Today’s picture is divided into TWO PARTS in order to highlight two different perspectives on the ‘dark night’ of the Christian soul: Part 1 (the darker one) corresponds to Ps.22:1-2; Part 2 (the lighter one) corresponds to Ps.22:9-10. Picture 1: Ps. 22:1-2, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you
Psalm 22:1-2 & 9-10 Read More »
Psalm 61:6-8, “Prolong the life of the king; may his years endure to all generations! May he be enthroned forever before God…So will I ever sing praises to your name…” Notice that God’s prolonging of the king’s life and His enthronement of the king in His presence *results in* or *forms the ground of* the
Psalm 65:3-4, “When iniquities prevail against me, you atone [ἱλάσκομαι/כָּפַר] for our transgressions. Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple!” Notice the transition into verse 4, “Blessed is the one…” We move almost
Ps. 52:8-9, “But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever…I will wait for your name, for it is good…” David as a tree in God’s house is an image for his trusting in the Lord. As in Ps. 1:3—and
Psalm 45:13, “All glorious is the Princess in her chamber, with robes interwoven with gold. In many-colored robes she is led to the King…” Revelation 22:9-11, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb…the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God…” The Bridal
Psalm 45:13, Revelation 22:9-11 Read More »
Psalm 2:2,5-6 “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against His Anointed…Then He will speak to them in His wrath…”As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” It’s voting day in the US, and let me start by saying
Psalm 38:1-2, “O YHWH, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath! For your arrows have sunk into me, and your hand has come down on me…” Psalm 38:22, “Make hast to help me, O Lord, my salvation!” Notice two things from these verses in Psalm 38. First, in verses
Ps 23:5, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies…” “Table” implies rest, rejoicing, supply, and—perhaps most important—fellowship, while “in the presence of my enemies” conjures images of threat, danger, tension, and enmity. It is not natural to set the experience of table fellowship and the immediate presence of enemies
Ps 30:4-5, “Sing praises to YHWH, O you his saints, and give thanks to His holy name. For His anger is but for a moment, and His favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may remain for the night, but rejoicing comes with the morning.” Notice that verse 5 supports verse 4, meaning that what
Psalm 15:2, “He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and *speaks truth in his heart*.” The content and quality of our internal dialogue matters. What we say within ourselves about ourselves and others and life etc. has genuine impact on the sort of person we are in the sight of God, and
Psalm 12:2, 6, “Everyone utters lies to his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.” /// “The words of YHWH are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.” See the contrast implicit in the two verses above. Human words are alloyed with deceptive meaning,
Ps 4:8, “In peace, I will both lie down and sleep, for you alone, O YHWH, make me dwell in safety.” Sleep can be the process of rest and waking that we go through every night, but Scripture also speaks of death as sleep (Jn 11:11; 1 Thess.4:13-18). The one who lives in covenant
Psalm 1:1-2, Blessed is the man…[whose] delight is in the law of YHWH…” The blessed person—that is, the deeply happy person—is the one who delights in YHWH’s law. Now, to delight in a thing is a sort of blessedness in and of itself, and to be blessed implies that that which we delight in
Psalm 36:7-8, “How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights.” In this passage, the steadfast love of the Lord (which is essential to
Psalm 104:30, “When you send forth your Spirit [or “breath’], they are created…” John 19:30, “He bowed His head and handed over the spirit [or “breath”].” As you may know, the same word is used both for “Spirit” and “Breath” in Hebrew as well as in Greek. This is a fruitful ambiguity. Biblical authors
Psalm 104:30; John 19:30 Read More »
Psalm 34:8, “Oh, taste and see that YHWH is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!” Hebrew poetry often employs a technique called “parallelism” by which the second parallel line in some way restates or comments on the first. When we read Psalm 34:8 in light of this technique, it helps
Job 7:17, “What is man, that you make so much of him, and that you set your heart on him, visit him every morning and test him every moment?” (c.f. Psalm 8:4) Job here associates his suffering—and, indeed, the sufferings of humanity—with the attention of the Lord. If mankind were not under the scrutiny
Psalm 62:5-7, “For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God.” When David says “For God ALONE…” and
Psalm 30:5, For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning. Psalm 30:11, You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness… Divine anger, weeping, night,
Psalm 30:5, “Weeping may last for the night…” As we arrive at the last day of 2019, I wanted to share a pair of images derived from Psalm 30:5….Today is the first, tomorrow I’ll share part 2. All of our nights of weeping are imaged by and experienced in the Night of our Lord on
