Make me understand the way of Your precepts, and I will meditate on Your wonders. Psalm 119:27 NASB Make me – Not many of us would willingly ask God to do what the psalmist asks. He uses the Hebrew bîn which means“understand, consider, perceive, prudent, regard.”[1] That seems pretty tame. The verb and its derivatives are…
The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master’s stall. Israel did not know, my people did not pay heed. Isaiah 1:3 Robert Alter Did not pay heed – Robert Alter’s translation captures the urgency of God’s warning. Most translations render bîn with the usual “understand” or “perceive,” but that isn’t strong enough. It’s…
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,…
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…
Hear, my son, your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching; indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head and ornaments about your neck. Proverbs 1:8-9 NASB Hear– “Over time, early and necessary (and sometimes life-saving) defensive maneuvers and coping strategies evolve into ‘patterns’ of thinking, feeling, and behaving. These patterns come to operate like ‘organizing…
Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures Luke 24:45 NASB Understand – When we read this verse, we’re likely to imagine some kind of mental expansion miracle. As Western believers, we automatically assume that “understand” means cognitive comprehension. Our own educational experience leads us to interpret this text as if Yeshua were preparing…
For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. Romans 7:15 NASB I do not understand – Was Paul confused? When he writes, “I do not understand,” does he really mean “What I’m doing makes no sense to me,” or…
“but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord. Jeremiah 9:24 NASB Knows – yada’, yada’, yada’. Did you ever think that this colloquialism is the equivalent of…
Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” Exodus 24:7 NASB Will be obedient – What is the relationship between hearing and obeying? What steps do you take in…
