Therefore I carefully follow all Your precepts concerning everything, I hate every false way. Psalm 119:128 NASB Carefully follow – Step one: recognize that the miṣwōt are designed to ensure the success of society. Step two: do them! Now you know why ʿǎl-·kēn opens each of these last two verses in this section of the acrostic. There’s no…
Therefore I love Your commandments above gold, yes, above pure gold. Psalm 119:127 NASB Therefore – Why does the psalmist begin this verse with עַל־כֵּן (ʿǎl-·kēn means “for that reason, therefore”)? What is the “therefore” there for? It immediately tells us that as a consequence of the previous verse, the following statement is supplied. In other…
Leave me, you evildoers, so that I may comply with the commandments of my God. Psalm 119:115 NASB Leave me – soor. Leave, go away, depart. Yes, but also “to turn off (lit. or fig.):—be [-head], bring, call back, decline, depart, eschew, get [you], go (aside), × grievous, lay away (by), leave undone, be past, pluck…
I will delight in Your commandments, which I love. Psalm 119:47 NASB Commandments – Before we look at the word bemiṣvotĕ’kā, we should note the unusual verb for “I will delight.” That verb is šāʿaʿ. It’s unusual because here and in verse 16 it is a Hithpalpel. What does that mean? It means that the subject of…
Blessed are those whose way is [a]blameless, who walk in the Law of the Lord. Psalm 119:1 NASB Walk – It really doesn’t matter what you think. It’s what you do that counts. In the Hebrew worldview, it’s not necessary to understand why you should do the things you are asked to do. It’s nice when they…
“And it shall be, if you truly heed the voice of the LORD your God to keep to do all His commands that I charge you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.” Deuteronomy 28:1 Robert Alter All His commands – Keep them all! That’s the…
God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:28 NASB Rule over – One of the reasons Christianity…
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Deuteronomy 6:5 NASB Shall love – How are we supposed to express our love toward God? You will notice that I did not ask, “How are we supposed to express our love for God?” That is the…
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Isaiah 40:8 NASB Word of our God – Yesterday we discovered the awful truth that there was no such thing as “the Bible” until the Christian Church, and particularly the Protestant Christian Church, created a sacred book. In the first century,…
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 Not add/ nor take away – How flexible are your ethics? Do you hold hard and fast to your own moral commandments? Are…
