Pe

Your testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul complies with them.  Psalm 119:129  NASB Chabad translations פְּלָא֥וֹת עֵֽדְו‍ֹתֶ֑יךָ עַל־כֵּ֜֗ן נְצָ֘רָ֥תַם נַפְשִֽׁי Your testimonies are hidden; therefore, my soul kept them. פֵּ֖תַח דְּבָרֶ֥יךָ יָאִ֗יר מֵבִ֥ין פְּתָיִֽים The commencement of Your words enlightens; You make the simple understand. פִּ֣י פָ֖עַרְתִּי וָאֶשְׁאָ֑פָה כִּ֖י לְמִצְו‍ֹתֶ֣יךָ יָאָֽבְתִּי I opened my mouth and panted…

Cosmic Prayer

Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them; let all the trees of the forest sing for joy.  Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, . .    Psalm  96:12-13a  NIV All Creation – “Genuine prayer is an event in which man surpasses himself.  Man hardly comprehends what is coming to pass.  Its beginning lies on this…

Head Trip

And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.   Jeremiah 29:13  NASB Seek/search – “The modern scholar thinks that he must find religious answers to his critical questions by means of peshat exegesis. In contrast, the sages believed that answers to critical questions should be proposed by means of derash.  Like…

Paradise Lost

“Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, or loose the cords of Orion? Can you lead forth a constellation in its season, and guide the Bear with her satellites?”  Job 38:31-32  NASB Constellation – One of the great tragedies of the world is electricity.  “Wait a minute,” you’ll reply.  “Electricity has provided so many benefits in life. …

Lethal Awe

For thus says the Lord to me, “As the lion or the young lion growls over his prey, against which a band of shepherds is called out, and he will not be terrified at their voice nor disturbed at their noise, so will the Lord of hosts come down to wage war on Mount Zion and on its hill.”  Isaiah 31:4  

Knee Bends

God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”  John 4:24  NASB Worship – Have we ever made mileage with this verse!  I can’t count the numbers of times it has been employed in apologetics, sermons, and intense discussions of doctrine.  Most of our focus seems to be on the first…

When God Acts (Rewind)

But when the multitudes saw this, they were filled with awe, and glorified God, who had given such authority to men. Matthew 9:8 NASB 1977 Filled With Awe – Matthew is fond of expressions of amazement, but his fondness is not simply a literary device. Long before Abraham Heschel mentioned it, Matthew recognized that the…

Not Knowing What to Ask

“Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord, . . . Isaiah 1:18 NASB Reason – There is a place where we are afraid to go. There is a place where we no longer have any sense of direction, where we know we don’t belong, where our lives hang on a silver spider…

Where Are You?

and after he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Acts 16:30 NASB Saved – “Religions may be classified as those of self-satisfaction, of self-annihilation or of fellowship. In the first worship is a quest for satisfaction of personal needs like salvation or desire for immortality. In the second…

Hebrew Umbrellas

When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You. Psalm 56:3 NASB I will put my trust – Hebrew is a sparse language. One word may be called into service in many different ways. For example, you know that shema means both “to hear” and “to obey.” This is a small umbrella compared…