Deal with Your servant according to Your graciousness, and teach me Your statutes. Psalm 119:124 NASB According to – Perhaps the most important word in this verse is the preposition ki. It’s attached to the word ḥesed like this: כְחַסְדֶּ֗ךָ (ke–ḥăsdĕ’-kā, “according to ḥesed yours”). Such a tiny addition. Why is it so critical? Because the psalmist…
All Your commandments are faithful; they have persecuted me with a lie; help me! Psalm 119:86 NASB Faithful – It’s unfortunate that this translation pushes us to view the commandments as spiritual. “Faithful” makes it sound as if miṣwâ belong in the realm of religion, where “faith” operates differently than the rest of our “practical” lives. Such would…
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Matthew 5:4 NASB Mourn – Samuel Beckett’s play raises a critical question for humanity. It does so with a kind of dramatic insanity. “Vivian Mercier described Waiting for Godot as a play which ‘has achieved a theoretical impossibility—a play in which nothing happens, that yet keeps audiences glued…
My heart has been struck like grass and has withered, Indeed, I forget to eat my bread. Psalm 102:4 NASB Has been struck – We might use the idiom “Go pound sand!” but I’ve never heard anyone say, “Go beat grass!” That makes me wonder what the psalmist had in mind when he chose this verb, nākâ. Certainly…
I shall pay You my vows, which my lips uttered and my mouth spoke when I was in distress. Psalm 66:13b-14 Vows – What is the absolute basis of the covenant? What is the one thing that constitutes the covenant arrangement? The answer: a promise. In Hebrew: nâdar. A vow is a promise to God. It reflects…
I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. Genesis 17:7 NASB You and your descendants– Are you ready? Are you ready to really deal with the implications of God’s covenant promise to Abraham? Oh, I’m sure you think that…
“Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10 NASB With you– It’s important to know that God has not given up on us. “I am with you,”…
“Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10 NASB Fear– Actually, I’m not afraid in the usual sense of the word. I’m not even afraid to die. …
For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay. But My righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him. Hebrews 10:37-38 NASB Will come – In the previous verse, the author of this letter exhorts the reader…
And he went outside and wept bitterly. Luke 22:62 NIV Bitterly – “I’ll never break my vow to you!” “You can count on my word.” “I will always be there for you.” Promises—broken. Have you ever made a solemn commitment to someone only to find that later you broke your vow? How did you feel?…
