus 10:15 is the only occurrence of ḥāšak…
“Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, and whom God has hedged in?” Job 3:23 NASB Light – “Even though I walk through the valley of tsalmawet.” What kind of valley is tsalmawet? One that we know, unfortunately. “It describes the darkness of eyelids tired from weeping (Job 16:16), the thick…
He made darkness His hiding place, His canopy around Him, darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies. Psalm 18:11 NASB Darkness – Where is the Lord, the God of creation, YHVH of Israel? Why don’t we see Him exercise His mighty hand on behalf of the righteousness? Why are the wicked of the world…
This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. John 3:19 NASB Darkness – So you claim to walk in the light? You know the witness of the Spirit, the testimony of the Word, the truth of the…
Lord, all my desire is before You and my sighing is not hidden from You. Psalm 38:10 (Hebrew text – Hebrew Heart media translation) Desire – Did you think David uses the word ta’avati (“my desire”) to describe his spiritual longing for intimate relationship with God? Have you lifted this verse from its context in…
I YHWH and none else, forming light and creating darkness; making peace and creating evil – I YHWH do all these things. Isaiah 45:6-7 (translation: M. Buber) Creating – Where did evil come from? Such a simple question. Such an enormously difficult answer, if there even is an answer. One of the greatest impediments to…
Where is this, the way light dwells; and where is the place of darkness? Job 38:19 (Hebrew text) Place – The documentary extolled the work of volunteers in an orphanage in Haiti. A teacher held up the coloring book page of a three-year-old. “Last year when Alicia arrived, she could only color like this.” The…
For you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light Ephesians 5:8 Darkness – In Greek, Paul writes gar pote skotos, nun de phos en Kyrio (literally, “for then darkness, and now light in Lord”). Even though his words are certainly Greek, did you notice that the…
