Goodness Gracious
Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by. Psalm 57:1 ESV (57:2 in Hebrew text).
Be merciful – David is in a hole in the ground (that context is why I need the first verse in the Hebrew text). From that black hole of a cave, he cries out to YHWH, “Honneni.” The verb is hen. In its sixty-eight occurrences in the Tanakh, it is always associated with some act of grace, some depiction of favor given on the basis of need. It might be a request for pity or a plea for consideration or the cry for grace. But it’s always about someone in desperate need of something he or she doesn’t have. In forty-one of these occurrences, the subject is YHWH. God has what I need, whatever that may be, and the sooner I recognize that He is the provider of my needs, the sooner I experience blessing and grace. Even from a hole in the ground.
It’s interesting to notice that David does not offer his plea to YHWH, to the personal name of the Holy One. David used the Hebrew elohim, the word that designates the status of the Divine One. The verse properly translates this as “God.” David is addressing the Sovereign Lord of the Universe by His correct title – God. “Be merciful to me – honneni – God – You who run the whole cosmos.” Why address the request in this manner? Because the very word David uses suggests that God is in fact the true sovereign and the real power and the final rescuer. In his book on the parables, Brad Young comments, “All the parables view sin more as a broken line of fellowship that results from misunderstanding the divine character than as merely violating a religious precept.”[1] Perhaps, even in a hole in the ground, we need to realize that it is our conception of God that so often prevents us from experiencing the fullness of His love. Our boxes are too small. In fact, the very existence of boxes is too small. If we’re going to discover the immensity of God’s grace, we will have to come out of the holes we have dug for protection. If God is truly God, then we need to trust that He can do what we need to be done. But far too often our view of God actually limits our ability to ask and receive what God can do. When we think of God in our pedestrian ways, He is no longer elohim, Master of the Universe. We reduce His presence to that of an idol, limited by our imagination. Perhaps that’s why Sha’ul encourages us to realize that His blessing and power is far beyond even what we can imagine. Every box, no matter how big, is too small.
Listen to me, friend. I need mercy. Perhaps you do too. What David teaches me is that I don’t even know the size of the mercy I need nor the capacity of the God who will deliver it. I know only my need. That is enough for me to cry out, “God, be merciful to me.” Even in my wildest imagination I am inadequate to comprehend what He will do. All I know is that He will do something about my need. I prepare myself for the blinding light when I crawl out of the hole in the ground. And it is glorious!
Topical Index: mercy, hen, honneni, elohim, God, Psalm 57:1, boxes
Blessed be God, our calamities are certain and a matter of time, but our safety is a matter of eternity. When we are under the Divine Shadow, the passing over of trouble cannot harm us, — as the hawk surely flies across the sky, — this is no harm to the chicks safely nestling beneath the hen.
Prayer does not leave our lips for any other reason than because we believe. And there is no solace in crying for help unless we also hope in Him Who is able. The believer waits and God works. Whatsoever the Lord takes in hand to do He will certainly accomplish. If no fit vessel on earth, He will send from heaven His own Son for our salvation. And so He has!
Selah
SO many as I have found are still in the mode of much trying.
Day after day.. the trying does not cease and they still fall short of the Glory of GOD.
I am thankful for the rest that only HE can give and that rest is found in HIS SON.
I am thankful for the tongue that HE has given me to confess and the NEW LIFE FROM ABOVE to be able to show forth HIS WORK in and through me.
I thank GOD for the opposition that all of His children face each and every day to be able to contend with what is all around us and yet safe and secure in the Arms Of The Lord Himself.
Let the redeemed of the LORD give thanks !
“Every box, no matter how big, is too small.”
Amen and amein! It is so,- in any language, among all the sons of Adam.
~ His mercy extends to those who fear Him, from generation to generation ~ ( Luke 1:50)
There’s a wideness in God’s mercy,
Like the wideness of the sea;
There’s a kindness in His justice,
Which is more than liberty.
There is no place where earth’s sorrows
Are more felt than up in Heaven;
There is no place where earth’s failings
Have such kindly judgment given.
There is welcome for the sinner,
And more graces for the good;
There is mercy with the Savior;
There is healing in His blood.
There is grace enough for thousands
Of new worlds as great as this;
There is room for fresh creations
In that upper home of bliss.
For the love of God is broader
Than the measure of our mind;
And the heart of the Eternal
Is most wonderfully kind.
There is plentiful redemption
In the blood that has been shed;
There is joy for all the members
In the sorrows of the Head.
’Tis not all we owe to Jesus;
It is something more than all;
Greater good because of evil,
Larger mercy through the fall.
If our love were but more simple,
We should take Him at His word;
And our lives would be all sunshine
In the sweetness of our LORD.
Souls of men! why will ye scatter
Like a crowd of frightened sheep?
Foolish hearts! why will ye wander
From a love so true and deep?
It is God: His love looks mighty,
But is mightier than it seems;
’Tis our Father: and His fondness
Goes far out beyond our dreams.
But we make His love too narrow
By false limits of our own;
And we magnify His strictness
With a zeal He will not own.
Was there ever kinder Shepherd
Half so gentle, half so sweet,
As the Savior who would have us
Come and gather at His feet?
~ I will sing of the mercies of the LORD forever ~
Oh, how marvelous!
Oh, how wonderful!
and my song shall ever be..
Oh, how marvelous!
Oh, how wonderful!
Is my Savior’s love for me!
I stand amazed in the Presence
Of Jesus the Nazarene
And wonder how He could love me,
A sinner condemned, unclean.
For me it was in the garden He prayed,
“Not my will, but thine”
He had no tears for His own griefs,
But sweat drops of blood for mine.
He took my sins and my sorrows,
He made them His very own;
He bore the burden to Calv’ry,
And suffered and died alone.
When with the ransomed in glory
His face I at last shall see,
‘Twill be my joy thro’ the ages,
To sing of His love for me.
Oh, how marvelous!
Oh, how wonderful!
and my song shall ever be..
Oh, how marvelous!
Oh, how wonderful!
Is my Savior’s love for me!
~ I will sing of the mercies of the LORD forever ~
Gracious Goodness!
~ For the LORD is good; His lovingkindnesses are everlasting; and His truth endures to all generations ~
~ Yeshua said to him, “I AM THE LIVING GOD, The Way and The Truth and The Life; no man comes to my Father but by Me alone.” ~
Thank you for the cross, Lord
Thank you for the price You paid
Bearing all my sin and shame
In love You came
And gave amazing grace
Thank you for this love, LORD
Thank you for the nail-pierced hands
Wash me in Your cleansing flow
Now all I know
Your forgiveness and embrace
Worthy is the Lamb
Seated on the throne
We crown You now with many crowns
You reign victorious
High and lifted up
Jesus Son of God
The Darling of Heaven crucified –
Worthy is the Lamb
Worthy is the Lamb
~ But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our LORD Jesus Christ ~
“All the parables view sin more as a broken line of fellowship that results from misunderstanding the divine character than as merely violating a religious precept.”
Wow – profound! To grab hold of that!
Grace is God’s hand extended to me, God in search of man. With His hand comes an incredible offer of relationship, of fellowship. I have no right to expect it; I would be such a fool to reject it. And yet when I put limits on how/when/where God will act, I am rejecting His grace by my lack of trust.
I ask for Mercy — Grace is what He gives: fellowship, relationship, His hand grasping mine and bringing me from my knees to my feet. The King says “Trust me. Rise, and walk with me”. And I rise, not with the intent of grasping equality but to receive His grace and learn to walk in it.
Oh, God (is) good.
Blessed be the day when men cry honneni from their deep dark holes of religiosity. Blessed be the day when their boxes great and small have no strength left to substain false shelter that is are built on religion’s foundation. Blessed be the day when we recognize that YHVH is like no other god that we have created for ourselves to bow down to. Blessed be the day when men recognize the dark hole in which they have fallen.
Grace is the empowerment to live in righteousness in a corrupt and unholy world. Grace is what is freely given so that man can cry out for His mercy in order to be restored to righteousness. I pray that this format and the lovely people who engage it will not take His grace for granted nor accept the doctrines of men regarding it. I pray that the Spirit and bride say come, not for personal rescue alone but for correction and the mercy needed to restore the eternal plan for relationship with our Bridegroom. Hosea chapter two reveals the lewdness of the harlotry of men, and then shows how merciful our Bridegroom is when He will allure us to bring us into the wilderness and to comfort us….as in the day we came out of Egypt, ie: mitzraim; confusion.
Hosea19-23: “I will betroth you to Me forever, yes I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, in lovingkindness, and mercy-I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, and YOU SHALL KNOW YHVH…then I will say to not My people, ‘you are My people!’ and they shall say my G-d” (Almighty)
Skip, thank you for being an instrument of the Almighty’s grace being poured out in the world today. May He hear you each time that you cry out to Him! May you be strong in righteousness and justice, in lovingkindness and mercy. And may you continue to share the truth of His Way with others.
Gracious Goodness
~ Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)— Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
For He himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in Himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which He put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of His household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In Him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit ~
“[1] Brad Young, The Parables, p. somewhere that I can’t find right now”
The parable is about the breach between the compassionate father and the lost son. (see the top of page 154 in Brad Young’s “Parables.”
Thanks. Got it.
Shabbat has just begun here in Holland. Shabbat shalom!!!! We truly have a God of grace. Hallelujah!
Shabbat shalom Kees.
Shabbat Shalom, Kees!
What Carl wrote here reminded me quite suddenly of a true story to come out of Papua, New Guinea. When warring tribes of head-hunters made peace, they had an ancient custom, — each exchanged a child. These children would grow up with the others’ tribe, so that if in the future, conflict threatened between the tribes again, those children would be the ones sent to negotiate. Such a child was called a “Peace Child.”
When the redemption story was told to these Sawi Tribe cannibals, it was Judas, not Jesus, who was the hero of the Gospels. Jesus was just the dupe to be laughed at. But God in His pity and mercy, sent the Richardsons to teach the old, old story of LOVE, and how He has sent His Peace Child, His only Begotten Son, to the family of mankind.
Jesus/Yeshua, the Prince of Peace, is in the peace business, — between us all.
Matthew records:
Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?
Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.
On YHWH, how excellent is Your Name in all the earth!
YOUR mercies endures forever, and Your faithfulness from everlasting to everlasting! Amein!
ABBA, You are ever gracious to us in spite of our fleshly, stubborn ways.
Sha’ul, to all who are in Rome-
Rom 7:23 For I delight in the Torah of YHWH according to the inward man. (HalleluYAH!)
Inward man-esō
1) to within, into
2) within
a) the internal inner man
b) the soul, conscience
A transformed man of YHWH indeed, as his inner man/soul/conscience delights in the Torah of YHWH!
“…we need to realize that it is our conception of God that so often prevents us from experiencing the fullness of His love”.
And may I add…from progressing to a deeper level of relationship with Almighty Elohim.
“Perhaps that’s why Sha’ul encourages us to realize that His blessing and power is far beyond even what we can imagine.”
Poor Sha’ul!
And yet, so many Bible believers turned him into an idol, quoting his word above YHWH’s,
through teachings that are so in error following men’s interpretations and not according to context as he had written to a particular audience, and not to a general audience.
Thank You, ABBA for being so gracious to me/us. Amein!
Shabbat Shalom!
Ester.. do you believe that the soul is immortal ?
Hi Carol-
Good question 🙂 Soul nephesh נֶפֶשׁ
has often been understood as the emotional, thinking part of us.
nephesh-
soul, self, life, creature, person, appetite, mind, living being, desire, emotion, passion
a) that which breathes, the breathing substance or being, soul, the inner being of man
b) living being
c) living being (with life in the blood)
d) the man himself, self, person or individual
e) seat of the appetites
f) seat of emotions and passions
g) activity of mind
My understanding is that nephesh and spirit is one and the same-Exo 35:21, 30/31; Num 11:17, 14:24
The spirit רוּחֹ ruach – spirit (of the living, breathing being in man and animals)
1) as gift, preserved by God, God’s spirit, departing at death, disembodied being
e) spirit (as seat of emotion)
1) desire
2) sorrow, trouble
f) spirit
1) as seat or organ of mental acts
2) rarely of the will
3) as seat especially of moral character
Spirit-the breath of LIFE brought Adahm into a living soul.
When the spirit departs, at a person’s demise, the soul departs as well, to sleep until Meshiach returns, to be ‘resurrected’, albeit in a new body, as the old has returned to dust.
Beyond that I should think we would be the same personality in the new body, to receive the rewards of walking righteous with ABBA?
That doctrine of “immortality” as has often been pointed out, is not Jewish in origin but Greek.
Skip, your thoughts on this, please?
Shalom!
As far as I know the Israelites did NOT believe in the immortality of the soul.
Immortality means NEVER DYING.
GOD ALONE is immortal.
We do not HAVE a soul but we are a living soul when the breath of GOD is breathed upon us at birth in order that we have physical
life.
The soul is killable and it dies.
The soul or person that sins.. it or he or she shall die.
Man can take us out the first time but it is GOD who takes us out permenantly in the second death which is the curse of the law if NOT BORN OF GOD.
Good points. Greek philosophy introduced the idea that the “soul” is immortal (cf. Pythagoras) and exists independently of the body. I wrote about this long ago with reference to Jacques Ellul’s comments. Hebrew thought suggests that when we die, the borrowed nephesh hayyah returns to its Giver and the body returns to its source. Resurrection is our future, not transfer to the world of immaterial “souls.” Paul’s use of the Greek terms does not entail that Paul adopted the Greek philosophical position.
Thanks Skip.. it certainly has played havoc in the understanding of the resurrection being the HOPE OF THE FOLLOWER OF CHRIST.
It also plays havoc in the UNBELIEVER as to immortality being conditional and not being able to burn forever and forever like so many believe today in the evangelical world of Christianity.
Thanks Skip!
Much to unlearn from Greek philosophy, to clear cobwebs from foggy minds due to Christianity, Carol.
Shalom!