Threads from Henry's Web

Tag: law

  • 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 119:47 – 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 – Walk in Liberty

    Psalm 119:45 – Walk in Liberty

    So I will walk in liberty
    for I seek your precepts.

    I must credit Mitchell Dahood in his 3 volume commentary on Psalms in the Anchor Bible (vol 1, vol 2, vol 3) for the word “liberty.” I was struggling for a translation that I felt lived up to the context. I think that one does. Mitchell Dahood was an interesting character. One of my professors in graduate school said of him that he was right no more than 20% of the time, but when he was right, he was so right that it made up for all the rest!

    This verse seems to express a contradiction, or perhaps more of a creative tension between rules and liberty. We generally think that the more rules there are, the less liberty, and vice-versa. But the Psalmist here is talking about walking, i.e., living his life in liberty precisely because he seeks God’s precepts.

    Our problem as humans is that we (or at least most of us) want to be in control. Some people are very controlling, and we often call them control freaks. But there are very, very few people who actually want to be controlled by someone else.

    The experiment in the United States with prohibition illustrates a problem with such control. When you make a law banning some sort of behavior, it’s critical that most people believe that rule is a good one, one that should be enforced. In the case of prohibition, too few people thought it was a good rule and too many wanted to control what they were imbibing themselves. This sort of attitude makes a law difficult to enforce. (Note that I don’t consider this a full exploration of the sociology of prohibition. It is just one aspect.)

    Consider as an easier case the 55 mile per hour national speed limit. Enforcing it was massively difficult, especially in the wide open spaces of the mid-west and northwest. Many people thought in the abstract that it was a good idea, but when they got out on the road, they drove a great deal faster.

    I remember one occasion when I was on leave from the Air Force and was driving on I-80 through Wyoming. There are some really long sections where you can see for miles, and driving 55 mph was unlikely. My speed crawled up to 70 mph. Soon I saw those flashing blue lights in the distance and I was pulled over. I was concerned, because 70 in 55 is quite a bit over the limit.

    The trooper was a nice guy. He took care of identifying me, and then said, “Young man, would it be possible for you to see your way clear to drive just a little bit slower across my state?” I said, “Yes sir, I imagine I could.” He grinned, wrote me a warning, and off I went.

    Neither of us were really seeing my rule-breaking as all that bad. Yes, he wanted me to slow down, but if he was a real stickler for the rules, things could have gone much worse. He could also have said something like, “The limit is 55 mph you idiot, and you didn’t get to 70 mph by mistake!” But he didn’t.

    But there is a best way of doing things. There’s a “safest” way of driving, a healthiest way of living, the most productive way of working, and the most effective way of relating to one another.

    I think that’s what the Psalmist is thinking about. If I can get on the same wavelength as the creator of all of this, it’s likely I’ll find that place where I find the best balance between all the various factors of my existence, a place where I really have liberty, but don’t suffer from falling into stupid.

    I once participated in an online discussion in which a Canadian cop commented that if he could eliminate stupid and drunk, he’d be out of a job.

    How about aiming for eliminating our own versions of stupid and drunk from our lives by finding God’s best alignment?

    Some resource books on the Psalms:

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:44 – Keep it Forever

    Psalm 119:44 – Keep it Forever

    And I will keep your instruction (Torah) continually
    forever and ever.

    For another sense of Hebrew parallelism, note the short 2nd line here, “forever and ever.” This is parallel with “continually” and suggests a combined “all the time for all time.”

    If we hadn’t just read a number of verses in which the Psalmist expresses dependence on and trust in God, this would sound somewhat boastful. As it is, I read it as an expression of determination. Now determination is not, in itself sufficient, but there is nothing wrong with it when combined with the other expressions of the Psalm.

    Here we again encounter the Hebrew word Torah, expressing God’s instruction. Again, I’m reminded of the variety which is contained in Torah, when that is interpreted as the first five books of the Bible, a variety which is only increased if we see God’s instruction extending past those books. In just those books we encounter poetry, genealogy, stories of divine action, stories of human action, human faults and failings, divine interventions, moral laws, ritual laws, teaching about government, prophecy (in the predictive sense as well), visions, dreams, conversations with God, and case law. And I have doubtless missed something.

    I think as Christians we should think of how we should apply this. What is it that we are to do continually? I’d suggest that a great deal can be learned from Torah understood as the first five books of the Bible. But for us, the actions and words of Jesus are also instruction. Just as Torah goes way beyond a list of regulations, as important as those are, so Jesus goes for us well beyond a set of teachings.

    I think a critical question for Christians today is this: Can we live according to the teachings of Jesus? Continually? Forever?

    Perhaps we need to make a determination, as did the Psalmist. And don’t forget to put your trust in God for the fulfillment of that determination!

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:36 – What’s Your Inclination

    Psalm 119:36 – What’s Your Inclination

    Turn my mind to your testimonies,
    And not to ill-gotten gain.

    How about some alternatives.

    Hearten my mind to your testimonies
    and not to extortion.

    Bob MacDonald, Seeing the Psalter, 382

    Dispose my heart towards your instruction,
    not towards love of gain.

    Psalm 119:36 (REB)

    Christians frequently speak of the Hebrew scriptures (the Old Testament) as a book of all about law, and even sometimes as a book of legalism, in which salvation is to be earned by energetic keeping of God’s law(s). They contrast this to the New Testament, which is a book of love and of grace received through faith.

    I keep wondering whether those who believe this have actually read either. The Hebrew scriptures are filled with God’s grace, and constantly portray God as the one who acts first, while the New Testament speaks a great deal about action, things to do. Paul goes on about salvation by grace through faith, and then goes into a list of good things to do.

    The issue in both cases is the role that these things play in our relationship to God. This verse is a prime example. The Psalmist asks God to incline his heart (or mind) to do what God says. He then says the same thing in reverse. Incline me away from ill-gotten gain. Or from just the stuff.

    God does the inclining first, and we are inclined away from one sort of actions toward another. God’s action precedes and leads to our action. Scripturally, it is always this way. In fact, the very desire to ask for that inclination is the result of divine action.

    This verse points just a bit further than that to what I would say is the most common manifestation of idolatry, and that is the drive to acquisition. I’m not talking about getting things that one needs to live, or carrying out useful and productive work, or even investment. The question is what is the driving force. Why am I doing what I’m doing.

    You see, idolatry keeps our vision low. It makes us short-sighted. Do I want to acquire money so that I can accomplish good things with it? Or do I want money or other stuff just to make myself more important? Please don’t read this as merely wanting money for charitable purposes vs for business activities. I include productive activity, including investment, as accomplishing good things.

    This can go astray in a couple of ways. First, I can gain things by cheating. Cheating takes many forms, but it usually involves a form of manipulation, such as an employer convincing an employee that they will never get anything better, and that their only hope is to accept what that employer has to offer. Or it could be a worker who manipulates the work situation so as to appear more valuable that he or she really is.

    Second, this can take the form of pure acquisition for the sake of possession. I’ve often thought that Ebenezer Scrooge was more to be pitied for the fact that he did not actually enjoy any of his stuff than looked down on for his business practices. He manipulated people in order to acquire, and didn’t even enjoy the possession.

    If the stuff drives the bus, it’s going in the wrong direction.

    We often fail to see the value in things that God commands, whether through the written word, or simply through the nature of the world in which we live. As humans, we regularly try to live in ways that are not sustainable. We can see this in history time after time, yet we are inclined to act as though the consequences won’t catch us.

    Rules are hard to enforce on people who are not inclined to keep them. Just check out the traffic laws and observe the speed and other driving practices taking place on the road. We are inclined to take what shortcuts we think we can get by with. But if we change our inclinations our actions can change. And as the Psalmist demonstrates here, God is the one to ask for that change.

    What are you inclined to do? Would you like to see it change?

    (Featured image generated by Adobe’s Firefly in Adobe Express.)

  • 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 119:27 – 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 119:24

    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 119:17 – Order of Operations

    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 servant
    I will live and keep your word.

    Bob MacDonald, Seeing the Psalter, p. 381

    Again, let me remind you that I’m writing meditations, not expositions on these passages. There are many things one could get from a verse like this, especially considering the larger work that contains it.

    There’s an order of events in scripture that’s important to keep in mind, and it’s reflected in this verse. God grows, completes, matures, blesses, and the result is both life in the physical sense, and a good life, both produced by this initial action of God.

    It is often thought that Hebrew scriptures focus on human action, in which people keep rules, and God’s blessing follows. And there is a natural order that says that living in certain ways results in blessing. The world in which we live works that way. But Hebrew scriptures emphasize the power and action of God, prior to human action.

    “In the beginning God …” and then when there is a world and a garden, people are invited to live within certain parameters. I would suggest that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents the ever available option of take the suboptimal path. The fruit metaphorically represents that option. But God’s gift of the whole creation, of the garden, and of life precedes the limitation.

    At Sinai, God comes on the scene as the deliverer from bondage before becoming also the lawgiver.

    Gift comes before requirement; grace before law.

    Are you remembering that gift?

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:15: Looking at God’s Ways

    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 broader process of interpreting and applying scripture. This usage is not universal; frequently you will hear hermeneutics and exegesis used interchangeably.

    But meditation lacks these narrow boundaries. As I read these verses, one per day, while I do some of the work of exegesis, such as looking at the words in a good lexicon and checking other uses and reading the context of that particular verse, I really am letting my mind roam through scripture and experience and also asking what the passage suggests to me. I think poetry is particularly well attuned to this kind of thinking, and Psalm 119 even more than most. The author draws in words for God’s instruction that direct us to think of the law/instruction in the broadest possible sense. It is the entire Word that God has for us that is brought into view through the vocabulary.

    The root word for “precepts” used here goes back to a root word that is often translated “visit.” A visit can be many things. It can be a time of inspection, a time of reward, a time of fellowship and relationship, or a time of judgment. Now it’s not a good idea to determine the meaning of a word by its etymology, i.e., the forms from which it is derived. I’ve already commented on how the use of the various “law” words in Psalm 119 tend to direct us away from being too specific on a single concept. (Bob MacDonald’s post on this Psalm features consistent translations of the terms so that you can see them scattered through the Psalm.)

    But in this case, whether it’s a good idea or not, the etymology of the word for “precepts” led me to think of visiting and relationship (good and bad!), and God in action, rather than as a static lawgiver. After all, the God who said, “I am YHWH your God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt …” (Exodus 20:2) is a God of relationships and actions, with creative and saving/restoring acts featured.

    As we go through the time of advent, symbolizing in our worship the wait for God to be with us as Immanuel, we can certainly relate to this thought. The God who becomes incarnate in a manger is a God of action, of relationship.

    I tend to fellow loosely joined trails in my thinking, and I followed this by focusing on the second half of the verse, looking at God’s ways/actions/behavior. There are many ways to do this. We often approach scripture to discover correct doctrine. There’s nothing wrong with that, but that’s not the whole story. I like to look at scripture for the stories of God’s interaction with people into which we fit these various theological propositions.

    For example, another part of my reading today was from 1 Corinthians, in which we have Paul making a huge number of statements that are turned into theological propositions, sometimes in contradiction to the story that surrounds them. Speaking of the stories of scripture after evoking incidents from the Exodus, Paul says, “These things were written to admonish us” (1 Corinthians 10:11). He has just referenced a number of stories.

    Thus, I’d add to trying to understand to propositions of scripture a need to understand the stories. I think as we understand those stories, we will often find that we’ve been looking at propositions from entirely the wrong perspective. (A favorite example of this comes from 1 Corinthians 14, and worship that is “decent and in order.” I’ve heard this quoted to criticize a pastor for deviating from the bulletin!)

    But there’s another layer or more to go. How about the way in which scripture was composed. There are hints all through scripture of various sources that have been brought together, including the frequently referenced “chronicles of the kings of Israel and Judah” cited as sources in 1 & 2 Kings. Interesting that God provides inspired scripture through someone compiling material from official court chronicles and providing commentary.

    Then there’s the natural world. Some make great efforts to assure us that special revelation, written scripture, is the more reliable source. Nature, they say, is too easily misinterpreted. Sometimes they even attempt to force the natural world to match their interpretation of scripture.

    But the natural world is a direct product of God’s word just as is the written word. I don’t want to detract from the written word, but I think we need to elevate what can be learned from God’s creative activity. The physicist studies some of the most direct products of the mind of God. Or so I suspect!

    I’ve wandered far away from what is explicitly stated in the text of the verse. But in the spirit of this Psalm, I think the author might have understood my thinking, should he have had an opportunity, or at least the spirit behind it.

    Where does thinking about God’s ways lead you?