My soul waits in silence for God alone; from Him comes my salvation. Psalm 62:1 NASB Waits in/ comes – Because I typically place the text under investigation in italics, you are not able to see that “waits in” and “comes” are actually in italics in the NASB translation. This indicates that these words are not in the original. …
I hope for Your salvation, Lord, and do Your commandments. Psalm 119:166 NASB Hope – Plato’s view of religion sets the stage for the contrast we will explore. Plato also believed in hope. Well, sort of. His view was that religion was like wishing things would be better, that is, hoping that your wishes would come true. …
The wicked wait for me to destroy me; I will diligently consider Your testimonies. Psalm 119:95 NASB Diligently consider – Do you feel safe? I mean really safe, like not a care at all because no one can do you harm. Totally protected. Bulletproof all around. No chance of disaster, ruin, robbery, assault, collapse, surprise? Most…
Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;…
Why are you in despair, my soul? And why are you restless within me? Wait for God, for I will again praise Him for the help of His presence, my God. Psalm 42:11 NASB Despair – Hebrew is earthy. It doesn’t portray the complexity of our Greek-based psychological vocabulary. It describes internal psychic states with tactile…
Reproach breaks my heart, I grow ill: I hope for consolation, and there is none, and for comforters, and do not find them. Psalm 69:21 [Hebrew Bible] Robert Alter Consolation – Look at this verse in two other translations (verse 20 in English Bibles): Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked…
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Psalm 37:7 NIV Wait patiently – What do you do with a messy grammar? Do you stick with traditional readings? Or do you entertain alternatives? And what do you do when there’s no…
Yes, I am like a person who does not hear, and in whose mouth are no arguments. For I wait for You, Lord; You will answer, Lord my God. Psalm 38:14-15 NASB No arguments – Maybe the psalmist read Job. Maybe we should before we try to understand this poem. The word he uses is tôkaḥot, “reproofs, arguments.” …
And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. Romans 8:23 NASB For our adoption – Once again Paul seems a bit confused. Or maybe it’s just that old nemesis, Hellenism. Does he really say that we are eagerly…
Yes, let all who hope in You be not shamed. Let the treacherous be shamed, empty-handed. Psalm 25:3 Robert Alter translation Hope – After our recent discussion of batah, you might expect to find that word behind the English “hope.” To trust is to hope. The result is a public display. But that’s not what the psalmist wants…
