In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for You alone, Lord, have me dwell in safety. Psalm 4:8 NASB Dwell in safety – Is God ruthless? We’re quite comfortable with the idea of God’s benevolence, but we probably bristle at the thought that God might be ruthless. Ruthlessness is such a negative concept. We want a God…
In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for You alone, Lord, have me dwell in safety. Psalm 4:8 NASB In peace – David was a man of war. That’s why he was not allowed to build the Temple. But even a man of war desires something other than war. Peace. Not a common occurrence in the history…
How I love Your Law! Psalm 119:97a NASB 97 How I love Your Law! It is my meditation all the day. 98 Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, For they are ever mine. 99 I have more insight than all my teachers, For Your testimonies are my meditation. 100 I understand more than those who are old, Because I have complied with Your precepts. 101 I…
Blessed are those who comply with His [b]testimonies, And seek Him with all their heart. Psalm 119:2 NASB With all – It’s the last bit that counts. bechol-lev yidreshoohoo—“with all their heart.” “All their heart” is interesting in itself because we would expect the plural “with all their hearts” but we get the singular bechol-lev. It’s a common heart, that is,…
For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, Romans 8:6 NASB Life and peace – Returning to Paul’s great exposition of life in the Messiah, we have learned that “the mind set on” is really the single Greek word phrónēma, a word that encompasses…
Now Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Paddan-aram, and camped before the city. Genesis 33:18 NASB Safely – In Hebrew there are really only two verb tenses; complete actions and incomplete actions. That’s because Hebrew sees the world with a completely different framework than…
“Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease. Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you…
“Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease. Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you…
“For I know the plans that I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11 NASB Know – Why don’t we dig a little deeper here? Let’s take a bit longer today to examine most of this verse. It starts…
saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. Luke 19:42 NASB Make for peace – Not much has changed in the twenty centuries since Yeshua addressed these words to his accusers. We still seem to have no idea…
