Threads from Henry's Web

Category: Bible Commentary

  • Psalm 119:84 – How Long?

    Psalm 119:84 – How Long?

    How long must your servant wait?
    When will you execute judgment on my persecutors?

    “How long?’ is a frequent refrain in scripture. Come to think of it, it’s a frequent refrain all our lives. Just start a long trip with children in the car and you’ll soon be hearing this question in one form or another. Are we there yet?

    In the Bible we have frequent examples of this sort of question. Abraham wondered how long, and even informed God that it was a bit late for the promise of a child. The Israelites in Egypt cried out in their slavery, and I suspect “how long” was part of that cry. During the 40 years of wandering about in the desert, that question no doubt came up a few times. At the time of the exile, again the question was asked, “How long is this going to last? When will God’s promises be fulfilled?”

    In Revelation 6:8, the souls under the altar cry out “How long, sovereign Lord, holy and true, must it be before you will vindicate us and avenge our death on the inhabitants of the earth?” (REB). It’s still going on. And on, and on, and on. How long?

    Revelation 10:6 gives us an answer, of sorts. Here God declares, “There shall be no more delay!”

    Which leaves open the question of why there is delay in the first place. I think there’s a hint in Revelation, and once we see that hint, we can turn back to Hebrew scripture and see that this answer isn’t new. I’m not going to give specific verses, because to see this, you need to read at least Revelation 6-16. If you do, you will see three sequences of seven. There are seven seals opened, seven trumpets sounded, and seven bowls poured out.

    In the case of the seals, six are broken and then there’s a delay, during which God is gathering His people. Then we resume with six trumpets sounded, but the seventh is delayed. The verse I quoted earlier comes from the time between the sixth and seventh trumpet, during which God promises more delay. Finally, come the bowls. With them there is no delay. All seven are poured out in succession and this is followed by the very last scenes of the battle between God and the Dragon, between good and evil.

    Perhaps a text from Hebrew scripture will provide the key, stated explicitly:

    But you, Lord are God, compassionate and gracious, long-suffering, ever faithful and true.

    Psalm 86:15 (REB)

    The problem for us is that God is not just compassionate toward us. God is also compassionate toward those other guys. You know, the ones we want God to judge. God loves them too. So God provides warnings and opportunities, and is slow to become angry.

    Jonah gets to learn a bit about this when God asks him, “… should I not be sorry about the great city of Nineveh, with its hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from the left?” (Jonah 4:11).

    It is useful to remember that Israel had good reason not to like the Assyrian Empire. I had the opportunity to read various royal records of Assyria, and it was disastrous to be conquered by them, especially if you had rebelled before. Jonah had reason to regard the Assyrians as his enemies.

    But God cared about them. Let’s remember that. God cared about them.

    We often treat “caring” and “compassion” as limited commodities, “economic goods” economists call them, ones that are in limited supply and thus will have a price. If you buy more of this, you have less money to buy that.

    We treat compassion in this way. I can only have compassion on some people. But God’s compassion, love, and grace extend to all. God’s grace is amazing, and it is not limited.

    So when God is failing to judge your enemies, it is likely that God is giving them the opportunity of redemption. Like Jonah, you and I may not like it when they accept, but God will. There will be rejoicing in heaven.

    The desire for justice is not wrong. The desire for God to take action against your enemies is not wrong. But it’s limited. God is inviting you to be more godlike and learn to love more people more deeply.

    When you hear about an enemy, or the member of a group you don’t like, can you pray for God’s compassion and mercy on them for their redemption?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

    Jonah
    Finding Rest for Our Souls
  • Psalm 119:83 – Burned Up (and Out)

    Psalm 119:83 – Burned Up (and Out)

    For I am like a wineskin in smoke,
    yet I do not forget your statutes.

    It’s not entirely clear what’s happening to the wineskin here (REB translates “though I shrivel like a wineskin in the smoke), I think this continues this series of verses on being out on a limb, out of options, and wondering what’s going to happen next.

    Mitchell Dahood states (correctly) that there really isn’t a satisfactory explanation for the “wineskin in the smoke” simile. We can think of ways to understand it, as I did in the previous paragraph, but it’s hard to be really convincing. Dahood proposes the translation “For I have become like one weeping from smoke.” Yet his linguistic explanation leaves me thinking, “Nice, but still just a suggestion.”

    Sometimes in translating the Bible, especially in Hebrew scriptures, we find passages like this. It’s truly difficult to determine precisely what the meaning is. So I’m stopping a moment to discuss uncertainty in reading scripture.

    We’re generally unhappy with any possibility of doubt as to the meaning of a particular verse. Surely God’s Word should give us a precise understanding! There are those complain about notes in their English (or Spanish) translations because these notes might give people doubts about the accuracy of their Bibles.

    But however much you may try to avoid it, the evidence is there. There are textual variations. There are verses where we are uncertainty of the translation of particular words. Or, as in this case, the definitions seem pretty clear but we don’t get the simile, or perhaps it’s a euphemism. We don’t know absolutely.

    We need to get used to this sort of variation simply because God has chosen to provide scripture in that form. It comes written by humans, copied by humans, and interpreted by humans. And guess what! Humans make mistakes. Even if none of these variations existed, you and I, as readers, would still be fallible.

    Now the fact is that the vast majority of the text of scripture is not in any real doubt. It’s only a small portion of the words that make us stop and scratch our heads. But if we take a broad look at scripture, and don’t just depend on a single verse, we’ll be able to figure things out.

    Sometimes doubt about meaning makes us feel like that “bottle in the smoke,” whatever that experience means. But if we listen for the story, and the message in the story, we’ll find that while we are not capable of certainty, we are capable of hearing God speak through these passages. It’s not that God can’t provide an accurate message. It’s that we, with our limited minds, can only understand in our limited way.

    That makes it a good idea to listen closely, and read more of scripture so we have a broader understanding. But mostly it means continuing to realize our dependence on God.

    Do you depend on God to lead you to truth?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:82 – Waiting

    Psalm 119:82 – Waiting

    My eyes are failing from looking for your promise.
    I’m asking, “When will you comfort me?”

    The process of meditating on a verse like this is very different from the process of exegesis. I can dig out the details of this verse fairly quickly.. There’s not that much that’s controversial about the text or translation.

    But meditating is different. It’s not just about the verse itself, but about what that suggests. I had to go back and read the verse several times. I wonder if that’s because I really don’t like what the verse itself implies.

    Here’s one of the writers of scripture. We don’t actually know who wrote the Psalm, but it’s nice to think of David, simply because he had so many experiences that fit well into the message of the text. But whoever it was, it was someone who wrote poetry and that poetry became scripture. That person’s testimony is that his eyes wore out with watching for God to fulfill God’s promise and provide him with comfort.

    Comfort? That’s in one way a very uncomfortable thought. I don’t particularly like to wait. I like to know now. I like to receive now. Though these days I often fail, I like to do now. Waiting is bad.

    I’m reminded of Job. Many years ago, I heard about Job as a theodicy, an attempt to explain why, with a sovereign God, there is suffering. The problem is that the book of Job does no such thing. It makes no attempt to justify God’s actions. In fact, Job himself has no idea of what is going on.

    Not only does Job have to wait, but he has to suffer through all those long speeches. And what Job wants is to know that God hears him, that he is not alone in all this. He doesn’t really ask for an explanation. Job wants a hearing!

    When that hearing comes, it’s not all that helpful in content and explanation. What it does is show that God is aware of Job’s problem, and that is what Job wants.

    I don’t know what specific promise the psalmist was waiting for. If the author is David we know he had to spend years as a fugitive, waiting for the fulfillment of the promise that he would be king. It’s likely he had moments when his eyes were worn out with waiting and wondering when God would act.

    Each of us has things that we want, that we have prayed for, and even that we may believe God has promised us. When these things don’t happen, we want to head off in another direction or decide that God is not with us. But Job waited until he got that hearing. David waited until the crown came to him.

    There’s a promise in this verse, one that could be reaffirmed by God’s people throughout time. It’s worthwhile waiting. The hearing is coming. The crown is coming. Your reward is coming. Wait for it.

    Perhaps we might borrow some attitude from Habakkuk, who asks God a question and then stands at his post. “I shall take up my position on the watch-tower, keeping a look-out to learn what he says to me, how he responds to my complaint” (Habakkuk 2:1, REB). I also recall the character Puddleglum in C. S. Lewis’s The Silver Chair, who, confronted with the idea that there was no Aslan said (I paraphrase) “I’m on Aslan’s side even if there’s no Aslan to lead it.”

    There is hope in this verse because the backstory must be that the author believed the promise, waited on the promise, wore his eyes out looking for the promise, but he’s now here writing about it.

    What are you waiting for? Keep a look-out for God’s move!

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

    The Heart Cries Out
    Finding Rest for Our Souls
    Seeing the Psalter
  • Psalm 119:81 – Longing

    Psalm 119:81 – Longing

    My soul is wiped out with longing for your salvation.
    I put my hope in your word.

    As I read this I was reminded of the time our son James had just had surgery and was in the intensive care unit. I had a commitment to teach the next session in a series on prophecy two and a half hours drive away. The pastor who was my host told me he would understand if I couldn’t make it, but he wasn’t going to uninvite me. It was James who gave the final word, calling me over to whisper, “Go!”

    That was a hard drive. I played one song multiple times, very loud: “Singing with the Saints. I had a recording by a Hungarian group from the area where Jody and I had led mission trips a few years before. Between listening to that song, I thought of another that goes, “I’m homesick for heaven, seems I cannot wait.” It had always been just a song to me, and not a very important one. I didn’t connect with it.

    Suddenly I did. The longing was so strong it was painful. But it was also hopeful.

    But this verse is not just talking about the next world, as important as that is. It’s focused on God coming to us here and now. I feel this longing from day to day when I see my wife or my sister in pain, and hear about other friends who are ill, grieving, suffering. I long for the touch of God for each and every one. And frequently, I see things happen.

    But there’s another longing for God’s salvation, and that’s for coming into relationship with God and allowing God’s grace to work in my life, and in the lives of those I meet.

    God’s salvation encompasses everything.

    What are you longing for today?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:80 – Blameless

    Psalm 119:80 – Blameless

    Let my heart be steadfast in your statutes
    so I will not be put to shame.

    If you immerse yourself in this Psalm, you’ll lose any sense of boastfulness and self-sufficiency. There are claims before God to being a commandment keeper, but they are well-balanced by those passages that ask the Lord to accomplish this work. There is praise of God’s self-revelation in his instructions (Torah). There is gratefulness for God’s work. There is also reliance on God for everything.

    A verse-by-verse meditation, such as I am doing, has its own hazards. It is very easy, and not entirely contrary to my purpose, to discuss things that are far from the particular verse, yet my mind was started in that direction.

    As I read this I can think of any number of doctrinal discussions that one might launch from right here. But I think this verse expresses the heart of the psalmist quite well.

    I have noted before that using the word “law” as a translation of the Hebrew torah is misleading. We think of “law” as a collection of commands. But as indicated by the name, torah is much more than law. Yes, there is a focus on the laws contained there, but there is also the story of God’s action with regards to God’s people. We hear about call,, choice, and going back further, creation.

    It’s easy for people who have an adversarial view of rules to misread this focus on law as automatically legalism, dry legalism, even. It’s possible for someone to separate the legal portion, statutes, from the rest and use them unhelpfully. This is not a mistake our psalmist makes. In the broad story of torah we have the God who creates, who chooses, who calls, who protects and guides, who rescues, who instructs, and yes, who makes rules.

    The rules are the innermost part of this structure. They’re a burden taken out of their natural environment. They’re a burden when asked to accomplish something they are not designed to do. But torah seen properly is the message of that creator, guide, protector, savior, teacher, and lawgiver.

    I’m not rejecting the teaching in Christianity that the law cannot save. The law does not make you holy. In soteriology, the law functions to tell you you’re not making it. But when in Christ, when inside those important protective layers, the law becomes different.

    I hear the psalmist saying that he would like to be identified by a wholehearted pursuit of God’s statutes. That is his prayer. That is his hope. That is the way he can avoid shame. His identity is God’s person, whom God is making anew. One might recall the words of Psalm 51:12, “Create in me a clean heart …” That’s the creator doing in you what he has done everywhere.

    What is your identity? Whose are you?

    (Featured image was generated by Jetpack AI and slightly enhanced with Photoshop.)

  • Psalm 119:79 – To Me

    Psalm 119:79 – To Me

    Let those who fear you turn to me,
    so they may understand your testimonies.

    Sometimes we’re afraid to point to ourselves. It seems arrogant or proud to ask someone else to follow your example, or even to turn to you to learn. The rule of teacher or mentor is demanding.

    But there are many times when we need to be willing to put ourselves on the line as examples, teachers, and mentors. We’re called on to make disciples. Other people are bound to ask how we are doing as disciples.

    Now none of this means that we are to present ourselves as perfect or even as better than everyone else. There’s also no reason to claim that we are doing all this on our own. If one bathes in this Psalm a bit, one cannot imagine the Psalmist as presenting himself as faultless. Over and over he asks God to get him on the path and keep him on the path.

    But having asked God to do so, he believes God will do that. As such, he can ask God to send others to him personally precisely because all of those prayers have been answered. His desire is to keep God’s law, and God is working in him, so others can learn from him.

    Look around you. Is there someone that God could send your way to learn about God’s testimonies? Watch for them and let God work through you for them.

  • Psalm 119:78 – Get the Bad Guys!

    Psalm 119:78 – Get the Bad Guys!

    Let the arrogant, who wrong me with lies, be put to shame.
    I will meditate on your precepts.

    The Psalms are very real. You’ll get all the emotions represented. “Get the bad guys” is a common prayer, though it’s often disguised as praying for them, asking God to change them into someone we would like better.

    I’m taking a bit of a side-trip with this verse, because the question is so familiar. When people ask about God and what God does for/to people, there are two big questions. First, why do such bad things happen to good people? Second, why do the wicked (or the proud or arrogant) prosper?

    Both of these questions come from comparing ourselves to others. The question is why don’t we do better than people who are not as good as we are, and why do people who are nastier than we are prosper.

    And thus the prayer to get the bad guys is most often a prayer for God to make people who are worse than we are prosper less than we do or suffer more. After all, they deserve worse than what we do!

    I don’t blame the psalmist for praying that his enemies be put to shame. From time to time I’ve joined him. I don’t think God goes along with that plea. God’s more interested in getting through to me. And I expect to them.

    Let those who boast, boast in the Lord. For it is not the one who recommends himself who is genuine, but the one the Lord recommends.

    2 Cor 10:17-18 (Author’s Translation)

    Whose recommendation are you seeking?

    Due to the connection to theodicy, I’m embedding my own interview in my series on that topic, just for fun!

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:77 – That I May Live

    Psalm 119:77 – That I May Live

    Let your compassion come to me that I may live
    for your instruction is my meditation.

    I’ve been writing about God’s compassion. Follow the trail back for a couple of verses for more on that. Today I’ve been meditating on the importance of God’s instructions for life. It turns out I was meditating on that even though I forgot which verse I was on and had to look it up again this evening.

    I read this as a Christian. As such I recognize that we often jump past ethical concerns in scripture. As soon as someone talks about the rules, we tend to shout works. At the same time, in my experience, we’ll be pushing certain “works” as necessary. “If you aren’t doing _____ you’re not really saved.”

    Unfortunately, we don’t get much teaching that combines God’s compassion and love for us along with God’s wisdom, represented in the things he lays out for us to do. The only thing that will create holy people is God’s grace. Grace creates action. Note that action is not equal to grace. Grace does not require action as a trigger, or a prerequisite.

    So here we have two things, God’s compassion coming on the Psalmist, and meditation on God’s instruction. Let’s look at another passage from Deuteronomy.

    Look! I have put before you today life and good, death and evil.

    Deuteronomy 30:15 (author’s translation)

    We can’t forget that God has the way to life, that God’s instructions are of great value.

    When I fail to spend time with God in prayer or in Bible study, I pay for it. I pay in time spent worrying, in distractions, in decisions poorly made. No, I am not concerned that I’m losing my salvation when these things happen, but I am still losing out on the peace, joy, and comfort God offers. I’m designed to need those things. My life is better for them.

    Now I can also lose something if I forget God’s instruction that tells me that God loves me, cares for me, and knows my weaknesses. Knowing those weaknesses, God still loves me. His compassion comes on me. I can doubt God, but God remains faithful.

    If you find yourself feeling depressed today, remember that you are loved by your Creator with an everlasting, unquenchable love.

    What’s God Really Like
  • Psalm 119:76 – Comfort

    Psalm 119:76 – Comfort

    Let your lovingkindness comfort me
    as you have promised your servant.

    Lovingkindness is the Hebrew word hesed, which can also refer to faithfulness, favor, goodness, or grace. It also refers to the loyalty involved in a covenant relationship.

    I think one of the most commonly forgotten aspects of Christian faith (also true in Judaism) is living in the knowledge of being in a relationship with God. A covenant is a relationship. We often talk about our relationship with God as a sort of romantic adventure based solely on emotion.

    I don’t want to deny emotion. Emotion is important. Experience and the emotion that grows out of it is as critical as the facts on which it is based. One can get lost either way. The idea of meeting a God who demands that we keep his commands outside of such a relationship is quite daunting.

    You know that YHWH your God, he is God. He is a faithful God who keeps covenant and lovingkindness – to those who love him and to those who keep his commands – for a thousand generations.

    Deuteronomy 7:9 (author’s translation)

    Now keeping all those commands is a lot of work! Works will not save you. Works will not make you a child of God. But the book of Deuteronomy doesn’t teach that the works are somehow earning the favor. Rather,

    Not because you were more numerous than all the peoples did YHWH passionately desire you and choose you, for you were the smallest of all the peoples. Rather, because YHWH loved you and because he kept the oath which he swore to Abraham, YHWH brought you out with a powerful hand and ransomed you from the house of servitude, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

    Deutereonmy 7:7-8 (author’s translation)

    Now there’s something interesting about the word used to describe God’s passionate desire. It’s the same word used by Hamor of his son Shechem and his desire for Dinah, daughter of Jacob. I don’t bring this up to somehow ransom the sordid story of Shechem and Dinah. But this illustrates the strength of the emotional bond. Hamor, in using this word of his son, is telling the people of the town that the prince has to have the girl he desires. He can’t do without her.

    God’s love for God’s people is powerful, demanding, and must be satisfied. When God gives a covenant to Abraham, and repeatedly renews and restates it, God is saying that his love is overwhelming.

    In ancient times, the breaking of a covenant was regarded as a very bad thing, often resulting in a penalty of death. In Ezekiel 17:11-21 God’s message is that the people made a covenant with the king of Babylon and then violated it. God asks regarding the king who did this, “Will such a man be successful? Will he escape destruction if he acts in this way? Can he violate a treaty and escape unpunished?” (Ezekiel 17:15b). This is a condemnation of violating a human treaty.

    In Jeremiah 31:31, God says he will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah, and in verse 32 he says the old one was “one they broke.” Do you hear what’s going on here? Violation of a human covenant is condemned. And yes, violation of God’s covenant is condemned. But what does God do?

    God makes a new one. Why? Because he loves his people so much. He has to have that relationship. Notice that the new covenant is in what we Christians call the “Old Testament.” The same love expressed in Deuteronomy 7 as Israel prepares to enter the land, is again expressed by creating a new covenant to replace the broken one.

    So does this only apply to Israel? We have only to pay attention to the covenant from the start to realize that God invites Israel to be his to be a blessing to all. God claims sovereignty over all the nations and moves the save them.

    It is in this overwhelmingly faithful, overpoweringly loving relationship that we can find that comfort. That kind of love is the best atmosphere in which to grow. Holiness only occurs immersed in God’s all-encompassing grace.

    Can you feel that grace today in every moment?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:75 – Humiliated

    Psalm 119:75 – Humiliated

    I know, LORD that your judgments are righteous.
    It’s in truthfulness you have humiliated me.

    If I were making a translation for publication, there would be a footnote on “truthfulness” that would include “faithfulness,” “honesty,” and “trustworthiness” as a minimum. It’s important not to imagine that a Hebrew word brings all of its applications into each use. The Amplified Bible does this by giving many synonyms in a single verse.

    But in poetry, we can see a less limited way of reading, because the text is intended to be brief and to evoke a range of related ideas.

    I’m leaving “righteous judgments” for another day. But righteous judgments are also truthful judgments. In much of what I’ve read of court cases, I get the feeling that the judgments rendered by human judges are often constrained by current custom, and less so by written law or by principles of justice. I would say that the idea of divine justice involves an expectation of total truthfulness and faithfulness as well as adherence to statutes of law. This is an unreachable goal for humans, I think, though it is a good goal for which to strive.

    I couldn’t think of an efficient way to say it, but the final words of this verse suggest that we are brought humiliation by truthfulness/faithfulness. One might say “integrity.” God simply brings truth to bear on our actions, and it’s humiliating.

    It’s in our human nature to get upset at this. We don’t want to be humiliated. But how often does reality do that to us? We think we’re great, and then reality strikes and something goes wrong. We announce that we can handle a situation, make a repair, or pass a test. Then reality comes to get us.

    Most spiritual things have everyday analogies. Spiritually, we decide to do things a certain way, accomplish certain goals, spent certain amounts of time in prayer or service, keep our motivations pure, avoid unjust anger. And then we get busy and we don’t get that time in prayer, we don’t read out Bible as we planned, and we find we have less time and resources to serve others as we had determined.

    I can give an example from this series. On the one hand, I’m happy to be 75 verses (and days) into a 176 verse plan. But I can’t count the number of times I’ve actually forgotten which verse I was working on during the day. I’ve sat back, intending to bring the verse to mind, and I can’t remember it. I’m supposed to be meditating on it. That’s a minor failure, but it’s still a failure, and it annoys me that I do it.

    I wish I could say that my faults are generally small, like forgetting a verse. I can always look it up again. But when I speak hurtful words in anger, for example, the problem is not so easy to repair.

    So what shall I do? To echo Paul, “Who will rescue me?”

    Well, actually, the same God who provides the truth that puts me in my place over and over. The same God the psalmist has been praising for these 75 verses and will continue to praise for another 101. This help comes in three ways:

    1. This God claims me as his own and allows me to call him mine. See Psalm 119:57 – Still Mine!
    2. I can learn to know my own limitations. It may be humiliating to come up against the truth, but if I’m not arrogant, it’s not going to hurt as much!
    3. The same God also provided this law, this distant goal, that helps keep me pointed in the right direction.

    Coming up against the real standard is good for us in all these ways. We tend to want to pretend that the standard is lower so we can feel better. We’d like God to protect us from the results of our own stupidity and failures. But those options results in a lack of growth. God wants to grow you up. To take the next step. And the next.

    What next step does God want you to take today?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

    Some books:

    Holiness of Heart and Life
    Walking Together