Today’s Word

Today’s Word

  • Ah, Not Quite

    Save me from the guilt of bloodshed, God, the God of my salvation; Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness.  Psalm 51:14  NASB Guilt of Bloodshed – Notice how Chabad translates this Hebrew verse: Save me from blood, O God, the God of my salvation; let my tongue sing praises of Your charity.  Chabad There is a…

  • Unfettered

    Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit.  Psalm 51:12  NASB Willing – If I asked you, “What kind of spirit would you like to keep you going?” would you answer, “Oh, one that is under obligation, restricted, limited.”  No, of course not.  You’d want an animating force that was…

  • Being and Nothingness

    Now Reuben returned to the pit, and behold, Joseph was not in the pit; so he tore his garments. He returned to his brothers and said, “The boy is not there; as for me, where am I to go?”  Genesis 37:29-30  NASB   Is not there – We looked into the grammatical implications of this verse once before.  Perhaps you’ll recall it (CLICK…

  • Let’s Pray

    Evening and morning and at noon, I will complain and moan, and He will hear my voice. Psalm 55:17 NASB   Evening and morning and at noon – I have always wondered why Judaism calls for prayers three times a day and Islam calls for prayers five times a day.  Here is the justification for the Jewish sequence:   Abraham initiated…

  • Conjunctions

    Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.  Psalm 51:11  NASB   And – Oh, the extent of this mighty little letter.  Attach a vav to a Hebrew word, and all kinds of things can happen.  Here, in particular, we are faced with some significant translation choices.  You see, vav can mean, “so, then, and, with, together, so that,…

  • Retrofit

    Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.  Psalm 51:11  NASB   Your Holy Spirit – Well, if you wanted a prooftext for the Trinitarian view of the third person of the Godhead, you probably would include this verse from David.[1]  After all, if David acknowledged the “Holy Spirit,” how could anyone who…

  • Person

    Then God said, “Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the livestock and over all the earth, and over every crawling thing that crawls on the earth.”  Genesis 1:26  NASB   Image/ likeness – How many times have we examined the implications…

  • Who’s the Author?

    So he said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth your slave. Now spread your garment over your slave, for you are a redeemer.”  Ruth 3:9 NASB Spread your garment – One of the exegetical assumptions of both Judaism and conservative Christianity is that all of the biblical text is ultimately authored by…

  • Wash, Dry, Fold

    Create in me a clean heart, God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Psalm 51:10  NASB   Steadfast – There’s not much point in washing your clothes if you’re just going to jump back in the mud.  They might be clean for the moment, but unless you stay away from the muck, you’ll be right back where you started—dirty.  That’s the point of…