May You increase my greatness and turn to comfort me. Psalm 71:21 NASB My greatness – What was the opening line of the vastly popular book, The Purpose-Driven Life? Oh, yes, “It’s not about you.” A sort of oxymoron, don’t you think? The book sold millions of copies precisely because readers believed that it was in fact all…
You who have shown me many troubles and distresses will revive me again, and will bring me up again from the depths of the earth. Psalm 71:20 NASB Revive – Don’t jump too quickly to those comforting thoughts about revival. Pay attention to the beginning of this verse. Who is the one who showed the poet’s many troubles…
For Your righteousness, God, reaches to the heavens, You who have done great things; God, who is like You? Psalm 71:19 NASB Who is like You? – Pagan religions don’t need human history. Astrological signs, natural phenomenon, legends, numbers, the cosmic order—they’re enough. Human history is an anecdote to the divine plot. So, when the poet writes, “Who is like…
And even when I am old and gray, God, do not abandon me, until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to all who are to come. Psalm 71:18 NASB Until – When is it over? Ah, you know there’s no such thing as retirement in this Kingdom. It’s not over until the fat lady sings. When you…
God, You have taught me from my youth, and I still declare Your wondrous deeds. Psalm 71:17 NASB I still – The Hebrew word is just a tiny add-on, ʿad, stuck in the middle of ve-ăd- hēnnāh (“and still”) I declare. You can see that there’s something odd about this. Hebrew uses two words (ăd- hēnnāh) to…
Rosanne and I are on the way back to Parma. Last week I spent three lovely days with baby Malaki. He was alert, hungry, and being a typical baby. However, it is too soon to tell if he will have ongoing complications from the hematoma, so continued prayers are needed. The big test comes at…
I will come with the mighty deeds of the Lord God; I will make mention of Your righteousness, Yours alone. Psalm 71:16 NASB Make mention – What do you think about the choice “make mention” for the verb zākar? Does it capture the feeling of this verse? Not for me! “I will come with the mighty deeds”…
My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness and of Your salvation all day long; For I do not know the art of writing. Psalm 71:15 NASB Art of writing – A bit ironic, don’t you think? According to this translation, here is a poet writing that he doesn’t know the art of writing. Does that make sense? Everything thus…
But as for me, I will wait continually, and will praise You yet more and more. Psalm 71:14 NASB But as for me – The Mosaic Code seems to exhort fundamental conformity and compliance. After all, how much freedom can a man enjoy when there are rules for everything: what to eat, what to wear, how…
May those who are enemies of my soul be put to shame and consumed; may they be covered with disgrace and dishonor, who seek to injure me. Psalm 71:13 NASB Shame/ disgrace/ dishonor – Before the Greeks invented reward and punishment in the afterlife, Semitic societies focused ethical attention on contemporary experience. Cut off from the Egyptian preoccupation with the…
