Threads from Henry's Web

Category: Bible Passages

  • Psalm 119:55 – Remembering

    Psalm 119:55 – Remembering

    I remembered your name in the night, Lord,
    So I followed your instruction.

    Dahood (Anchor Bible Psalms III) again has an alternate suggested, based on repointing the word translated “And I kept/guarded/followed.”

    I remember your name in the night
    YHWH,
    and during the watch, your law.

    I won’t discuss the arguments for his rendering, which I consider possible, but not the most probable, but it emphasizes the parallel the Torah, and God’s name. God’s character, his reputation, is closely tied to his Torah, which in this case should be read broadly. It’s not just a list of rules, but rather God’s self-revelation.

    But what I thought about most today was remembering, including the fact that I had to go back to the verse multiple times because it slipped my mind. Weakening memory is considered a sign of old age. As we grow older, we often have trouble remembering things. Just today, I went to get something from the pantry and when I got there, I found myself wondering why I was there. On the other hand, I can remember my zip code from a place I lived 50 years ago.

    My memory has been somewhat odd as long as I can remember(!). People might wonder why I remember things that seem unimportant to them, and cannot remember things they deem critical. But I have had this sort of memory for a long time. Many friends have referred to me as a human concordance, because they’ll just ask me where a verse is, and I often know, at least down to the chapter. The reality is that I can locate far fewer verses than I would like, and I find my Bible software very helpful.

    But when I think about what I notice and what I remember, two very closely aligned lists, they don’t seem at all strange to me. I notice the sort of things I really care about. Well, except when I don’t.

    I don’t remember when some other thought pushes the first thought out of my mind. That’s where lists are useful, though sometimes I forget to look at them.

    Relying on my memory, even in areas where I have a reputation for it, such as Bible verses, is suboptimal.

    If I could always remember the things I would like to imitate in life and the sorts of things I’d like to have in my character, I would surely make every effort to live up to them. But my memory is not that reliable.

    That’s why it’s important to look around, look forward, and ask the Lord to remind you of things that need remembering.

    Give some time to thinking of thoughts you may have laid aside. There are likely some gems in there worth another look. If you’re wakeful in the night, that’s as good a time as any!

    (Featured image generated by Adobe Firefly.)

  • Psalm 119:54 – Songs

    Psalm 119:54 – Songs

    Your statues have been my songs
    In my home away from home.

    Mitchell Dahood (Psalms III in the Anchor Bible), suggests: “Your statutes have been my defenses, / in the house of my sojourning.” He gets the translation “defenses” via Ugaritic. It’s interesting to see some alternatives in the way we translate Hebrew poetry. It is very difficult to translate poetry, because words are often used with special nuances, and the context is less helpful. In this verse, if you admit the possible translation suggested from the Ugaritic cognate, it would be hard to argue against that by context.

    So let’s look at a couple of other translations.

    Your decrees are the theme of my song
    wherever I lodge. (NIV)

    No matter where I am,
    your teachings fill me with songs. (CEV)

    Note that both lines are subject to variations in translation. This is natural in translation of poetry and should be expected. Reading poetry in multiple versions is very helpful in getting more of the feel of a poetic text. It’s important to recognize when you are reading poetry, because principles of interpretation can function somewhat differently due to the nature of the text.

    I think it is very difficult for us to think of “statutes” or “decrees” as something to sing about. We see laws in general as a burden, and not a blessing. And there are many ways in which statutes, even divine statutes are not friendly at all. If you see God’s statutes as a checklist to complete so that you can find favor with God, you’ll likely find it very depressing. At least until you encounter God’s grace and the fact that that was never the purpose of any law.

    But looked at from another perspective, law can definitely be a cause of rejoicing, and I think the Psalmist is looking at it in that way. He is already one of God’s people. He is not working on a checklist to get God to accept him. What he is seeing is that there is a way of life and stability as he lives in this world, which he calls a “house of sojourning.”

    This can be read two ways. I think it should be read in both. The first is as a word spoken from exile away from one’s home on earth to another land. You could picture a Jew singing this very verse as an exile in Babylon, far from home. Yet there far away from home, he has God’s statutes to remind him both of who he is and who his God is.

    Even by the rivers of Babylon, God is there.

    The second is the sense in which we have a spiritual home that is not here. Yes, we’re fully engaged in this life, on this earth, in this place. God’s statutes teach us about the glory of the eternal home while at the same time offering guidance for living in this home, in a spiritual sense our home in exile.

    And by the rivers of earth, anywhere on earth. God is there.

    The following is a YouTube video I created 16 years ago back when I was running Pacesetters Bible School (now closed).

    Where will you come to realize that God is always with you today?

  • Psalm 119:53 – Rage!

    Psalm 119:53 – Rage!

    Rage seizes me because of the wicked,
    Those who abandon your instruction.

    As I read this I remembered one interesting point about reading the Psalms. These are largely a record of what people said in worship of, or in honor of God, and not necessarily instructions for us.

    I immediately want to temper that with another thought: They are, however, an example for us. This poetry is the result of a deep and serious experience with God, and it became part of scripture through long use and recognition of its value.

    There’s a reason many of us react negatively to a thing like this. We are concerned about strong emotions. Rage makes people do things they later regret. Rage can poison your life over time and even kill you. More frequently it kills other people. Rage is dangerous.

    Our Christian response, one we regard as Christlike, is that we need to forgive. Often this need to forgive turns into passivity, a sort of forgiveness before the act which prevents us from reacting. I would suggest that forgiveness is not very real if it involves defanging the original hurt. Forgiveness says, “You hurt me. I’m forgiving you by God’s grace.” Passivity says, “That’s OK. I don’t matter in any case. I’m hear to be kicked around.”

    When the rage is at those we perceive as wicked, there is also a question of witness. What possibility of sharing the gospel, or acting in accordance with the command to “love our neighbors as ourselves” do we have if we let rage at their perfidy overcome us?

    Finally, how sure are we that we correctly recognize true wickedness, true abandonment of the way of righteousness? And again, this is a two-edged sword. Here, instead of fading into passivity because we deplore strong emotions, especially those perceived as negative, we are paralyzed by doubt about a correct course of action. I’m reminded of the military aphorism, mostly said of responding to a tactical situation, “Sometimes a bad decision is better than no decision.”

    There is a time to be angry. There is even a time to act on one’s anger. The key question is to always ask ourselves why we are angry. The time to ask that question is not when you are seized by rage, as the Psalmist describes. At that point, your judgment may be bad, even disastrous. You need to think about what is right and wrong as opposed to what annoys or angers you.

    If you are enraged because somebody doesn’t show you the respect you are due, it is not the same as being enraged at someone who is engaging in violence against those who are helpless. A person who sees a child being starved, beaten, or otherwise abused, becomes angry, and takes effective action is acting morally. Their emotions should be strong.

    On the other hand, most of us have the tendency to see our way of life as normative without ever considering what is actually right or wrong. We more often tend to get enraged by infringement of our personal preferences than we do by actual harm.

    Frequently, this type of rage occurs because we do not fully recognize the other person as a separate entity with a right (morally if not legally) to their own viewpoint and their own habits when they are not harmful to others.

    It is important not to reject strong emotions. At the same time we are beings with both a spiritual nature and minds, and it is important not to let strong emotions become the driver.

    This leads me back to two things I’ve been talking about a great deal in this series: meditation. People who have to respond to difficult situations spend time training to handle them, thinking about how to handle them, even practicing for the eventuality.

    What things in our world should enrage you? What things should you push aside as mere annoyances?

  • Psalm 119:51 – Confidence

    Psalm 119:51 – Confidence

    The arrogant taunt me scornfully,
    but I do not swerve from your instruction.

    The most common reason people express to me for not talking about their faith to others is that someone may make fun of what they believe.

    Now I can’t tell you that people won’t do that to you. They will. And it’s more universal than you might think. I’ve found that many Christians are unaware of what their comments on atheism sound like to an atheist, or actually to anyone who doesn’t believe as they do. When we produce “zingers” or “mic drops” regarding people who do not share our beliefs, they may cause high fives among those who share the taunter’s viewpoint, but they don’t make friends, and they don’t convince.

    Actual confidence in your beliefs doesn’t require you to put others down. Confidence will, however, give you a defense against those who taunt you. You know that the snide remark doesn’t actually make your own beliefs wrong. It’s the result of under-confidence and over-expression.

    This doesn’t mean that you can’t have dialogue about your faith or even debate it. But the dialogue of a confident person doesn’t require demeaning one’s opponent or trying to get cheap, but ignorant laughs. Dialogue requires that one listen to an opponent’s point of view and respond to what that person actually believes.

    This also applies to debating with or having dialogue with Christians in other tradition streams. For example, the Calvinists I encounter don’t resemble the Calvinists described to me by fellow Wesleyans. On the other hand, the descriptions I often hear from Calvinists of Wesleyans don’t much resemble anything I believe.

    This verse gives us antidotes to all of these problems: Sticking to God’s instructions. Doing so will help you to withstand taunters and to avoid being a taunter yourself.

    Who in your world might you need to understand better?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:50 – Experience

    Psalm 119:50 – Experience

    This is my comfort when I’m afflicted:
    Your word to me has given me life.

    What do you hold onto when living through difficult times?

    During times of great difficulty, theological conclusions, no matter how well thought out and firmly held, can let you down. It’s very difficult to continue believing in a God of love, when that love is not evident.

    I know this from experience. When our son James was dying of cancer, Jody and I had plenty of teaching to rely on. We were both teachers in the church who had taught weekend seminars on prayer. We had plenty of stuff in our heads. We did not teach that God always resolves problems in the way that we would prefer. If you’ve read Job, you can understand that God may call on you to remain a witness when things look as dark as possible.

    So what did sustain us?

    Our experience with God, experience that gave reality to what we had learned and what we taught. We knew that God could act, because we had experienced this. We also knew that the result might not be what we preferred, because we had the experience of the church and our own experience that matched again with what we taught.

    But even more, living through the experience required a continued sense of God’s presence, and a continued conversation with God. Knowledge could fail us. Friends could fail us. We could feel alone, beset on every side. But when we would spend time with God, when we would listen for the still small voice (KJV) or the sound of sheer silence (NRSV), a quietness in which you know God is there, we could find the strength to sustain us.

    Our comfort in our affliction was that God, through God’s powerful, creative Word, gave us life, sustained that life, and held that life in Divine care.

    How can you experience God’s comforting and empowering presence today?

    (Featured image is from Adobe Stock by By Romolo Tavani. Licensed. Not public domain.)

  • Psalm 119:49 – Remember!

    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 to avoid nagging. That’s because she and I are both–shock!!!–human, and neither of us really likes to be reminded of something we remember. I’ve told her that it’s not nagging when I don’t remember the first time she said it, but she is still careful about this.

    God is not thin skinned. You can remind God of God’s own word. God’s ego is not fragile.

    One of the key things I like to say about prayer, and one I think is both true and important, is that you don’t need a particular format to talk to God. Often we’re afraid to express what we’re really feeling to God. Possibly, we imagine that a prayer that’s strongly worded might offend the Almighty. A good antidote to this is to read the Psalms, and this verse is one of the tamest examples.

    You can tell God you’re angry. You can tell God you’re sad. You can remind God of all the promises you’ve read. You can mention that you’re getting impatient. God already knows, so not only do you not need to hide it, it won’t do you any good.

    And in reminding God, it’s just possible you may actually remember those promises yourself.

    What promise do you need to call to God’s attention?

    (Featured image from Adobe Stock By Azovsky. Licensed. Not public domain.)

  • Psalm 119:48 – Meditating

    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 be “and” or some sort of connective in English. Verse 48 is the end of the eight-verse section. Tomorrow we start on the letter zayin, which sounds like the English ‘z’.

    The first word in verse 49 is zekor, the imperative ‘remember’. Addressed to God. We’ll talk about that tomorrow!

    But the word ‘remember’ came to me as I thought about my project of meditating on this chapter. My practice has been to read the verse just before I go to bed, setting the subject for my mind for the following day. I read it again in the morning. It’s interesting to me how many times I can’t remember which verse I’m to meditate on when I get up, or how many times I might have to remind myself during the day. My mind doesn’t just wander. It charges berserkly from subject to subject and often doesn’t want to settle anywhere. I have quick practices I use to restore my focus.

    So what as it meant to meditate on these verses?

    First, because I intend to write something, I have had a focus for my thinking. What would it be good to say about this particular verse?

    Second, it has become part of the way I focus my activities of the day. If I find myself needing moment to refocus, reading the verse or remembering it and thinking about it provides me with a punctuation point for my day.

    I could have a worse way to restore my focus!

    This is also a different way of handling scripture, and I think it’s valuable. My normal focus is very factual. I started studying biblical languages because I wanted to get the meaning of scripture as precise as possible. I still value a precise reading of scripture and the attempt to understand what a passage meant to the person who first wrote it and those who first heard it.

    That process of exegesis, and critical analysis of every possible aspect of the text remains an anchor point. In studying these verses, I consult the original languages and ancient translations. I look at possible relationships between these words and those in other ancient languages. I always want to start with what the psalmist was likely thinking as he wrote these words.

    I cannot know that precisely. That’s one reason I call it an anchor point. It’s easy to conclude that if I can’t understand something perfectly and precisely I might as well not try. I compare this to the building of an aircraft. There are always tolerances in measurements. Nothing is perfect. But the builders can never forget working to those standards, or disaster will follow. History has shown us how that works!

    But scripture is not limited to being a source of data. It provides a way of thinking and a basis for thinking. That’s where meditation on scripture is so valuable. A scripture can shape your thinking about something that the original author didn’t even conceive. (I realize that God conceives of everything. I’m talking about the human author.)

    The process of deciding can point the way to how other decisions are to be addressed or to principles one can apply in many areas. The text can also simply provide the catalyst for other ways of thinking. Scripture is a written form of the powerful, creative Word of God, and that Word can empower things that previous readers or the original writers were unaware of.

    In reading from and meditating on God’s Word, you can provide the opportunity for you to hear God speak.

    What new approach could you take to benefit from God’s Word?

    (Featured image from Adobe Stock By Sensvector. Licensed. Not public domain.)

  • Psalm 119:47 – Taking Delight

    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 delighted about them.

    I’ve talked about many reasons that the law, as understood in Psalm 119, should be seen as much more than regulations. Yes, it includes regulations, but all of that is part of the self-revelation of God to a people (Israel) that he chose. There is a certain wonder in just the fact that God made such a choice. For those of us who are not descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, there is the fact that when God called Abram, he called him to be blessed and to be a blessing.

    Today, however, I’d like to suggest reading another Psalm as a tie-in for this verse and the next one. Psalm 19 also includes praise of the law in terms not so often used today. It also makes another connection, one which I consider very important, and one in which I take delight.

    Psalm 19:1-6 talk about the way God’s creation declares God’s glory. Some scholars think Psalm 19 is a combination of two prior songs, and it may be that, but I think the combination was very intentional. Because starting with verse 7, we here about the law, with “law” used here in much the same way as in Psalm 119.

    The law of YHWH is perfect, reviving the soul. (Psalm 19:7)

    This is followed by many of the same terms for various aspects of law that are used in Psalm 119, bringing out that full picture of God’s self-revelation to God’s people in the broadest sense.

    The power of the lawgiver is tied to the power of the creator. The reason God can give laws is that God made everything, and knows how it works, works best.

    This function of law relates closely to God’s grace, God’s giving. In Genesis 1 & 2, God creates, and then gives instructions. I regard the story of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as very much symbolic. God creates and then sets boundaries.

    We see this order of affairs again with the ten commandments in Exodus 20. God notes this in the prologue to these commandments. “I am YHWH your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” The grace, the giving, comes first.

    Now we experience this in reverse much of the time. We have to realize there’s a problem before we seek the problem solver.

    But when we come back to the grace, we realize that it was there, is there, will always be there, first.

    The heavens and the Law declare God’s glory in chorus.

    Are you listening?

  • Psalm 119:45 – Speaking Before Kings

    Psalm 119:45 – Speaking Before Kings

    I will speak of your testimonies before Kings
    and 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 the ways of God, the things we might study from scripture and from God’s world, before others. I’m not opposed to sharing our faith. I think we should. But right now I’m talking about something different: Sharing what we have learned outside of the context of faith and religious activity.

    Can you present things you learn from God in ways that will be valued in a non-religious context?

    In my Sunday School class there is a gentleman who is a master at this. I can present a spiritual idea and he’ll find and express how that applies in professional or business life. The things I will teach from scripture he can present as a part of simply doing one’s job well or helping to change the world around him.

    I really appreciate this input. I also appreciate people who can express their faith without being religious about it. One might call it good advice without sanctimony.

    Can you share something of value that you learned through Bible study with someone else without first trying to convince them that the Bible is the word of God?

    I’d suggest that’s a valuable skill.

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 77:13 – Answering a Question about Translation

    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 is even a proof text to support such a doctrine.

    In this context, consider the translation of Psalm 77:13:

    Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God? (KJV)

    In the NRSVue, however, we read:

    Your way, O God, is holy. What god is so great as our God? (NRSVue)

    Presenting just two translations in this case may give a wrong impression. So running a list of all English translations available on Bible Gateway, I find that KJ21 (21st Century King James Version), ASV (American Standard Version), AMPC (Amplified Bible, Classic Edition), BRG (Blue, Red, and Gold-based on the KJV), DARBY, GNV (Geneva Bible), and KJV read “sanctuary” while most others read “holy” or something very similar.

    Let me outline the process I use (loosely) to answer this sort of question. What I am not going to do is simply give you my preferred translation.

    Differences in translation can result from:

    1. Differences in the text that is translated.
    2. Differences in approach to translation. Some common terms for this include functional equivalence, featured in versions such as the New Living Translation and Formal Equivalence, use in translations such as the New American Standard Bible and New King James Version.
    3. Choice of a different English gloss from within the source word’s semantic range.
    4. Accommodation, such as the effort to make Old Testament passages match New Testament quotations. This one is fairly rare.
    5. Different understandings of the context.

    I avoid the use of the term “translation error” unless there is simply no basis for that translation. I prefer to call an odd translation that is even remotely possible a difference of opinion and characterize it according to what evidence I see that would justify that translation.

    Let’s run through this one in order.

    People often imagine textual differences where there are none. This generally results from not understanding the process of translation in which many English renderings can legitimately be derived from the same text. Usually the problem is not finding a translation, but rather figuring out which possible rendering is best in a particular context. In this case, the fact that the versions that read “sanctuary” tend to center around the King James tradition might suggest such a thing, especially if one forgets that this is Old Testament, and thus the Textus Receptus vs other texts does not apply. In fact, there are no significant textual issues here.

    Also, all of the translations that read “sanctuary” lean toward the formal equivalence end of the spectrum, but those that read “holy” (or related terms) span the spectrum. This is not a difference in overall approach. There is also no New Testament quotation to which one might hope to accommodate the verse.

    This leaves us with a choice of a different English gloss, which might well be based on a different understanding of the context.

    In fact, the Hebrew word used in this passage can properly be translated either “holy” or “sanctuary,” and there are numerous instances of both in the Hebrew Bible. In fact, it may be used to refer to other holy objects or even sacrifices. If Hebrews 9 is a parallel to the LXX in this regard, it could also be regarded as a reference to just the first compartment of the tabernacle, though I think the overall context would be against that reading.

    As I read the Psalm we have a prayer that, after a first introductory verse, begins with a lament. God is not answering as was hoped, but in disappointment, the psalmist recounts prior acts of God and speaks of God’s greatness. This unfolds in two parts, the first affirming miracles, and the second point to God as savior, with the water imagery evoking both creation and the exodus from Egypt. We conclude with the victory, not in an individual way, but affirming that God has led and guided God’s people. We know that the psalmist’s prayer was answered because he affirms that in the first introductory verse.

    The most interesting contextual element in all that is that we have God’s way or path through the sea, which evokes the imagery of creation. So we have God’s way both in the Qodesh (holy/sanctuary) and in the sea within the same Psalm.

    The bottom line is that either translation is possible here and that the context doesn’t explicitly make one more likely than the other. I suspect most translators find it hard to connect God’s way and the sanctuary, whether tabernacle or temple.

    I would have to consider “sanctuary” a potentially valid translation nonetheless if we consider the cosmic quality of the sanctuary introduced in Hebrews. That would not be definitive, but looking at the idea of a new and living way which leads right to the presence of God, and which sees the sanctuary as a shadow of heavenly reality, divine movement in that heavenly reality is not impossible. If this were the idea here, I would see an intended contrast between verse 13 (14 in Hebrew) and verse 19 (20 in Hebrew) telling us that God has his path/way everywhere, in the chaos represented by the sea and the perfection represented through the sanctuary imagery.

    Having said all of that, the evidence behind my comment is far too thin to be regarded as more than suggestive. I do see a sanctuary pattern in the book of Revelation as well, however, which probably tends me to see it as a live option.

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)