How long, O LORD, will You forget me always? How long hide Your face from me? How long shall I cast about for counsel, sorrow in my heart all day? How long will my enemy loom over me? Psalm 13:2-3 [Hebrew] Robert Alter How long? – We covered the Hebrew intensity of this phrase nearly…
But turned back and acted treacherously like their fathers; they turned aside like a treacherous bow. Psalm 78:57 NASB Turned back – Don’t be mistaken. This Hebrew word is not שׁוּב (šûb) (re)turn. šûb is “turning back” to God. Jeremiah uses this Hebrew verb in seventeen different ways, all connected to returning. But Asaph doesn’t employ šûb. …
I will incline my ear to a proverb; I will express my riddle on the harp. Psalm 49:4 NASB Riddle – Samson was tested. Solomon was asked. David made mention. But it never confronted Moses. What is it? A riddle (ḥîdâ), of course. “The ḥîdâ is an enigmatic saying, question, or story whose meaning must be determined…
How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will my enemy be exalted over me? Psalm 13:1-2 NASB How long? – ʿad ʾānāʾ (ad anah). How long? The preposition ʿad is…
And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” Matthew 26:39 NASB Not as I will – DEA. No, not the Drug Enforcement Agency. For this community, DEA is Delayed Emotional Awareness. …
Thus My anger will be spent and I will satisfy My wrath on them, Ezekiel 5:13a NASB Will be spent – The biblical God is in serious need of mental health counseling. Just look at the swings of emotion He displays: Since you are precious in My sight, Since you are honored and I love you, …
But Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in God’s place? Genesis 50:19 NASB In God’s place – Genesis is a book of emotional distance. It begins with expulsion, continues through isolation (Noah), betrayal (Sarah), discrimination (Esau and Jacob) and ends with alienation (Joseph). Through all of these lives, God seeks…
“Speak this word to them: ‘Let my eyes overflow with tears night and day without ceasing; for the Virgin Daughter, my people, has suffered a grievous wound, a crushing blow.’” Jeremiah 14:17 NIV Without ceasing – Theology has a deep, intrinsic problem. The Bible doesn’t have this problem because the Bible isn’t theology. Theology is the…
Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division; for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law…
and they made their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar and bricks and at all kinds of labor in the field, all their labors which they rigorously imposed on them. Exodus 1:14 NASB Bitter – The biblical world is a world intoxicated with God. Our usual subject-object dichotomy evaporates. We are no longer the neutral observers cataloging and…
