When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches, Psalm 63:6 NASB Remember/meditate – “Now I lay me down to sleep,” but it rarely happens so easily. Nursery rhymes are wishful fables. Sleep is far more difficult. The room is dark. The noise of the day is finished, but there are…
My soul is satisfied as with [d]marrow and fatness, and my mouth offers praises with joyful lips. Psalm 63:5 NASB Marrow and fatness – What does David’s poetry have to do with the official English Burial Service? Well, “ashes to ashes, dust to dust” comes from the Burial Service, not the Bible. It is supposed to be derived…
So I will bless You as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. Psalm 63:4 NASB Bless You – You probably grew up in the ethos of the omnipotent, immutable God. You know, the God who can do everything and doesn’t really need anything. That is the philosophical epitome of a…
Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips will praise You. Psalm 63:3 NASB Better – Let’s correct the syntax. ki-tov comes first. “Because good” Your ḥesed me ḥayyîm. The last phrase (me ḥayyîm) adds the “than life” part. Min is the preposition of comparison, in this case ki-tov me becomes “better than.” But min…
Thus I have seen You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory. Psalm 63:2 NASB Have seen You – David’s parallelism explains why he didn’t die from divine exposure. “I have seen You” isn’t a violation of “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live” because what David…
O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water. Psalm 63:1 NASB Favorites Psalm 63:1 – Apparently I find this verse particularly important. I’ve written directly about it eleven times. Here’s the list: https://skipmoen.com/2019/07/parched-for-god/ …
Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily, and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of them and took their spoil and gave the changes of clothes to those who told the riddle. And his anger burned, and he went up to his father’s house. Judges 14:19 NASB Spoil – Dictionaries make mistakes. That might…
I did not sit in the gathering of revelers to make merry. Because of Your hand, alone I sat, for with wrath You filled me.Jeremiah 15:17 Robert Alter Alone – Brené Brown convincingly argues that being human means being connected. The greatest punishment a man can feel is isolation: “ . . . the most terrifying…
God heard the lad crying; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter with you, Hagar? Do not fear, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. Genesis 21:17 NASB The lad – You know the story. Sarah can’t stand the…
indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. Genesis 22:17 NASB Seed – The monumental work of Robert Alter’s translation of the Hebrew Bible reveals just how inadequate…
