Hide Your face from my sins and wipe out all my guilty deeds. Psalm 51:9 NASB Hide/ wipe out – Two actions are needed before we find relief from past mistakes. The first involves re-establishing a right relationship with God. For that to occur, God must take the initiative. Since He knows everything about us,…
Let me hear joy and gladness, let the bones You have broken rejoice. Psalm 51:8 NASB Joy and gladness – I love to listen to the Blues. For years the plaintive cries of those lyrics have echoed my own struggles. They remind me of M. Scott Peck’s famous opening sentence, “Life is difficult.” Yes, it is. And…
If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the fear of Isaac, had not been for me, surely now you would have sent me away empty Genesis 31:42a NASB Fear – It seems that everyone wants to rescue Isaac from the text. Jonathan Sacks’ statement may be Jewish, but it is reflected over…
I resemble a pelican of the wilderness; I have become like an owl of the ruins. Psalm 102:6 NASB Pelican/ owl – Why pelican? Why owl? First, let’s address the Christian mythology about the pelican. It starts with Thomas Aquinas. During the breeding season, the Dalmatian pelican’s pouch turns blood red, and the birds often press…
And God said to Moses, I am the one being. And he said, Thus shall you say to the sons of Israel, The one being had sent me to you. Exodus 3:14 LXX I am the one being – Hinnēni. “Here I am” is the common Hebrew expression for humbly identifying oneself in conversation. There…
“Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.” Exodus 33:23 NASB And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will…
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you;” Genesis 12:1 NASB Go – Unfortunately, English translations of this crucial command obscure the depth of God’s request. In Hebrew, the verb is not “Go.” It is lĕk-lekā’ (lekh lekha), literally,…
But he hesitated. So the men seized his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his two daughters, for the compassion of the LORD {was} upon him; and they brought him out, and put him outside the city. Genesis 19:16 NASB He hesitated – “The Torah does not have a word…
Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; cleanse me, and I will be whiter than snow. Psalm 51:7 NASB Hyssop – Why does David choose this plant, a bitter aromatic member of the mint family? The answer is in Exodus and Numbers. Hyssop has a history. The importance of hyssop stems from the Exodus. God…
