Featured Posts
-
What Is Biblical Literacy?
We complain about it, write about it, claim it’s important or even critical, design programs to create it, but what is it? I don’t mean that none of us know what we mean when we say “biblically literate” or “biblically illiterate,” but do we all mean the same thing? I don’t think we do, and…
-
Fences: Mending or Rending
The following is a sermon I presented at the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Pensacola on September 11,2005 and originally posted here on September 13, 2005. I’m reposting it because when I went to look for it, I found that the original post had somehow been truncated, and also because there is a one word at a…
-
Experiencing the (Baptism of the) Holy Spirit
This is a topic where I tend to make just about everyone uncomfortable. Long time readers may recall a previous discussion of speaking in tongues, and my own experience of it. Those who expect me to be intellectually oriented and rational are uncomfortable with mystical experiences, and many who are comfortable with the mystical experiences…
Social Notes (see all)
All Posts
Psalm 119:17 – Order of Operations
Deal fully with your servant,So I may live and keep your word. There are numerous translation questions, including differences of opinion about precisely what the word I translate “deal fully with” actually means in this context. Another good option is what Bob MacDonald does in Seeing the Psalter: Grow your servantI will live and keep…
Book Extract: The Heart Cries Out on Psalm 119
Book Extract: The Heart Cries Out on Psalm 119 Psalm 119 is easily the longest psalm in the Bible, at 176 verses. It is composed as an acrostic, with a stanza of eight verses for each of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. It is a meditation and a teaching on the Law of…
Psalm 119:16 – Ways to Forget
In your statutes I delight.I will not forget your word. If this were not poetry, I might be tempted to talk about the rather optimistic promise of not forgetting God’s word. But then I remember how many times I have said, “I’m not going to forget that” in reference to some planned task or another….
Psalm 119:15: Looking at God’s Ways
On your precepts will I meditate;I will look at your ways. There’s a big difference between meditation and biblical exegesis. I tend to use exegesis to refer to extracting the meaning from a text in the narrow sense of what a particular author meant by a particular statement or passage. Hermeneutics generally refers to the…
Psalm 119:14 – I Have to Be Joyful Too?
In the way of your testimonies I rejoiceAs over great wealth. Teachers and preachers often say that Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, was moving the law inside and making it of the heart. And that is certainly a theme of that sermon. But the fact is that the heart was always the object…
The Importance and Durability of Words
Through a Facebook comment on my post yesterday, The Importance of Things Left Out, another thought came to me connected to my other post yesterday, Psalm 119:13 – Speaking It. The comment made my push my memory for when it was that my mother made the comment on Hannah and Elkanah in 1 Samuel 1,…
Psalm 119:13 – Speaking It
With my lips I have recountedAll the judgments from your mouth. We tend to talk, and also write a great deal about speaking. On social media, people take note of the things you don’t speak out about, and consider you apathetic for your apparent silence. On the other hand, there are those who are just…
The Importance of Things Left Out
As I was listening to 1 Samuel today while walking on my treadmill I was reminded of a comment my mother once made on the story. We learn about Hannah and her desire for a son, and her sadness that she was barren. Her husband, Elkanah, somewhat full of himself, wonders why she’s crying and…
A Video for My Book Identifying Your Gifts and Service
A Video for My Book Identifying Your Gifts and Service
Psalm 119:12 – Teach Me
Blessed are you LORD.Teach me your statutes. Mark Twain said, “Good decisions come from experience. Experience comes from making bad decisions.” Or something like that. I’ve found a number of variations, all attributed to Twain. The prayer, “Teach me!” is one that is pretty much guaranteed an answer, positive at least in the sense that…
Ask Them to Implement Their Own Suggestion
Bad Ideas I Learned from Good Leaders #1 I’m never going to identify which leader I learned these things from, because I have deep respect for all of them. Many of them helped me ditch bad ideas of my own, though doubtless I still have a bunch! The bad thing I learned is this: When…
Psalm 119:11 – The Word in My Heart
In my heart have I hidden your Word,That I might not sin against you. I was introduced to Psalm 119 in elementary school. I had read a fair amount of Bible before that time, but hadn’t read it through. I went to a small Christian school where Bible memorization was a key component. We memorized…
With All the Faults and Failings
One of the things I find most interesting about the Bible is the way that its stories openly–one might even say brutally–cover the faults and failings of the main characters. Nobody manages to come off all that well in the story. Even Moses, author of the Torah, or perhaps receiver of it, is not presented…
Psalm 119:10 – Seeking and Finding
With my whole heart I have sought you.Don’t let me wander from your commands. The word here translated commands is mitsvot, which is often thought of as good deeds, but Jewish commentators use this primarily of the 613 commands in Torah. In this way, the mitsvot can be considered another way to refer to the…
The Tyrrany of Normal
I am not normal. To the vast majority of humanity, that is not significant. From friends, it tends to elicit one of two responses: I pause here to look up the word “loon” to be sure it was as I remember it, and to find and provide a picture of an actual loon. Further, I…
Psalm 119:9 – Talking about Purity
How shall a young man keep to a pure way of life?By keeping it in the bounds of your word! I have a feeling that some would question the way I translated that verse. It’s OK. Poetry is challenging. In this case I was aiming more for meaning that being faithful to the poetic form….
Psalm 119:1-8 – Wrapup
As I’ve meditated on these first eight verses of Psalm 119, I’ve opened up a number of topics. Let’s put them together, sort of! I hope you’re enjoying this journey as I am. Tomorrow morning, I’ll be posting the first verse in the second section. (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)
Psalm 119:8 – I’m Going to Do It; Help!
I will observe your statues.Don’t completely forsake me! Sometime we’re so busy looking for the really holy things and the absolutely correct commands in scripture that we fail to see the human element. But to miss that human element really misses much of the message of scripture. Scripture speaks in the way it developed and…
Psalm 119:7 – Praise with Integrity
I will praise you with an upright heartWhen I learn your righteous judgments. What does learning about God’s righteous (right) judgments have to do with praise? If we think of this Psalm as expressing joy over a list of rules, this might be a good question. If you haven’t yet, please read my earlier post…
Psalm 119:6 – Overcoming Shame
Then I won’t be ashamed,When I keep my eyes on all your commands. I didn’t get the poetry in my translation. It’s hard to get everything into it at once. This verse strikes at one of our most serious problems. Our identity. Our ability to live with ourselves. You’ve surely heard stories of people going…
Law and Laws in Scripture
In my current series on Psalm 119, I’m doing a daily meditation on each verse. These are, by design, short. At the same time, it’s difficult to cover certain nuances effectively in individual posts. One of these is the question of why I would write this particular series. I’ve already included my video on the…
Psalm 119:5 – Let’s Get Real
Oh that my ways were steady,Keeping your statutes. Any time we’re looking at a set of standards, it’s well to be realistic, especially with ourselves. As we go through this Psalm, we’ll be celebrating God’s law in many ways and places, but there are a number of instances where the author admits his limitations and…
Psalm 119:4 – Tough!!
About your precepts you commanded,“Keep them diligently!” Sometimes things are tough. You wonder what’s coming next. I’m meditating on these passages one at a time. I read the passage in the morning, and then I write these in the evening. During the day, I keep coming back to that verse. In deciding to do 176…
Psalm 119:3 – Not Malicious
They also don’t act with maliceIn God’s ways they walk. This verse could be translated in many ways, but the basic message doesn’t change. We’ve had too verses talking about blessed people and what it is that they do. This verse introduces an “and one more thing” moment. They also don’t act maliciously. The KJV,…