Port Klang, Kuala Lumpur
Good Morning
The Necessity of Despair (2)
I am reckoned among those who go down to the pit; I have become like a man without strength, Psalm 88:4 NASB Down to the pit – “Modern man’s greatest fault, Kierkegaard maintains, is his total self-reliance. It is his nineteenth-century delusion that he has progressed beyond his ancestors. This conceit derives from egotism. There is but…
The Abundant Life (2)
For my soul has had enough troubles, and my life has drawn near to Sheol. Psalm 88:3 NASB 1995 Has had enough – Is your life filled to the brim? Oh, I didn’t ask if it is filled up with good things. I just asked if you feel as if it is up to the top. Yes, it’s…
Make Your Choice
Let my prayer come before You; Incline Your ear to my cry! Psalm 88:2 NASB Incline – “The 215 occurrences of this verb, excluding derivatives, are translated some thirty-five different ways in the KJV alone. The ASV and RSV add other renderings to this wide range of English expressions.”[1] That’s not very comforting, is it? If…
Coming and Going (2)
Let my prayer come before You; Incline Your ear to my cry! Psalm 88:2 NASB Let . . . come before You – The first thing you should notice is the change in syntax. In Hebrew the verb comes first. So, it reads, “Let come before You my prayer.” The action is the important thing. What…
Answer the Phone (2)
Lord, the God of my salvation, I have cried out by day and in the night before You. Psalm 88:1 (English) NASB Cried out – “The phone’s ringing. Answer it!” Do you find it difficult not to answer a call? Are you annoyed with people who just let the phone ring but don’t pick up? For decades…
Tears on Your Shoulder (2)
Lord, the God of my salvation, I have cried out by day and in the night before You. Psalm 88:1 (English) NASB Lord, the God – Make sure you realize why both of these words are found at the beginning of this poem. YHVH, of course, and ʾĕlōhîm. Today we consider both of these as designations of…
Sing It Again (with Additions)
A Song. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. For the music director; according to Mahalath Leannoth. A [a]Maskil of Heman [b]the Ezrahite. Psalm 88:1 (Hebrew) Music director – We investigated this unusual psalm about three years ago (perhaps you remember). At the time I didn’t know the “frightening emotional darkness in [this] psalm that is absent…
Who Is a Jew?
But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, Romans 9:6-7a NASB Not all Israel – In theological history, Paul’s statement about Israel has been one of the most divisive remarks ever made. The Church has used this and…
