Redeem, God, Israel from all its straits. Psalm 25:22 Robert Alter translation Israel – The etymology of the Hebrew word yisra’el is unusual and important. TWOT makes the following observation: “The verb śārâ limits itself to contexts which discuss the struggle of Jacob as he wrestled with the Angel of Yahweh at Peniel in Transjordan,…
May uprightness, wholeness, preserve me, for in You do I hope. Psalm 25:21 Robert Alter translation Uprightness – “Two problems of ot theology concern the verb tāmam: self-righteousness and perfectionism. Illustrating the former, David expresses the resolve, ‘I will walk within my house with a perfect (tōm) heart’ (Ps 101:2b KJV, ASV margin and RSV…
Guard my life and save me. Let me be not ashamed, for I shelter in You. Psalm 25:20 Robert Alter translation Ashamed – You know it must be a big deal if David brings it up twice, once at the beginning and now at the end of his song. The word is bosh, and it…
See my enemies who are many and with outrageous hatred despise me. Psalm 25:19 Robert Alter translation Despise – Buried in the Hebrew text is a powerful repetition not evident in Alter’s translation (but clear in the ESV). “Hatred” and “despise” are from the same Hebrew root, sane. To hate describes an emotional reaction of…
See my affliction and suffering and forgive all my offenses. Psalm 25:18 Robert Alter translation Offenses – hatta’t is the predominate Hebrew word for “sin.” It is a picture of missing the mark, as if we each were shooting arrows at God’s target and missing the dead center bull’s eye. Livingston notes the following insight:…
The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. Acts 2:20 ESV More than nine hundred years ago, Maimonides, regarded as perhaps the greatest of Jewish expositor of sacred literature, wrote, “when the power of Edom [the Christians] and of…
You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. Deuteronomy 4:2 NASB Add/take away – “Finally, there came a movement that made our lives bitter with all the methods it took over…
The distress of my heart has grown great. From my straits bring me out. Psalm 25:17 Robert Alter translation Distress – What binds you? What hems you in? What makes you feel as if you have no options, no choices? What propels you into the narrow straits? All of these things are tsarot, the plural…
seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature,…
Turn to me and grant me grace, for alone and afflicted am I. Psalm 25:16 Robert Alter translation Turn – We just want to see a smile. We want to look on the face of the Lord and see Him smiling. Growing up under the Roman idea of God as Judge, we have buried deep…
