Threads from Henry's Web

Category: Bible Passages

  • Psalm 119:29 – Grace Me with Your Instruction

    Psalm 119:29 – Grace Me with Your Instruction

    Deceitful ways turn aside from me
    and graciously give me your instruction [Torah].

    It’s hard to read this verse when we use “law” as the English gloss for Torah. Graciously give me your rules? Graciously let me live in your rules?

    But that none of those are actually bad translations. Law or instruction, and the Torah as instruction includes lots of rules, is a gracious gift of a gracious God. Further, any ability to walk in those laws is also a gracious gift of a gracious God.

    There is no plan for people, Jews or gentiles, in scripture that does not include the creation at some point of a holy people. Our problem is in trying to approach law without grace. Law seen as a hurdle, as the means by which we somehow work our way into God’s favor, is always negative. It shows us up, makes us feel bad, discourages us, and eventually destroys us.

    But God offers another way, which is simply to allow the operation of God’s grace in our lives.

    The Psalmist recognizes this. Repeatedly he talks about what he is trying to do. But also repeatedly he asks God to help him, or even to make him do it right. He has joy in the law only because he also has joy in the God of Israel.

    In New Testament terms, I could quote Philippians 2:12-13, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to do his good pleasure.” I think the spirit there is much like the spirit of the psalmist.

    Another New Testament passage is also important. It’s quoted frequently by Wesleyans, but I translate it differently. “[L]et us go on unto perfection …” (Hebrews 6:1) is the KJV reading. But the verb is passive (or might be regarded as middle in meaning, which the KJV and many other versions do. I take it as passive: “Let us be carried on to perfection.” Perfection is the goal, but the route is different. The law is still the standard and still challenging, but instead of a hurdle to jump in one’s approach to God, it’s a glorious goal toward which God, in power and grace, is carrying us.

    I challenge you (and myself) to rest in God’s grace. It’s not that it’s the easiest or the fastest way. It’s the only way.

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:28 – Raise Me Up

    Psalm 119:28 – Raise Me Up

    My soul weeps from grief,
    Strengthen me according to your word.

    There are, as always, a number of directions I could go, and that I’d like to go, starting from this verse. I just want to mention one I’m not going to pursue. Recently I had occasion to discuss grief and suffering as discussed in the book of Job. This verse sums up what I see there. It’s not about finding the best way to handle the situation, or even having the situation explained, but about God noticing and responding, and the sufferer being able to realize that. I thought about translating thus: “I’m crying deep inside / restore me with your creative power.” That’s a bit paraphrased, but it’s more what I heard as I read.

    But I want to take a bit of a tour of what I look at and think about during the day regarding each verse. Meditating on a verse is very different from performing exegesis, or trying to prepare an exposition. I’m not trying to prove points of theology with couplets from this Psalm as prooftexts. It’s a spiritual activity where I intend to let the Spirit lead me through the day. That mental walk can take me very different places. In the end, I like to tie things to exegesis of some text(s), but the process is not formal.

    So let me start by looking at a couple of translations and some notes they provide.

    First, the well-known NIV, reading (and finding notes) from the NIV Study Bible. Here’s the translation:

    My soul is weary with sorrow;h
    Strengthen mei according to your word.j

    Psalm 119:28 (NIV)
    Image of the cross-reference notes on Psalm 119:28 in the NIV Study Bible.

    I’m providing a picture of the cross-reference notes, which are part of the edition, not the translation itself, and will leave you to follow those trails if you wish. But could I strongly comment Isaiah 51:11 as a path to follow? Click on the image to enlarge it for reading.

    The translation itself is not that different, though it’s taking a different. In fact, my own translation, done before I checked the NIV, uses the same translation for the second line of the couplet. A more usual gloss for the Hebrew word used here is “raise me up,” but “raising” can mean different things depending on context.

    The CEV translates this as:

    I am overcome with sorrow,
    Encourage me, as you have promised to do.

    Psalm 119:28 (CEV)

    The REB, one of my favorites, reads.

    Because of misery I cannot rest;
    renew my strength in accordance with your promise.

    Psalm 119:28 (REB)

    I don’t want to follow all the trails, but another thing I do is look for the same word in other passages. I’ll just do one passage for one word, the word for “grief” or “misery.”

    Stupid offspring bring sorrow to parents,
    and no father has joy in a boorish son.

    Proverbs 17:21 (REB)

    The word translated “sorrow” in this case is the same Hebrew word as used for “misery” by the same translation in Psalm 119:28. Something to think about, perhaps!

    In the end I notice that however much the psalmist talks about a variety of things he is making an effort to do, we frequently come back to simply calling upon God according to God’s word.

    What is your most frequent strategy in times of trouble? Do you call on God first, or is God your last resort?

  • Psalm 119:27 – From Precepts to Wonders

    Psalm 119:27 – From Precepts to Wonders

    Explain to me the way of your precepts
    and I will tell of your wonderful acts.

    We tend to think of particular rules or principles for living as fairly boring, somewhat annoying, and often unreasonably restrictive. We seem to live in a debate between what we ought to do and what we actually do. Even the most law and order oriented people I know have rules they don’t feel they need to keep.

    As Christians, we come at law largely from the perspective of salvation. Our works cannot save us. Yet many of us are so oriented to law that we have to work that back into the equation again, such that eventually our Christian lives are taken up by the question of how to keep the rules and what might happen if we don’t. Some of the loudest voices I have heard with regard to grace and justification by grace through faith turn to the worst sort of works as they attempt to produce–and urge others to produce–the supposed fruit of that faith. (Hint: You can’t. God can.)

    Christianity becomes for so many of us a process of producing “good church-going people” who are “pillars of their community” and as such good people are surely going to heaven because they are keeping up with all the things their culture believes are the proper things to do.

    Well, right until these pillars fall down because they really aren’t such examples of everything that is good and right.

    And then we, as Christians, announce that the Hebrew scriptures are all about law and empty of grace because we can find examples in Israelite history of just such pillars of the community, and we can find rules that look a lot like they might describe the behavior of good “temple-going people” who are pillars of their community.

    Like David.

    Oops! For those who actually read the Hebrew scriptures (in translation is OK!), this image really doesn’t work. Not if you pay attention.

    I’m currently listening on Audible to the translation of the Hebrew Bible by Robert Alter as I walk on the treadmill. (I moved my after-dark walks and too-cold walks to the treadmill!) Tonight I was listening to the story of David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11-12). If David was a man after God’s own heart, I would imagine some grace was involved.

    But as we look at this passage, we are again looking at a much broader understanding of “law.” Note that in Psalm 119, we have at least two more general terms for law, Torah (instruction), and Word, as in God’s Word. Translating these as “law” gives modern English readers the wrong impression. As I read, I see in the term “Torah” a depiction of God’s guidance and interaction with people, i.e. an extended story of relationship. It’s about who God’s people are. In “Word” I hear the creator of the universe who is revealed in word and deed. Neither of these terms describes a code of law, such as Hammurabi’s code, or your state’s traffic code.

    What they do describe is a very deep relationship and an identity, God’s people, that becomes the key identity for those to whom it applies.

    In the New Testament book of Hebrews we have this same nature and identity, both Torah and Word, wrapped into the person of Jesus. I think it is worthwhile for us to know as Christians that when a Jew affirms loyalty to Torah, this is no more (or less) an affirmation of loyalty to a set of rules than ours is when we affirm loyalty to Jesus.

    Now Jews and Christians can both be legalists, forgetting Who it is they serve, and getting stuck on details, but this shouldn’t be blamed on scripture. We humans are like that. We like to get tangled up on the little things that we can understand and handle. Or at least that we think we can.

    But God is above and beyond that. God has a purpose for us that is so far above any of our thoughts that we can’t even imagine it.

    I’m drawn back again to Isaiah 55:

    For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    nor are your ways my ways.
    This is the word of the LORD.
    But as the heavens are high above the earth,
    so are my ways high above your ways
    and my thoughts above your thoughts.

    Isaiah 55:8-9 (REB)

    And here in Psalm 119:27 we have the psalmist asking God to help him understand God’s precepts, and the result will be that he will speak of God’s wonderful acts. The reason is that everything God has to say points to God as God the creator and the author of all that is wonderful.

    And it all starts with trying to understand the little things, the precepts. Baby steps. Trembling, unstable, stumbling, hands reaching out along the path to wonder and amazement.

    What’s your next step?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:26 – Just Talking

    Psalm 119:26 – Just Talking

    I tell you my stuff and you answer me.
    Teach me your statutes.

    I frequently comment that “always and everywhere there is stuff.” There is stuff to do, stuff not to do, stuff that I did, and stuff that I didn’t do. Not to mention the physical stuff to keep, stuff to get rid of, and stuff I have no idea how to handle. I used “stuff” here to translate “my ways.”

    One of the fascinating things about the psalms is the spiritual life that is reflected by the poetry. These are not the trite poems of people whose relationship with God is shallow, casual, or even easy. These poems come from the depths, and to reflect those depths, they must come from a heart with depth of experience.

    “Lord, I tell you my stuff and you answer me.” That’s powerful in itself. So many times when I’m talking about prayer, teaching about prayer, or discussing prayer in a group the entire conversation centers around things we ask for and whether or not we’ll get what we want. We talk about praise and thanksgiving, but often that’s largely as a thing that we need to do so our prayers are more effective. “Effective” is defined as getting what we want.

    This verse is talking about something really effective. It is prayer that works. It is prayer that is powerful. “I tell you my stuff and you answer me.” In theology-speak, I tell Almighty God what I care about and Almighty God actually talks to me about it. This isn’t about having the gift of prophecy, or getting messages to pass to colleagues with a “God told me” and a superior holy expression on my face.

    It’s having a conversation with something incomprehensibly beyond myself.

    I think the psalmist speaks from that experience, and that’s as important to me as the direct teaching of the text.

    And what does he want to know when he has this conversation with God? “Teach me your statutes.” Many of us would have different requests, but again, the psalmist is asking as profound a question as he can. “Maker of the universe, tell me how this works. Tell me who you are.” And bit by bit, he learns more.

    Some wonder how he can talk about the law for 176 verses. Why all this creative writing to tell about the law? But that is to misunderstand what he means by “law.” He’s talking about Torah. God’s actions. God’s commands. God’s relationship to God’s people. And another word used for it is Word. God’s Word that created everything.

    Inside our wedding rings, Jody and I had inscribed the reference Ephesians 3:14-21. Paul here reflects this same type of experience and the goal. Let me quote just verses 18-19:

    … may you, in company with all God’s people, be strong to grasp what is the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ’s love, and to know it, though it is beyond knowledge. So may you be filled with the very fullness of God.

    Ephesians 3:18-19 (REB, emphasis mine)

    Seek to hear ever more of what God can communicate to you.

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:25 – In the Dust

    Psalm 119:25 – In the Dust

    My soul is down in the dust.
    Give me life according to your word.

    Psalm 119 is an interesting–and biblical–combination of human action and dependence on Divine action. Verse 25, the first verse of the third section, is on the dependence side of the scale.

    If you’re trying to formulate theology, the variety here might be troubling. If you’re human, and having human struggles, they probably just sound realistic. I’ve had many days when I started out with determination, such as “I have kept” as in verse 22, and an hour or so later I’m at “I’m crawling around here in the dust, Lord!”

    God can and will work with either one. God is not limited by the ups and downs of human emotions.

    And the two Hebrew words of the second half of this verse are quite powerful: Give me life “according to your word.”

    “By the word of YHWH were the heavens made; by the breath of his mouth, all their host!” (Psalm 33:6) It’s the same word by which God gives life that God also created the heavens. The same breath that God breathed into the nostrils of a man made of dust–not just down in it, made of it–was the source of all that exists.

    When our determination to get everything done and to do it right falls afoul of our various weaknesses, interruptions, and weariness, we have all that to call upon.

    Will we remember that next time the load seems too heavy?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:24

    Psalm 119:24

    Your testimonies are also my delight,
    My counselors [the men of my counsel].

    I like to say that we tend to go to the Bible for information, while God is there for conversation. I don’t mean that there is no information there. We tend to think in binary terms: Either the Bible is a source of data, or it tells stories. So many sorts of both information and conversation fall through the cracks when we think of it this way.

    I recall one gentleman at a church I attended who told us we should think of the Bible as something like the Boy Scouts Manual. I told him I thought that anyone who considered those two books to be similar must not have actually read either.

    There are certainly rules and procedures in the Bible. But the stories that surround those are even more important. For example, as Christians we don’t carry out the rituals of the tabernacle and temple service as outlined in Torah. But those rituals still have things to teach us, as do the stories in which they are embedded.

    As I was thinking about writing this meditation, I was reading some notes about a library and how one can be drawn into stories and worlds that are new, distant or even imaginary, and how those experiences found in the pages of books can enrich our lives.

    I long to help people find in the Bible a library of places distant and even just imagined, with that hope that imagined worlds may be more real than the ones that boring people assure us are “reality.” I would like to see us find that “reality” is more flexible and adjustable than even we can imagine if we just join the conversation that God has for us instead of just looking for answers for our rather ignorant and limited questions.

    I’d like to see people (including myself!) more and more find in scripture the real questions, the important questions, the ones that engage our minds more fully.

    The psalmist delights in the testimonies, but instead of calling them a rule book from which he learns a list of commands, he calls them counselors. To him they are alive and active (Hebrews 4:12). They are powerful.

    And this is not limited to the words contained in the book we call the Bible or scripture. God’s mind is displayed in the entire universe, and we can discover not final answers, but questions beyond any imagining.

    We might consider that our problem with God’s law isn’t, or isn’t just, an inability to do everything we are told to do absolutely correctly. It might be more that we can’t even grasp what it is.

    I think we’re invited on an infinite journey of learning and discovery. It’s not God who puts the limits on it. It’s our lack of imagination, especially of the ability to imagine a landscape completely outside of our current scope.

    Do you hear God calling you to glory?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:23 – What Others Think

    Psalm 119:23 – What Others Think

    Prince sit around and plot against me,
    Your servant meditates on your statutes.

    To be honest, my first reaction to this verse was a laugh. Yeah, right, I thought. He really can sit meditating on God’s statutes while he knows people are plotting against him.

    That thought isn’t entirely wrong. This really is a high-minded, and potentially dangerous, approach. If this Psalm goes back to King David, it would be extremely dangerous, and the story of David’s life would tend to contradict the claim.

    On second thought, this isn’t a bad idea at all. Not that we’re likely to get it perfect. But it’s a good goal, and it can prevent a great deal of heartache along the way.

    There was a time in my adolescence when I was very concerned that people might be talking about me. I’m not sure why I got to thinking that way, but I really didn’t want people talking about be and not knowing what they were saying. I don’t recall any particular event that got me past this stage, but I do remember that very suddenly I realized that it was quite rare for people to be talking about me. Then I realized further that only a tiny portion of the times people were talking about me actually did me any harm at all.

    This was followed by a decision on my part that I didn’t really care to hear gossip. The inverse of my realizations about myself was that it was almost never of any value for me to learn things about others or talk about others, unless it was a specific, legitimate discussion.

    I don’t know that the Psalmist was thinking this way, or perhaps simply stating that his knowledge of God and God’s will was vastly more important than human plots and conspiracies. But I think this verse has insight beyond its simple words. Think about important things. Think about higher things. Think about useful things. And yes, think about fun things. Plotting princes don’t count.

    What should you be thinking about today?

  • Psalm 119:22 – Reproach and Contempt

    Psalm 119:22 – Reproach and Contempt

    Remove from me reproach and contempt
    for I have guarded your testimonies.

    Meditating on a single verse each day means I often get somewhat out of context. But while context is important, literature can easily suggest other lines of thinking. Folks in various classes I’ve taught have called me the king of the rabbit trail because I’m so quick to jump on ideas that are suggested by the text and not necessarily taught.”Meditating on a single verse each day means I often get somewhat out of context. But while context is important, literature can easily suggest other lines of thinking. Folks in various classes I’ve taught have called me the king of the rabbit trail because I’m so quick to jump on ideas that are suggested by the text and not necessarily taught.

    Psalm 119 certainly presents God’s commands as instructive, and keeping them as a good idea. So the connection of keeping and some sort of blessing is appropriate.

    But this passage reminded me of a frequent form of prayer, one that combines a reminder to God of all the good things we have done, and based on those things there’s a risk. “Because I’m good, bless me!” It’s a bargain with God.

    The problem, of course, is that it’s very difficult, indeed impossible, to make God owe us something. Why? Because as our creator, and the creator of all that is around us, we both exist, and live inside, gifts of God.

    I’m amused by suggestions that God is or has been inactive for various periods of time. If God was actually inactive, existence would end.

    Still, I think this is a natural, and even honest sort of prayer. It’s where we’d like to be. We want to approach someone for help who has some reason to help us. And I think that God honors such prayers, while hoping will come to understand God’s love and grace better.

    Spoiler alert: The Psalmist gets this completely, as indicated in the final verse. He asks that God seek him, even though he’s gone astray. He doesn’t really have a claim, except to ask God for what God does. God seeks.

    Of course, he still reminds God that he hasn’t forgotten, but in many ways I think that’s the thought of a lost sheep who wants to let God know he hasn’t forgotten the home pastures, the sheepfold, and the Shepherd.

    Do you remember your spiritual home?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:21 – Pride and Staggering

    Psalm 119:21 – Pride and Staggering

    You rebuke the proud, accursed ones,
    Who stagger away from your commands.

    As with each verses, there are lots of directions my mind goes with this, for example, what it means to be “accursed” and what, in particular, one might be proud of.

    But the direction my mind went was simply this: Pride goes before destruction (Proverbs 16:18). How is that?

    Now first let me distinguish pride from pride. That is, there is a good feeling at doing something right, or even more at seeing someone else do something well. I’m frequently proud when I hear or read about what my grandchildren have done.

    The difference between one kind or another is not one of degree, but one of truth. A pride in knowledge that is simply accurate acknowledgment of one’s accomplishments can be a positive part of living and growth. But there is a different quality of inaccurate pride, which can also be called arrogance–the assumption that one knows things and has skills when one does not, in fact have that knowledge or capability.

    I’ve certainly experience the latter form of pride when I assumed I had something covered, and then encountered a test that proved I had no such knowledge. As I read 1 Corinthians, I see a whole book directed at forms of spiritual pride. It’s not doing good things, or even knowing you’ve done good things that’s condemned, but rather the thought that you are better than other people when you do those things.

    It’s not wrong to believe you have gifts from God. It’s wrong to believe your gifts make you better than other people.

    Pride often results from not looking at the standard. If I take my eyes off of God’s standards (his law or instruction) as is noted in this Psalm, then I can decide that I have attained when I have not.

    An overestimate of my own accomplishments or capabilities can also make me attempt things for which I am not actually qualified. My wife and I have had a number of discussions over the years about continuing to drive after a certain point as we get older. We know many stories of people who thought, “I can still do this. I’m good!” It turned out, they were not so good. Pride in skill as a driver when one’s eyesight or attention has deteriorated has frequently resulted in injury or death, and not just of the proud one.

    To again distinguish pride, let me say I’m proud of my parents (first sense), who each made a decision not to continue driving after a certain point. They decided they were no longer capable of handling their vehicle safely on the road. They sold it, and used other means of transportation.

    Psalm 119 points us repeatedly to God’s standards as something to study, even as a mirror to look at. If we imagine ourselves better than we are, we’ve fallen into pride and arrogance and we’re going to stagger off the way.

    But as we look at that law, we know we serve one to whom we can also say, “Don’t let me wander!” (Psalm 119:8).

    Are you assessing yourself by looking at the right standard?

  • Psalm 119:20 – Languishing

    Psalm 119:20 – Languishing

    I [my soul] languish for longing
    for your judgments.

    What do you really want? What is your deepest desire? What is missing that makes you weary?

    As I write this, I’m very tired. I’ve been busy with many things and am only writing because I committed myself to write as a spiritual discipline. This is the 20th of 176 days. That’s early to be tired.

    And then I think, This is the verse. I’m languishing. But am I languishing for God’s Word?

    I’m reminded of Isaiah 55:

    Come for water, all who are thirsty;
    though you have no money,
    come, buy grain and eat;
    come, buy wine and milk,
    not for money, not for a price.
    Why spend your money for what is not food,
    your earnings on what fails to satisfy?
    Listen to me, and you will fare well,
    you will enjoy the fat of the land.
    Come to me and listen to my words,
    hear me and you will have life.

    Isaiah 55:1-3a (REB)

    We pursue so many things in this life, and more often than not we find dissatisfaction. We work and are weary, and live lives of hidden despair.

    Perhaps it’s time to think about what will really satisfy.

    Will you? Will I?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)