Threads from Henry's Web

Category: Bible Passages

  • Psalm 119:71 – The Blessing of Hardship

    Psalm 119:71 – The Blessing of Hardship

    It was good for me to have suffered hardship
    so I could learn your statutes.

    We tend to complain a good deal over hardship. We don’t like it. We ask why God allows it, or perhaps does it.

    But hardship is worked into the basic structure of the universe. That’s where we get the law of sowing and reaping. Our standard condition has us destined to work hard for many things. This is, in fact, how we learn most things.

    Two stories from my childhood and youth come to mind. When I was just eight years old I announced that I wanted to learn to use a typewriter. This launched a family debate. Would I ever learn to write? Could I actually learn to use the typewriter at that point. At that time “typewriter” meant a manual machine and took a certain amount of energy to use.

    My dad made the decision. I’d be allowed to learn to type, but only if I would complete every single lesson in the Typing Made Simple workbook perfectly. There was no number of allowed errors. I could redo the lessons as many times as I wanted to, but I couldn’t move forward until I had completed it without error.

    I honestly don’t know whether my dad expected me to succeed or not. There was no pressure other than the one requirement. That was a hardship! I had to do some of those lessons several times. But I learned something that has served me all my life. In high school, I attained a top typing speed of over 120 words per minute without error.

    Again, when I wanted to raise goats, my parents simply made sure I understood the work involved. There would be no morning when I didn’t have to get up early to milk. There would always be things that I needed to do at various inconvenient times. I understood, and I got the goats.

    Now raising those goats was hard! In my spare time I had to install an electric fence. Then I had to deliver the milk to customers up to a mile or so away, which I did either on foot or by bicycle.

    The point of these two experiences is that they are not extraordinary. Nobody was trying to make my life difficult. The hardships involved were not that terrible. Some people have told me the “perfection” requirement was outrageous, but I disagree. It gave me a goal and a standard, and it was attainable. The work done to attain that goal contributed to much of my work since, including the speed with which I am typing this.

    We can make a distinction between causing trouble or allowing trouble. I think that is a distinction of limited value. If someone is picturing God sneaking about looking for ways to make their life difficult, that might be theologically problematic. But God has created a universe in which everything from stars and planets to human beings are shaped by things that put pressure on them.

    And what do we suppose is necessary to make us ready for eternity?

    “But grace!” you say.

    Yes, God’s grace saves us. Yes, God’s grace is sufficient. It brings us into the family. But that is the beginning of a journey, not the end.

    “And grace will see us through,” you say.

    Yes, indeed it will. But it’s going to see you through the process of growing you up, of preparing you for eternity in the presence of God.

    Be “carried on to perfection” (Hebrews 6:2) for a few more steps today!

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:70 – Unfeeling or Insensitive

    Psalm 119:70 – Unfeeling or Insensitive

    Their hearts are clogged with fat;
    I delight in your instruction (Torah).

    A very literal alternative for the first half of the verse would be “fattened with fat are their hearts.” The REB translates:

    [T]hey are arrogant and unfeeling,
    but I find my delight in your instruction.

    With the heart being more the seat of thought than of emotions in Hebrew imagery, we could say that their thinking and perceiving equipment is all clogged up. Some cognate words in related languages suggest foolishness.

    This is a good example of translating an idiom. There are those who prefer word-by-word translation, what is called formal equivalence, which means the translator tries to represent each grammatical form (word or sometimes phrase) in the source language with an equivalent in the target language. In this case, translating “their heart is fat with fat” would be formally accurate, but not necessarily communicative.

    While I like the way in which the REB translates, I would tend to replace “unfeeling” with “insensitive.” (Assuming I was aiming for functional equivalence.) The reason is that this verse suggest to me a contrast. Unlike the Psalmist, those who smear him are not able to delight in God’s law. This accords with the psalmist’s many prayers that the Lord will teach him and keep after him even if he goes astray.

    The word sensitivity was on my mind in my meditations today. It seems to me that there are two closely related types of sensitivity that are necessary for the one that delights in God’s law in the theme of this verse. The first is a sensitivity to God’s commands. The second is a sensitivity to those around, to the community of which one is a part.

    Sensitivity to God’s commands in a way that makes them a delight requires that one care about good, ethical, and productive behavior. Indifference is not delight. The psalmist wants to do right. The slanderers want to do injury. They are not sensitive to what their actions do to others. Their hearts are blocked up and unable to receive new, clean blood.

    Create in me a new heart, Oh God, and renew an upright spirit within me (Psalm 51:12)

    The second part of this sensitivity is a sensitivity to other people. It is very easy to come to the point of not caring what happens to other people. But this attitude is decried in scripture. Besides commanding the Israelites to love the LORD their God with all their hearts, they are commanded to love their neighbor as they love themselves (Leviticus 19:18).

    To love someone as you love yourself, you need to be able to appreciate them as a person of value, independent of what they can do for you. You need to be able to understand who they are and what their needs are. You need to be able to recognize and acknowledge their differences. You will begin to disregard someone you don’t respect as their own person.

    God’s instruction is filled with concern for others. When we get to the New Testament, we have Philippians 2:4, which tells us that we should not each seek our own well-being, but rather then well-being of others. This is followed by the famous passage of Philippians 2;5-11, which tells us that Jesus gave up more for us than we can even comprehend, going from infinite something to nothing for us.

    With this in mind, how can we, as Christians, fail to care about the needs of others? How can we fail to take them seriously?

    Who is there that you just can’t stand, but that God is asking you to love?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:69 – Smeared

    Psalm 119:69 – Smeared

    The insolent smear me with falsehood,
    but with my whole heart I keep your precepts.

    Meditation on God’s word in all its various forms is useful when you feel that others are smearing you with lies. That is the most direct lesson to learn from this verse.

    But there is a benefit to meditating on the verse and then writing what has come to me–I can talk about a variety of things. And what my mind turned to was how one can be insolent (arrogant is also a possible translation) and smear people.

    You see, we tend to read scripture as one of the good people. This verse is written from the perspective of someone wronged, but steadily sticking to the right path himself. But how often are we in that sort of a “pure” position.

    I’m thinking especially of our behavior in the church community, but this sort of problem can occur when we speak about people in our families, our communities, and even of celebrities. We tend to delight in gossip. We tend to repeat it.

    Any time you pass on negative information you’ve heard about a person to someone who doesn’t need to know it, you are harming that person. Now in the secular world, we consider “truth” to be an adequate excuse for the most part. If it’s true, we think repetition is justified.

    But in the church community, gossip is listed as a sin. And unless you’re following an appropriate path to reconciliation, or engaging in a loving effort to help someone, repetition is hurtful. Matthew 18:15-20 provides a procedure that starts with talking to the person who has offended first, and ends with talking to the whole church. All too often, the entire church has heard before any effort is made to talk directly to the person concerned.

    When we do this, we’re part of the first half of this verse, not part of the second. We need sometimes to read these verses in reverse.

    Now I’m going to add something. Gossip is not a major temptation of mine. This is not a claim to righteousness of my own. It’s just that the ultimate bad guy knows what to tempt me with. What I’m tempted to do is to listen politely, not comment, and then leave.

    But let me suggest to myself and to all of you that listening to gossip in a polite way can itself be smearing someone’s character. You encourage the gossiper. You pollute your own mind with bad things about that other person. You may unconsciously poison your own relationship.

    You can’t stop all lies. There are too many of them. But whenever you can, you need to explicitly say no. When someone says, “Have you heard about what ____ did?” You need to say, ‘No, and I don’t want to.”

    What hurtful speech my you cut off today?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:68 – Doing Good

    Psalm 119:68 – Doing Good

    You are good, and you act in goodness.
    Teach me your statutes.

    If you find the turn from God’s goodness, to “teach me your statutes,” you may not have been following the Psalm thus far. One of the themes here is the value of God’s self-revelation in the form of laws and instructions.

    The Septuagint (LXX) of this verse transfers the second instance of good, the active one, to the second part of the verse: “You are good, and in your goodness teach me your statutes.” This makes the teaching function of the law part of the goodness of God.

    The parallel terms of the verse apply “goodness” to God’s statutes. This is not the way we usually think of goodness. Rules are annoying things you have to live with. They are not blessings for which we should be grateful.

    This is a very human response. Just consider our response to traffic laws. If a cop stops us and gives us a ticket, we’re complaining about the stupid laws and generally feeling much put on. If there’s a really slow speed limit in a neighborhood, we’ll often complain that it is ridiculously slow. If we lived in that neighborhood, however, we’d likely be advocating for slow speed limits and effective enforcement.

    8 And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?

    Deuteronomy 4:8 (NRSVue, quoted from BibleGateway)

    This is one of the most difficult “heart” things. It is hard to regard the law as a blessing while at the same time realizing we are not perfect. Far from it! But the law itself is a call to greatness, a greatness that is a gift of God and not a personal achievement.

    Try to think of a rule today that is a real blessing in your life. Do you keep that rule?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:67 – Afflicted

    Psalm 119:67 – Afflicted

    Before I was afflicted, I went astray,
    but now I keep your word.

    What is your reaction to difficult times? I’m not a terribly optimistic person, and I don’t take to it all that well.

    I’ve noticed that modern Christians have inconsistent responses to trouble. On the one hand, they’ll say that if God is in it, everything will be there. Sometimes they go so far as to say that Christians shouldn’t really have any trouble if they’re “in God’s will.” I always run this view up against the lives of the people listed in Hebrews 11. No, it’s not always easy for God’s people.

    On the other hand, people will say that the person who’s having trouble is being attacked by the devil, usually because that person is doing things that threaten the devil’s kingdom. I always want to ask how they’re sure it’s not because they’re not in God’s will.

    Experience suggests that you will have hard times and good times. That’s how the universe works. I believe in both God’s blessing and in God allowing us to experience difficult times. So there is a third option. Perhaps things are going wrong not because I made the wrong choices, but because others did, and I’m collateral damage.

    Let me suggest a response to affliction, which can be any sort of difficult season in your life. Rather than trying to figure out just what God is doing, perhaps we should simply ask what we, ourselves can do.

    No matter whether you are suffering the normal vicissitudes of life on this crazy planet, or God is trying to teach you something through hardship, or the devil is trying to block you because he doesn’t like what’s you’re doing, the best next move is to do right as best as you can while relying on God.

    And that reliance on God is important. It isn’t an excuse not to act. It is an assurance that when you act, you will accomplish more than you could do on your own. It is also the assurance that even in failure, you’ll be part of God’s family.

    Exodus 2:14-15 tells us that when he realized that the fact he had killed an Egyptian had become known, Moses was afraid. Hebrews 11:27 records that he left Egypt, not afraid of the king’s wrath. That’s the faith view of our actions.

    In what ways do you need to work and trust today?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:66 – Teach Me

    Psalm 119:66 – Teach Me

    Beauty, order, and knowledge teach me,
    for I have put my trust in your commands.

    I went straight off on a rabbit trail thinking about this verse, because those first three words cover a very large area. They have overlapping semantic ranges, and a variety of possible glosses. I tried to choose three words to would combine the senses. As I read the three words they convey a combined sense of learning to see knowledge for multiple angles, looking for beauty, order, and data with understanding.

    We often see religious instruction as a matter for the church and for Bible study, while everything else is a secular activity. This is not the view that would have been held generally by those in Bible times. With God as the creator, everything is seen as part of God’s creation. So when you study the things in nature, you are studying divine beauty, order, and information.

    There is a danger in this sort of thinking, but let me say that we are always in danger when we study. Danger that we will quick seeking these three and start trying to force the information to take shapes of our own desires. Thus religion has often tried to control scientific research by reference to their interpretations of scripture.

    Thinking that scripture and also all of reality come from God, doesn’t mean that scripture teaches us about everything. Scripture should teach us to be truthful, to seek accurate knowledge, and then also to deal with that knowledge responsibly. It does not claim to be a text on any field of science. Rather, it points to a creator who created things and established an order for them such that objective study is possible.

    We miss that order when we try to force these elements to fit into a pre-conceived scheme and refuse to acknowledge what’s there.

    Recently there has been increasing skepticism of traditional sources of news and other data. This skepticism, in itself, is good. We should be skeptical of popular and official story lines. The problem is that we have all too frequently gone from a source that has failed in some ways to sources that don’t even attempt to be accurate. We judge the accuracy of the information by how pleasing it is to us.

    You may think I’m talking about current American politics. And I am, but not only that. I’m talking about the way we have handled scripture for a very long time. We step away from traditional institutions of the faith because they have failed us in some way. Martin Luther was driven to his break with church authority by very real problems. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before he and other reformers were ready to deny the journey to others. Having found a better place, they found it more comfortable and they felt the need to defend it

    But when we find our new comfort zone theologically and we fail to be constantly corrected by God’s Word and God’s Spirit. It’s a truthful Spirit, and doesn’t like us to lie, even, or especially, to ourselves.

    Whether you’re studying cutting edge scientific theories, reading the newspaper, or studying scripture, always beware of the comfortable rut and the safe, unchallenging mental vacation spot.

    Take the time to study, to meditate, and yes, to pray. Take time to listen. Be challenged. Be correctable, but only by solid material.

    There’s a beauty awaiting the determined traveler along paths of knowledge. Determine to take that journey!

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

    Some Related Books I Publish

  • Psalm 119:65

    Psalm 119:65

    You have treated your servant well,
    according to your word, LORD.

    I pause to note a milestone. This is the first verse in the new section of Psalm 119. We’re in the section in which each verse starts with the ninth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Teth. That is the first letter of “TOV” which is in turn the first word in the verse in Hebrew.

    In the previous verse we were talking about God’s grace filling the entire world, and I think, by extension, the entire universe. Our universe has grown from the time it was conceived of as “the heavens and the earth.” Our concept of God needs to come up against the vastness of the known universe and realize how much more there is as we expand our ability to observe.

    God is good. Just what do we mean by that? We really don’t have a measure of the goodness of God. I assume that God is better than I can actually conceive. But that is a statement that is by nature not subject to demonstration. I don’t have a range of gods to compare and say, “This one is the greatest. By nature, I can do nothing about it if I decide that God is not good, because God will still be God, the creator of that inconceivable universe.

    Here is where I rely on experience. Experience that happened a long time ago and is still remembered is called tradition, and the Bible is very old tradition indeed. My own experience parallels that of the psalmist. It parallels that of many friends. But it is fundamentally mine. My faith in God is informed and in some cases directed by external data, but is not fundamentally a rational conclusion because it very simply can’t be.

    So I say that God is good, more an act of acceptance and praise than a rational assessment to be laid alongside other rational assessments.

    It is this experience that should be the content of our testimonies. It is something we should be willing to talk about. We spend a great deal of time trying to prove miraculous events in previous millenia, while frequently forgetting to talk about what has happened yesterday.

    I like Psalm 78:

    1 Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
        incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
    2 I will open my mouth in a parable;
        I will utter dark sayings from of old,
    3 things that we have heard and known,
        that our ancestors have told us.
    4 We will not hide them from their children;
        we will tell to the coming generation
    the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might
        and the wonders that he has done.

    5 He established a decree in Jacob
        and appointed a law in Israel,
    which he commanded our ancestors
        to teach to their children,
    6 that the next generation might know them,
        the children yet unborn,
    and rise up and tell them to their children,
    7     so that they should set their hope in God,
    and not forget the works of God,
        but keep his commandments;
    8 and that they should not be like their ancestors,
        a stubborn and rebellious generation,
    a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
        whose spirit was not faithful to God.

    Psalm 78:1-8 (NRSVue)

    Notice the passing on of God’s deeds to the next generation. This is how we teach God’s goodness. It’s not just a catalog of data. It’s much more. It’s the collected experience of the community.

    How will you add to the story of faith today?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

    Books of Testimony from Energion Publications

  • Psalm 119:64

    Psalm 119:64

    LORD, Your lovingkindness fills the earth.
    Teach me your statutes.

    “Lovingkindness” could also be translated “grace” or “favor.” It covers a lot of ground. It also refers to obligations fulfilled under a covenant. When we think of it that way, we should remember that God has voluntarily created a covenant with us. Any obligations God takes on are a gift!

    It’s easy to miss the power of a verse like this. In very simple form it expresses an important theme of scripture. I’ve referred to it earlier in this series. Grace comes before law.

    We frequently preach and teach this in the opposite order. We preach about getting cleaned up so that we can be acceptable to God. We have to be good enough. Then we can come to God and find favor.

    Or we may preach salvation, becoming a child of God as something that is by grace, and then follow it with a rat race to be good enough. This isn’t an exclusively New Testament theme as some Christians think. We often don’t have the patience to read and understand the Bible Jesus knew, so we miss what’s going on.

    7 “It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 It was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath that he swore to your ancestors that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

    Deuteronomy 7:7-8 (NRSVue)

    It is clear that God’s choice comes first, but especially if you read further in the context, it is God’s purpose to make the chosen people a holy people. But again, this comes through God’s action.

    If we are preachers, teachers, or leaders in the church we need to make sure to keep this order in mind. If we look at the biblical standards, making ourselves meet those standards is a daunting task. Impossible, in fact. If we push those standards as a matter of making ourselves acceptable to God we’re going to create a raft of problems. What we won’t make is holy people.

    Self-sanctification is a common belief, and it is the root of all kinds of evil. On the one hand, those who can’t imagine their actual problems decide that they are, in fact, holy. We use the term self-righteousness, and that’s precisely what it is. It’s a meeting of self-made standards. Ungratefulness, judgment, relentless criticism, discouragement, and even despair follow all this.

    But God’s grace fills the earth, even the universe. Teaching us how to live is a blessing that comes because God loves us not so that God can love us. In that context, the laws, which are the very order of our universe, are a gift of God. Those laws make it possible for us to exist. They hold off total chaos. In fact, we can come to see those laws as a reflection of the character of the God we serve and a joy.

    We should also note that a God who provides us with such grace is unlikely to mandate or to bless ungracious behavior. A God who is love is asking us to love one another.

    “Teach us your statutes” becomes the story of a life of faith, blessed by God, with glory to come.

    As you live your blessed life today, consider the statutes of God that define it and make it possible.

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  • Psalm 119:63 – Companion

    Psalm 119:63 – Companion

    I’m a companion to all who fear you,
    and to those who keep your precepts.

    My thoughts today took me onto the subject of companionship and friendship. Who are your friends? Why are you friends with various people?

    In scripture we have a tension between two views of the relationship between God’s people and those around them. You can see these in the contrast between the books of Ruth, Jonah, and Esther on the one hand and Nehemiah/Ezra/Daniel on the other.

    The first reflect the value of connections with foreigners, as when Esther enters the court of the king without revealing her Jewish identity, Jonah is sent to reach out to Israel’s enemies with God’s message, and Ruth becomes an ancestor of King David. Ezra and Nehemiah both wrestle with accommodation between the returned Jewish exiles and people of the surrounding nations. Daniel makes a public embrace of his Jewish identity throughout his life.

    In the New Testament we have the embrace of gentile believers into the church and an evangelistic message that was constantly in contact with unbelievers, but then in Revelation we have a repeated call for separation, for God’s people to come out from among those who are doing evil.

    We like to have a clear mandate. Either we’re friendly with everyone or we’re separate. Make it easy. But what we actually have is a variety of responses to a variety of circumstances.

    I think every parent faces something similar. A parent is concerned if their child gets in with bad companions. On the other hand, they are also joyful when that same child is a leader, helping others in their age group make better choices. If your child is influencing someone for the right, they may be dealing with someone who was also inclined to worse choices, and thus was someone you might be hoping they’d avoid.

    This is actually one of my favorite subjects, our identity and our mission. Both elements are generally involved in our lives. We can be someone who always gets along, but does so by not having any real identity. Nobody can really dislike such a person because there really isn’t anything there to dislike. Or to like, for that matter.

    Such a person can always be out in the world, connected with anyone, staying out of conflict. But who are they? Does anyone know? Do they actually have any influence?

    On the other hand, a person can have an extreme identity. This can involve such intense views, so regularly expressed that nobody can doubt who that person is. They may also be separated from others, either by the choice to only associate with those who are in agreement with their many opinions, or by the choice to live separately. There are Christian groups, for example, who live in separate compounds or communities with association with outsiders strictly limited.

    Having strong opinions or a clear identity does not have to be combined with isolation. One can be connected and have firm convictions.. It often depends on how one chooses to express those views. One can also be a companion of those who do good things without being out of contact with those whose views and actions are more questionable.

    This requires firm convictions, including the conviction that one should be connection with others, that one should be able to exchange ideas and have influence. In fact, I would suggest that these two can work together quite well. I believe in dialog as the primary way of having influence in the world of ideas. By this I mean making your communications always be an exchange, not a monologue. For such an exchange to take place, you can’t give up identity, otherwise you have nothing to give in the exchange.

    So your being a companion of some doesn’t mean you have to be the enemy of others. And your companionship with God doesn’t mean you have to neglect others who may disagree with you in one way or another. In fact, the better your companionship with God, the better your capability to meet others comfortably. Having that identity as God’s companion, you are free to treat all others as also God’s creation, worthy of respectful, but content-filled and robust exchange.

    What can you do today to make yourself more comfortable with your own identity so that you can carry out your mission to others who are, like you, God’s creation? As you do so, is there someone God would have you befriend, for the benefit of both?

    I’m listing here some books that I publish that relate to comments I’ve made above. Note that some of these books are varied in their own mission and identify. That may help you adjust your own!

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  • Psalm 119:62

    Psalm 119:62

    In the middle of the night I rise to praise you
    for your righteous judgments.

    I rarely think of being awake in the middle of the night as a good thing. Sleep is a good thing. I like to get a good sleep. A couple of years ago when various potential medical issues made me decide to start a regular exercise program, I was needing to get around 9 hours. Two years later, I’m fine with seven. I thank the Lord for the better sleep, but I do it in the morning, not the middle of the night.

    I suspect there isn’t a greater level of righteousness involved in waking up and praising God in the middle of the night. While the psalmist says he does this, I don’t see midnight praise, at least on a regular basis, commanded in scripture.

    Thinking about this led me to a different question, however, which is just what you do if you wake up in the middle of the night. One of the things that wakes me up is worry. It can be the sort of thing that requires that I check on something. This can be prudence or useless worry. When Jody was having certain medical problems, I would set an alarm and intentionally wake up to check on her. I think she would have preferred that I didn’t. She valued my sleep more highly than I did.

    On the other hand I can end up awake in the middle of the night worrying about things that I really cannot fix, especially not at that time. This ends up being useless. I have to distract myself from whatever is worrying me. I can read, play a mentally stimulating game, or, shocking as it seems, I could pray and praise God.

    What good does that do? I don’t think God is more likely to help me with things if I wake up at 3 am in order to pray about it. God hasn’t forgotten what’s going on. The purpose of any activity here is to quit making myself sick worrying about things I can’t change. There are relatively few things I can change at 3 am.

    The value in the time of prayer is in settling my mind and spirit and bringing my focus back to what is important. That’s the one thing I can do, which is get some sleep so that I can be more effective at various things the next day.

    If I recite this verse, it is not a boast. It’s not a claim to greater spiritual accomplishments. It’s an admission that I was so busy worrying, I couldn’t do the most useful thing, which was to get the appropriate amount of rest.

    Which leads me full circle back to exercise. One of the advantages for me of deciding that exercise was a duty to restore my health (which, by the way, it has done), is that I don’t feel like I’m lazy or dodging work. I can feel righteous as I walk. I’m improving my health so I can work more effectively. Which tells me something else. I’m too much driven by that work.

    So perhaps I need to spend some time doing something I can’t claim is a “good work.” Perhaps I need some time that is actual rest, and do so without tricking my brain into believing I’m still doing important stuff.

    What stuff might you need to get out of the way?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)