Psalm 119:50 – Experience
In difficult times, personal experience with God provided comfort and strength despite theological doubts. Sustained by God’s presence and creative Word, we found life amidst affliction.
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Psalm 119:49 – Remember!
Remember your word to your servant,upon which you have caused me to hope. We have another imperative, but this one is addressed not to us, but to God! My wife sometimes is hesitant to remind me of things. She doesn’t want to say, “Henry, you forgot …” or “Please remember my ….” She especially wants…
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Psalm 119:48 – Meditating
And I lift up my hands to your commands which I love,and I will meditate on your statutes. I haven’t been entirely consistent in how I translate the first word of each couplet in this section, but they begin with the Hebrew letter vav (or waw as is sometimes taught in classical Hebrew). This would…
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Psalm 119:47 – Taking Delight
And I will take delight in your commands,which I love. Everyone who loves being commanded, raise your hands. Well, I can’t see the hands over the internet, but I’m guessing there aren’t many. There are only a few people who really enjoy dealing with regulations. We may consider them necessary, but we don’t generally get…
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Psalm 119:45 – Speaking Before Kings
I will speak of your testimonies before Kingsand will not be ashamed. Do you speak of your faith to other people? For many, this is a question specifically about making religious statements. Can you attempt to “bring someone to Christ?” Can you make a new disciple? What I wonder is whether we can talk about…
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If You’re Nice, Diversity Will Take Care of Itself
Bad Ideas I Learned from Good Leaders #2 I’ve heard this one from so many people that I would hardly know who to blame for it if I wanted to blame someone. I’ve been told that if you will just be nice and positive, you can ignore the differences in your congregation and everything will…
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Psalm 77:13 – Answering a Question about Translation
I am frequently asked questions about the translation of a specific word, often because there is a difference in English translations. Frequently, the specific wording of a text means a great deal to the person who asked, as it may be part of the exposition of some other doctrine or chain of thought. Sometimes it…
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Psalm 119:45 – Walk in Liberty
So I will walk in libertyfor I seek your precepts. I must credit Mitchell Dahood in his 3 volume commentary on Psalms in the Anchor Bible (vol 1, vol 2, vol 3) for the word “liberty.” I was struggling for a translation that I felt lived up to the context. I think that one does….
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Psalm 119:44 – Keep it Forever
And I will keep your instruction (Torah) continuallyforever and ever. For another sense of Hebrew parallelism, note the short 2nd line here, “forever and ever.” This is parallel with “continually” and suggests a combined “all the time for all time.” If we hadn’t just read a number of verses in which the Psalmist expresses dependence…
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Psalm 119:43 – Power to Speak Truth
Never take the word of truth from my mouthfor I place my hope in your judgments. Tomorrow morning I’ll be leading a discussion of John Wesley in my Sunday School class. The notes in the book we’re using point especially to Wesley’s view of prevenient grace and to Christian perfection. It’s interesting to take these…
