My flesh trembles from the fear of You, and I am afraid of Your judgments. Psalm 119:120 NASB I am afraid – Something is wrong here. If we follow the NASB, we think that in his current condition the psalmist is terrified of God’s judgments. That’s what the present tense of these two verbs sāmar (to tremble)…
And You have not given me over into the hand of the enemy; You have set my feet in a large place. Psalm 31:8 NASB Not given me over – What does it mean to fall into the hands of the enemy? Pay attention to David’s parallelism and you will understand just how much Hebrew is…
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, . .” Matthew 6:25 ESV Anxious – Heidegger calls anxiety the manifestation of “homelessness.” Anxiety is being afraid of things that are not real, things that might happen. When I am afraid of what might happen, I feel a kind of persistent, “things are not right”…
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, . .” Matthew 6:25 ESV Anxious – “Please, don’t let anybody leave me.” Jessica Lynch Most of us will never know the horrors that Jessica Lynch suffered at the hands of her captors. But we immediately know the feeling expressed in her plea. Out of her…
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, being understood by what has been made, so that they are without excuse. Romans 1:20 NASB Without excuse – Consider an implication of Paul’s opening declaration. No, not the usual one about how everyone should know…
I, Wisdom, dwell in shrewdness, and cunning knowledge I find. Fear of the LORD is hating evil. Proverbs 8:12-13a Robert Alter Hating evil – Doing good isn’t quite enough. It matters, of course. Micah makes that clear: “He has told you, mortal one, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and…
Listen to instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it. Proverbs 8:33 NASB Listen – “The strength of the yetzer ha-ra is precisely in convincing us that we do not need these words or instruction because we are above believing in such simple notions as reward and punishment.”[1] How’s your spiritual IQ? Pretty good, right? …
Come, you children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Psalm 34:11 NASB Fear – There are basically two kinds of ethical systems in the world. They both have long histories. The first is the one we are most familiar with in the modern world, although it is not the most ancient…
Then God said, “Let the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:9-10 NASB Seas – The ancient fear of chaos. The…
For I am ready to fall, and my sorrow is continually before me. For I admit my guilt; I am full of anxiety because of my sin. Psalm 38:17-18 NASB Anxiety – At last we come to the real problem. “I’m afraid.” The Hebrew word is dĕʾāgâ. “The root dāʾag signifies anxiety, with a shading toward the meaning of fear…
