The Path Not Chosen

I have restrained my feet from every evil way, so that I may keep Your word.  Psalm 119:101  NASB Restrained – “When you come to a fork in the road, take it,” said Yogi Bera.  Perhaps he was right.  The rabbis taught that when a man wishes to follow the way of God, the Lord will…

Promise or Proclamation?

And I shall keep Your Torah constantly, forever and ever.  Psalm 119:44  Chabad I shall keep – What is the psalmist actually saying?  Is he claiming that if God allows him to speak the whole truth (verse 43), he will then keep Torah forever?  Or is he saying that, unlike Moses, he knows God gives…

Now Get To Work (2)

But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit,  keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.  Jude 1:20-21  NIV Keep yourselves in God’s love – The literal text places “yourselves in the love…

Wishful Thinking

The Lord will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul.  Psalm 121:7  NASB You – I suppose there are two questions to be asked about this verse.  The first is, “Who is the Lord going to protect from all evil?” Who’s “you”?  The second is “When is God going to do this?”  If we…

Heaven Help Us!

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, Jude 24 NASB Keep you from stumbling – Sometimes it just feels like we can’t keep going. The weight of living in Babylon, the rejection of those we thought…

How Long?

He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. Psalm 103:9 NASB Keep – How long will God stay angry? Answering that question seems to be behind the usual translations of this verse. For example, TEV renders the verse, “He does not keep on rebuking; he is not angry forever.”…

Nailed Together

And showing mercy to thousands of those who love me, and keep my commandments. Exodus 20:6 Jewish World translation Love Me, and keep – Back to the pictographs. Here is the phrase “of those who love Me” in pictographic Hebrew.   Once again the word begins with the preposition le signifying “control” or “authority.” It…

Necessary Retreat?

Depart from me, you evildoers, that I may keep the commandments of my God.  Psalm 119:115  ESV Keep – The company you keep has a direct effect on your ability to delight the Lord.  Old places and old faces, as every Twelve-Stepper knows, will certainly drag you back down the addictive path.  Anyone who thinks…

Double the Volume

“Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My commandments, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine.”  Exodus 19:5  NASB Indeed Obey – How loud does God need to speak for you to hear him?  If you are like those Israelites who…

Impossible Journey?

“He who has My commandments, and keeps them, he it is who loves Me, and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will disclose Myself to him.” John 14:21  NASB Keeps them – From Adam until now, no man has been able to fulfill this requirement. …