Let my soul live that it may praise You, and let Your ordinances help me. Psalm 119:175 NASB Live/ help – We don’t need to mention the mistaken translation “soul.” You certainly know that nepeš isn’t “soul,” which is the Greek term psyche. But we should note the idea that praise can only happen while we…
Consider how I love Your precepts; revive me, Lord, according to Your faithfulness. Psalm 119:159 NASB Consider – What does the Hebrew rāʾâ imply? Does it mean “to bring to mind (consider)”? Or does it mean something more? Perhaps you recognize the root, “to see.” It also means “to look at” and “to inspect.” The translation “consider”…
My life is continually in my hand, yet I do not forget Your Law. Psalm 119:109 NASB Continually in my hand – Do you find this verse rather odd? After all the deference to God’s sovereign governance, we would expect that psalmist to say that his life is entirely in God’s hand, not his own. So, what’s happening…
Revive me according to Your faithfulness, so that I may keep the testimony of Your mouth. Psalm 119:88 NASB Revive – We’ve been at this for quite a while. Perhaps “revive” is the right term for the halfway point. Halfway through the longest psalm, we should pause and ask ourselves, “Why is the poet spending…
Behold, I long for Your precepts; revive me through Your righteousness. Psalm 119:40 NASB Long – Well, it’s not exactly a hapax legomenon, but it might as well be. tāʾeb, translated “long for,” is used only twice; once here and once in verse 174 (which we will eventually examine). Since it is only found in this…
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16 NASB Eternal life – “Man’s task is to make the world worthy of redemption.”[1] But wait! Why should I worry about making the world worthy of redemption when I’m waiting to…
The king reflected and said, “Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?” Daniel 4:30 NASB 1995 I myself – A man should not write down his thoughts until he has no time left to complete…
You have enclosed me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me. Psalm 139:5 NASB 1995 Behind and before – Remember that interesting idea of engineered accidents (yesterday)? Well, there’s another implication to the suggestion that God’s invisible hand is maneuvering your life into kairos moments. We looked that this further implication several years ago. Perhaps…
You have granted me life and goodness; and Your care has guarded my spirit. Job 10:12 NASB Life – Yesterday we examined the Qohelet’s claim that the animating spirit returns to God at death. This idea is an important correction to the popular Western conception of eternal life. It is important to note that this correction…
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…
