“And now, Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in You.” Psalm 39:7 NASB For what – Remember the punctuation. Hebrew doesn’t have any. So the phrase, ma(h)-q-qiwwiti, could be a question or it could be a statement, like, “I wait for.” Or it could be, “Now, Lord, what. I wait.” The verb is qāwâ,…
Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will do it. Psalm 37:5 NASB He will do it– It wasn’t supposed to be like this. All this study. All this investigation, debate, dialogue. All this struggle to align with the perspective of the author and audience when reading God’s word. We weren’t supposed to…
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus according to the commandment of God our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, who is our hope, 1 Timothy 1:1 NASB Our hope– We tend to pass over opening verses like this one because we have been trained to look for the theologically important applications in Paul’s letters. So we jump fairly quickly to verses like 1:8 and 1:15…
But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord, I say, “You are my God.” Psalm 31:14 NASB Trust– By now we should be quite familiar with bāṭaḥ (trust). TWOT’s reminder is important: in Hebrew, bāṭaḥ expresses that sense of well-being and security which results from having something or someone in whom to place confidence. It is significant…
Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Ephesians 5:6 NASB Empty words– “I’ve given up on them,” he replied. “I used to think things would get better, and, believe me, I tried. But people never really change. So I gave up hoping.” “We…
Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart, Luke 18:1 NASB Not to lose heart – me enkakein. The Greek is the conditional negative (me) plus the verb enkakeo. Literally it means something like, “Under these circumstances don’t be treated badly.”…
For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, Isaiah 9:6-7a NASB…
“Though He slay me, I will hope in Him. Nevertheless I will argue my ways before Him.” Job 13:15 NASB Argue – You have abandoned hopelessness (see Friday’s discussion). You have elected to be an optimist in spite of your better judgment (Heschel). You choose hope. But does that mean you just accept life as…
“Though He slay me, I will hope in Him. Nevertheless I will argue my ways before Him.” Job 13:15 NASB Hope – America’s presidential election day is just four days away. For a great number of people, this day underscores hopelessness about the world. Everywhere we look, things are worse. The newspapers declare another scandal,…
“Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength” Isaiah 40:31 NASB This is the first Today’s Word I wrote. It was written in 2003 and has never been published to the web. When Today’s Word started, it was the beginning of a long journey for me; a journey that has taken some…
