I am Your servant; give me understanding, so that I may know Your testimonies. Psalm 119:125 NASB So that I may know – What is the job of a servant: to understand or to obey? Of course, it’s nice to know why you’re asked to do something, but it certainly isn’t necessary. Your job as a…
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1 NASB In the Beginning – This was written on January 1st, 2009. Recently a reader questioned something about it, and when I looked at what I wrote 14 years ago, I had to agree. It needed some changes. So, for those of you…
O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His lovingkindness is everlasting. 1 Chronicles 16:34 NASB 1995 Give thanks – The story of this psalm is found in the chronicles of the kings. David receives the ark and offers sacrifices, installing Asaph and his line as priests. Then David offers this song. …
Certainly the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret plan to His servants the prophets. Amos 3:7 NASB Unless – But Amos must have been mistaken, don’t you think? Maybe what he said was true when the Lord actually appointed prophets for Israel, but today, well, today we live in a world of spiritual silence. Oh,…
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28 NASB Know – Well, we might know that God causes all things to work together for good, but it surely doesn’t feel that way, does it? Paul uses the Greek verb…
I will open my mouth in a parable; I will tell riddles of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. Psalm 78:2-3 NASB Known – Okay, so how can this be a parable or a riddle if we’ve known it for generations? Was the insightful story and the dark saying passed down…
For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust. Psalm 103:14 NASB He Himself – Does God know you? All about you? Everything? “Of course, He does,” you answer. “He’s omniscient. He knows everything.” If that’s true, then why does the Psalmist use a construction that effectively underlines the point? Why doesn’t he write,…
Make me know Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, Psalm 25:4-5a NASB Know/teach – “The whole of Torah, writes Sefat Emet, is a complex of hints, allusions to the unattainable.”[1] The rabbi’s statement shocks us. Don’t we need to know the truth in unambiguous ways so that we can properly follow God and…
that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; Philippians 3:10 NASB Know– Do you struggle with certainty? Do you want to know for sure what to believe and what not to believe? Are you plagued with the discovery that what you used to think was absolutely true doesn’t…
You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. Psalm 139:2 NASB Understand– If God “knows” everything about me, then why do we also read, “You understand”? Isn’t knowing and understanding pretty much the same thing? As it turns out, in Hebrew these two ideas are different, and the difference is precisely…
