Great are Your mercies, Lord; revive me according to Your judgments. Psalm 119:156 NASB Mercies – The first thing you need to know about God is His compassion. The second thing you need to know is that you can’t completely understand His compassion unless you’re a mother. Why? Because the Hebrew term raḥămîm isn’t just about…
My eyes shed streams of water, because they do not keep Your Law. Psalm 119:136 NASB Streams – The idiom is obvious. We have no problem understanding the poet’s description of “crying your eyes out” (our version of the idiom). But until we investigate the Hebrew word for “streams,” we might not see the deeper possibilities. That…
Turn to me and be gracious to me, as is right for those who love Your name. Psalm 119:132 NASB As is right for – Now we discover just how broad Hebrew words can be. The phrase “as is right for,” in the the Chabad translation (“Turn to me and favor me as is Your…
May Your compassion come to me so that I may live, for Your Law is my delight. Psalm 119:77 NASB Compassion – “Go for it!” Yes, that’s the sense of the “May come to me Your compassion.” You’ll notice I rearranged the syntax to match the Hebrew which begins with yebō’ûnî (from the verb bôʾ. Of course,…
Their heart is insensitive, like fat, but I delight in Your Law. Psalm 119:70 NASB Insensitive – Every so often as I walk the streets in Italy a man or woman will approach me begging for money. I guess I still look too much like a tourist so I appear to be susceptible to the request. I am…
And He will judge between the nations, and will mediate for many peoples; And they will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning knives. Nation will not lift up a sword against nation, and never again will they learn war. Isaiah 2:4 NASB Learn war – “Giving birth to one child is…
Therefore, says the Master, LORD of Armies, Israel’s Mighty One: Oh, I will settle scores with my foes and take vengeance on my enemies. Isaiah 1:24 Robert Alter Settle scores – It’s surprising that Alter’s translation employs a modern euphemism, but examination of the actual Hebrew might justify his choice. The NASB 1995 attempts a…
Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am wretched. Heal me, for my limbs are stricken. Psalm 6:3 Robert Alter My limbs – Now you will read a reflection that I wrote more than a month ago. My left knee still hurts, every day, all the time. But it isn’t excruciating. No wheelchair. Nevertheless, it’s…
but you shall fully open your hand to him, and generously lend him enough for his need in whatever he lacks. Deuteronomy 15:8 NASB Fully open – Today is Yom Kippur, a day to reflect on God’s forgiveness. It’s easy to recall our obvious faults, those behaviors that pulled us away from God in this last year, but…
A merciful person does himself good, but the cruel person does himself harm. Proverbs 11:17 NASB Cruel – Who is the cruel person? The torturer? The egotistic dictator? Men like Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin? When we think of the antonym of “cruel” these days, what term comes to mind? Kind? Forgiving? Merriam-Webster lists “tender, warm, warmhearted, charitable, clement, lenient, merciful, pitying, pacific, peaceable, peaceful.” The…
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