I have inherited Your testimonies forever, for they are the joy of my heart. Psalm 119:111 NASB Inherited – Two or three words matter here. The first is nāḥal (to inherit), the second is the familiar ʿēdût (testimony), and the third is joy (śāśôn). First, nāḥal. “The verb nāḥal basically signifies giving or receiving property which is…
For You aremy rock and my fortress; for Your name’s sake You will lead me and guide me. Psalm 31:3 NASB Lead/ Guide– nāḥâ and nāhal. Why does David use two different verbs (alliterative) to convey God’s direction? Perhaps it’s because the first “represents the conducting of one along the right path”[1]while the second “denotes a shepherd’s loving concerned leading of his flock,…
The cords of death encompassed me, and the torrents of ungodliness terrified me. Psalm 18:4 NASB Torrents – Escape! Escape to the waste places! Run for your life away from the wicked and their overpowering influence. How else will you survive? How can you resist the constant barrage of cultural deviations from the way of…
He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters. Psalm 23:2 Hebrew World He leads me – Such a familiar verse requires much more careful examination. It’s just too easy to breeze past these still waters, imagining that there isn’t much more to the sentence than its obvious imagery of…
For You are my rock and my fortress, therefore for Your name’s sake lead me, guide me. Psalm 31:4 (Hebrew text) Lead me, Guide me – It is unfortunate that our efforts to produce a smooth-flowing English translation often result in hiding subtleties in the Hebrew. It’s unfortunate because those subtleties help us understand the…
