Year: 2013

  • Weighty Matters

    Awake, my glory!  Awake, harp and lyre!  I will awaken the dawn.   Psalm 57:8  NASB My glory – Did you find David’s expression a bit unusual?  Is he foreshadowing Maslow or Shakespeare?  Does he mean that his glory, the importance of his own self-esteem, needs to find expression (Maslow) or is he using the phrase…

  • The Sleeper

    Awake, my glory!  Awake, harp and lyre!  I will awaken the dawn.   Psalm 57:8  NASB Awake – So you’re hiding from your enemies.  You’ve found a nice hole in the ground and you’ve covered yourself in darkness.  You’re safe.  Then you realize, just as Elijah did, that all the threats that seeks to harm you…

  • Hebrew Certainty

    My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises!  Psalm 57:7  NASB Steadfast – To put it bluntly, Greek certainty is cognitive, Hebrew certainty is volitional.  In Greek thought, certainty is a function of justified true belief.  It is the attempt to determine rational, logical conclusions…

  • Hebrew Justice

    They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down; they dug a pit before me; they themselves have fallen into the midst of it.  Selah.  Psalm 57:6  NASB Into the midst – The fundamental principle of biblical justice is “measure for measure.”  This idea can be found throughout Scripture.  We notice…

  • David’s Benediction

    Be exalted above the heavens, O God; Let Your glory be above the earth.  Psalm 57:5  NASB Glory – We need to know all that we can about God’s glory.  Of course, that implies a stern warning.  Get too close and you will be burned.  The purity of His glory extinguishes life.  That itself is…

  • Psychological Paradigms

    Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!  Let your glory be over all the earth!  Psalm 57:5  ESV Be exalted – All contemporary models of psychological practice are based on a Greek paradigm of cause and effect.  Basically, they all seek to understand causes in order to alter effects.  From pharmacology to Freudian analysis, the…

  • The End of the World

    My soul is in the midst of lions; I lie down amid fiery beasts – the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.  Psalm 57:4 ESV Children of man – Who are the lions in your life?  Who are the fiery beasts?  Whose spears and arrows must you…

  • Pilate’s Problem

     He will send from heaven and save me; He reproaches him who tramples upon me.  Selah.  God will send forth His lovingkindness and His truth.  Psalm 57:3 NASB Truth – “What is truth?” the man asked.  Pilate’s question is still with us.  He was a conventionalist.  Truth is what he decided was truth.  It was…

  • The Embodiment of God

    He will send from heaven and save me; He reproaches him who tramples upon me.  Selah.  God will send forth His lovingkindness and His truth.  Psalm 57:3 NASB Lovingkindness – By now we certainly recognize that the NASB translates hesed by the English “lovingkindness.”  And we also know that hesed can’t be captured by this…