And you shall become a kingdom of priests for Me, a holy nation. Exodus 19:6 Kingdom of Priests – God chose Israel before He gave them the commandments. He elected Abram before he became Abraham and before he knew anything about God’s plan. He picked Isaac, not Ishmael. He blessed Jacob, not Esau. God chooses…
Of David, a contemplation. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom YHWH does not charge iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. Psalm 32:1-2 Forgiven/Covered/Does Not Charge/No Guile – Now that we see the parallelism in David’s maskil, we must draw the connecting…
Blessed is the man to whom YHWH does not charge iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. Psalm 32:2 Does Not Charge – David’s insight into the relationship between “blessing” and righteousness continues. This verse is now a parallel to the first verse (the first occurrence of “blessed”). It begins with the same…
Of David, a contemplation. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Psalm 32:1 Transgression/Sin – What is the opposite of rebellion? If you’re thinking in Greek, you might suggest “peace.” The Greek thought of peace as the absence of war. War was the natural state of existence, but once in awhile,…
Of David, a contemplation. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Psalm 32:1 Transgression/ Sin – Hebrew poetry rhymes ideas, not sounds. One Hebrew technique is parallel construction. In this technique, the first idea is matched with a second parallel idea and one idea elaborates the thought of the other. In…
Of David, a contemplation. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Psalm 32:1 Blessed Is – So, now you know that this is a maskil. That means it is an insight for action. But immediately following the word maskil, we come to what appears to be a passive verb, blessed is. …
Of David, a contemplation. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Psalm 32:1 (here is the link to the Blue Letter Bible but you will notice that even it leaves out the Hebrew words) Of David. A contemplation – Some translations don’t even include this opening indication. Apparently, authorship and context…
I believe this is so important that I am interrupting the daily word in order to send it. Distress Call It doesn’t happen often, but when one of my faithful readers and long-time supporters asks to be removed from the community, I want to know why. Yesterday I heard from a friend and reader in…
Again I said, “The thing which you are doing is not good; should you not walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies?” Nehemiah 5:9 Walk – Nehemiah’s question is a good one. It gives us the right perspective about walking in the ways of YHWH. But…
But He said to them, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:60 Allow – Does this statement seem a little harsh? Does it smack of a lack of compassion for the dead and for those who mourn over the dead? …
