I will also speak of Your testimonies before kings and shall not be ashamed. Psalm 119:46 NASB Shall not be ashamed – If you’ve discovered anything at all in this vav section, it’s that each of these verses not only begins with a vav but also is a past statement of God’s faithfulness and the poet’s…
They also do no injustice; they walk in His ways. Psalm 119:3 NASB Injustice – Are those who keep God’s torah social justice activists? Well, that depends on how you translate ʿawlâ. Livingston comments: “ . . . in Hebrew the basic meaning of this root means to deviate from a right standard, to act contrary to…
Blessed are those who comply with His [b]testimonies, And seek Him with all their heart. Psalm 119:2 NASB With all – It’s the last bit that counts. bechol-lev yidreshoohoo—“with all their heart.” “All their heart” is interesting in itself because we would expect the plural “with all their hearts” but we get the singular bechol-lev. It’s a common heart, that is,…
אַשְׁרֵי נֹֽצְרֵ֥י עֵ֜דֹתָ֗יו בְּכָל־לֵ֥ב יִדְרְשֽׁוּהוּ Psalm 119:2 נֹֽצְרֵ֥י – Blessed are those who comply with His [b]testimonies, And seek Him with all their heart (NASB). This verse poses a serious question. It comes without a rhetorical answer. Here’s the question (but don’t answer too quickly): Do you want to be happy? Pause! Ask yourself again: Do you really want to be…
Blessed are those whose way is [a]blameless, who walk in the Law of the Lord. Psalm 119:1 NASB Walk – It really doesn’t matter what you think. It’s what you do that counts. In the Hebrew worldview, it’s not necessary to understand why you should do the things you are asked to do. It’s nice when they…
Blessed are those whose way is [a]blameless, who walk in the Law of the Lord. Psalm 119:1 NASB Blameless – The Hebraic world knows no systematic theology. That’s a Greek invention. What it knows is the lived reality of God’s interaction in the everyday world of men and women. The Hebraic world doesn’t have creeds or hard-and-fast doctrines…
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. Matthew 6:12 NIV Debts – The Greek term translated “debts” in Matthew’s version of the Lord’s Prayer is not a word that means “sins.” It’s opheílēmata, from the root opheílō. “Etymologically obscure, this word means ‘to owe someone something,’ e.g. loans, debts, sums,…
But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. I certainly will require your lifeblood; from every animal I will require it. And from every person, from every man as his brother I will require the life of a person. Whoever sheds human blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made mankind. Genesis…
How then can mankind be righteous with God? Or how can anyone who is born of woman be pure? If even the moon has no brightness and the stars are not pure in His sight, Job 25:4-5 NASB Righteous – Perhaps Moses was delusional. Or maybe just egotistical. He certainly seems to have been affected by some mental mistake when he…
