January 9, 2024 by creatorworship
“He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water.” (Psalm 1:3)
Only the NASB of the English translations inserts the word “firmly”. The question is why? The “NAS Exhaustive Concordance” defines the word as simply “planted”. I believe it is an interpretative translation (1) based on the good watering (“by streams of water”) and other Scriptures that confirm the idea by similar metaphors. For example, Psalm 92:12-14 speaks of the “righteous…planted” as flourishing, being substantial tree palms and cedars, yielding fruit, full of sap, and green. Such vigor supports the idea of being firmly planted. Jeremiah 17:7-8 uses similar language with the addition of “extends its roots by the stream”. (v.8) “It is planted in good soil beside abundant waters.” (Ezekial 17:8) And all of the references tout the fruitfulness and drought resistance of this planting. I think the metaphors support the idea but the Hebrew does not support the addition of the word.
- I do not like it. Why not have a side note with reasons and other Scriptures supporting why the planting is substantial, as I have done, rather than adding to the Word with an interpretation.
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January 9, 2024 by creatorworship
“Blessed is the man who does not…does” (Psalm 1:1,3)
Blessed in a biblical sense is to be “granted special favor by God resulting in joy and prosperity.” (1) That it is granted clearly shows that this blessedness results from God’s grace. The Hebrew word is “baruch” meaning “to increase (in joy, in peacefulness)” (2)
“Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them:
The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make His face shine on you,
And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance on you,
And give you peace.’
So they shall invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and I then will bless them.”
(Numbers 6:22-26) God commanded the priests through Moses to speak this blessing over the Israelites. God has the intention of blessing His people, and more so those who delight in Him.
“It [blessing] bestows on a person the honor of experiencing God’s presence, His care and His favor.” (2)
The word “How” (v.1) emphasizes the overwhelming extent of the blessing. I want Your presence, care, and favor in my life, Lord.
- biblestudytools.com/blessing/
- firmisrael.org/learn/the-hebrew-meaning-of-blessed/
Posted in Blessing, General, God's Law, God's Word, Joy, Piety, Sanctification | Tagged Blessing, Grace, Joy, Peace, Psalm 1 | Leave a Comment »
January 8, 2024 by creatorworship
“And in His law he meditates day and night.” (Psalm 1:2)
How often do I forget You, Lord? How few and how shallow are my thoughts about You? How selfish and self-absorbed are my thoughts and utilitarian and pragmatic requests of You?
I want to be more consumed by thoughts of You and Your Word so that my every reaction and intention pleases You and is guided by You.
Joshua and elders of Israel did not inquire of the Lord concerning Ai. (Joshua 7) So many times I have not inquired of God, or I thought or said that I was when I was interjecting my own desires. Guard me, O Lord, from presumptuous thoughts and actions by giving me a desire and habit of meditating in Your Word day and night and acting accordingly.
Posted in Blessing, God's Law, God's Word, Piety, Sanctification | Tagged Blessing, Divine Guidance, Meditating, Psalm 1, Righteousness | Leave a Comment »
January 8, 2024 by creatorworship
“Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous” (Psalm 1:4)
Presently many unsaved sinners do than in the assembly of the righteous and sometime lead. “But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also.” (Matthew 13:26) But that is not how it will end: “So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age.” (Matthew 13:40)
The phrase being considered is a parallel thought to “wicked will not stand in the judgment.” (v.4) Because they have no hope in the judgment, then there is no hope of them being among the righteous. The consequence for them will be dire, eternal separation from God. The consequence for those of us who believe is that they will not be among us any longer inciting us to evil, deceiving us with falsehood, or leading us astray.
Posted in God's Law, God's Word, Judgment | Tagged Judgment, Psalm 1, Righteous, Sinners, Wicked | Leave a Comment »
January 7, 2024 by creatorworship
“The wicked will not stand in the judgment” (Psalm 1:4) “Behold, these are the wicked…I perceived their end. Surely You set them in slippery places; You cast them down to destruction” (Psalm 73:12,17-18) By the grace of God through faith in Jesus’s substitutionary death your end can be far different.
“The servant…will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.; (Romans 14:4) How? “the gospel…in which you stand.” (1 Corinthians 15:1) We participate in standing, though it is positively in his strength: “It was for freedom that you were set free, therefore keep standing firm.” (Galatians 5:1) Furthermore, “Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil…, and having done everything, to stand firm.” (Ephesians 6:11,13)
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January 7, 2024 by creatorworship
“Blessed is the man who does not… sit in the seat of scoffers.” (Psalm 1:1)
What is the problem causes one to be a scoffer and what is the result? “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling (a fall, KJV).” (Proverbs 16:18) Perhaps that is the reason that they stay seated. In reality, I think they are armchair quarterbacks for life. “They continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His words and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people…” (2 Chronicles 36:16) But life is no game, and neither is scoffing. “Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you.” (Proverbs 9:8) “…if you scoff, you alone will bear it.” (Proverbs 9:12) There are many such judgments proclaimed upon scoffers in Proverbs. Not merely wicked action is judged but also wicked, proud, derisive speech is an abomination to God that portends a bad end for scoffers. Jesus suffered at the hands and mouths of scoffers, as Luke 18:32 says, “He…will be mocked and mistreated.” He patiently bore their abuse “yet He did not open his mouth.” (Isaiah 53:7) While witnessing to others, I must share in His suffering by not reacting to their abuse other than with love and truth. It is a balancing act, because I must discern when to “not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.” (Matthew 7:6) Do not be surprised by such treatment because “in the last days mockers will come…” (2 Peter 3:3).
Posted in Blessing, General, God's Law, God's Word, Piety, Sanctification | Tagged Blessing, Psalm 1, Scoffers, Wickedness | Leave a Comment »
January 6, 2024 by creatorworship
“The Lord knows the way of the righteous. v.6
“knows” (approves) (NASB), “watches over” (NIV),
“I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me and I know the Father.” (John 10:14) “….even as the Father knows me and I know the Father.” (v.6) It is an intimate, kindly knowledge. God knows of the wicked and will judge them, but He neither reveals Himself to them nor is He known by them.
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January 5, 2024 by creatorworship
“The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff.” (Psalm 1:4)
Everything grand and beautiful and secure and well provided for and productive about the righteous man tree is not so of the chaff of the wicked man. He is insubstantial, soon forgotten, of no consequence, useless, to be rid of, and bothersome. Chaff is a worse than useless, dead and dusty off casting of anything of value. The grain is taken into the barn; the chaff is blown away, trampled, or burned. Do you want to feel and be helpless, hopeless, and purposeless? Then pursue evil.
Posted in Blessing, God's Law, God's Word | Tagged Contrast Righteous and the Wicked, Psalm 1, Wickedness | Leave a Comment »
January 5, 2024 by creatorworship
I can’t get enough of this “blessed” idea.
Consider the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-12: “Blessed are [the righteous]…for…kingdom of heaven…comforted…inherit the earth…satisfied…receive mercy…see God…sons of God…kingdom of God reward in heaven is great.” And “everyone who has left…for My sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life.” (Matthew 19:29) It is inescapable from Psalm 1, these verses, and many others that the blessing of prospering will include physical, mental, and spiritual elements even though Scripture teaches that we are not earning God’s blessing and we will experience loss, too.
Posted in Blessing, God's Law, God's Word, Piety, Sanctification | Tagged Blessing, Kingdom of God, Kingdom of Heaven, Psalm 1, Righteousness | Leave a Comment »
January 4, 2024 by creatorworship
“In whatever he does, he prospers.” (Psalm 1:3)
Just a few ways the righteous prosper:
“He will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:6
He will give you “length of days…and peace.” (Proverbs 3:2)
“You will find favor and good repute in the sight of God and man.” (Proverbs 3:4)
“Healing…and refreshment” (Proverbs 3:8) are yours.
Physical prosperity by way of “barns…filled.” (Proverbs 3:10) This is not Prosperity Gospel. The Christian will have trials and “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” (2 Timothy 3:12)
And some of the difficulty comes from God for our good through “trials…testing of your faith produces endurance…[so that you are] lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2-4) And “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” (Hebrews 12:11)
Regardless of the good or bad, Jesus says, “I am with you always.” (Matthew 28:20), so that “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21)
- Day 4 Evening #2 Entry: I forgot that I had already written reflection on that evening and wrote again later.
Posted in Blessing, God's Law, God's Word, Piety, Sanctification | Tagged bible, Blessing, Encouragement, Faith, Jesus, Prospers, Proverbs, Psalm 1, Righteousness | Leave a Comment »
January 4, 2024 by creatorworship
“In whatever he does, he prospers.” (Psalm 1:3)
“He does” denotes an active faith over a conceptual one. “Prove yourselves doers of the Word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.” (James 1:20) The “effectual doer” is “blessed in what he does.” (James 1:25)
Know the Word, do the Word, and be blessed by and through the Word.
Posted in Blessing, Faith, God's Law, God's Word, Piety, Sanctification | Tagged Active Faith, Blessing, Faith, Psalm 1, Righteousness | Leave a Comment »
January 4, 2024 by creatorworship
“In whatever he does, he prospers.” (Psalm 1:3)
But of course, his “whatever” is formed, informed, directed and constrained by his delight and meditation upon Bod’s law. As in Psalm 37:4-5,
“Delight yourself in the Lord;
And He will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him, and He will do it.”
The desires of my heart and God’s accomplishing of it proceeds from my delighting in Him and committing my way to Him. We are on the same page, or far more accurately, I am on His page, and He is pleased to delight His child.
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January 3, 2024 by creatorworship
The righteous one “does not walk…stand…sit.” Deuteronomy 6:7: “You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.” In the way you act in your personal life will train your children. You add words by teaching and talking in order to explain how and why you “sit…walk…lie down…rise up.” God’s commands should be on your heart and your lips rather than the “counsel…path…seat” of the wicked (Psalm 1:1)
Posted in Blessing, God's Law, God's Word, Piety, Sanctification | Tagged Blessing, Psalm 1, Righteousness, Wickedness | Leave a Comment »
January 3, 2024 by creatorworship
“In whatever he does, he prospers.” verse 3
What do the righteous do? They delight in and meditate on God’s law, His Word. What one delights in he spends time with, thus day and night. There is not an ounce of passiveness in this pursuit but all intentionality and passion as with a first love.
Posted in Blessing, General, God's Law, God's Word, Piety, Sanctification | Tagged Blessing, Psalm 1, Righteousness | Leave a Comment »
January 2, 2024 by creatorworship
Continuing reflection on Psalm 1, I wondered…
How blessed?
A “tree” is substantial, long-lived. Though the word “firmly” is not there in the original, the implication of “planted” is not easily pulled up, pushed over, or beaten down. Being “by streams of water” means it does not suffer drought, is always supplied, and has confidence in that supply. “Yields fruit” communicates that the tree is useful, has purpose, supplies others, nourishes, and is sweet to those who feed from it. “In season” says that the fruit is ready at the appropriate time and patient with full confidence of yield. When a “leaf does not wither”, it is always growing, not threatened, fresh and supple rather than dried and brittle, and must be evergreen, not experiencing autumn. “Whatever he does” will be by God’s will and power, and aptly led by the Spirit. “He prospers” because God has promised it, even as He did to Joshua: “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.” (Joshua 1:8). In a word, tremendously blessed.
.
*Yes, other than outright missing 4 days, I also missed writing twice daily several times, so there is no D2M, Day 2 Morning.
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January 1, 2024 by creatorworship
Day 1 Evening reflection: Preliminary Contrasts:
tree vs. chaff; firmly planted vs. blown away; blessed vs. not so;
nor stand in the path of sinners vs. nor sinner [stand] in the assembly of the righteous
LORD knows the vs. way will perish; yields fruit vs. [worthless] chaff
prosper vs. perish
Posted in Blessing, General, God's Law, God's Word, Piety, Sanctification | Tagged Blessing, Psalm 1, Righteousness, Wickedness | Leave a Comment »
January 1, 2024 by creatorworship
The radio preacher challenged his listeners to read Psalm 1 twice each day for 21 days and journal impressions, adding, “It will change your life.” As best I could, I took him up on that. I began reading the psalm on December 1st and completed my 21 days in the 25th. As, you will see, I also failed to record impressions or read twice each day on four occasions. I was curious to see if non- repeating insight would come 42 separate times (38 in reality since I missed 4 times). I hand wrote my journal which I intend to copy to here with only minor corrections and clarifications. I will be labeling the entries along the following scheme: D1M means Day 1 Morning, etc., and here it is:
v.1-3: does not, does, is
v.4-5: not so the wicked
v.6: both their ways
Posted in Blessing, General, God's Law, God's Word, Piety, Sanctification | Tagged Blessing, Psalm 1, Righteousness, Wickedness | Leave a Comment »
December 30, 2023 by creatorworship
I ran across a YouTube video that was well done and brought back years of memories:
“Bach Little Fugue in G Minor/Flugelhorn Quartet“
Here follows an expanded version of the comment I made concerning it.
“Bach organ fugues are the best. I got interested in these as a young teenager. Fugue in G Minor was one of my favorites for several reasons. It has a certain joy with melancholy undertones. The latter is probably the result of the minor key and the lilting, repetitive nature. These two characteristics, joy and melancholy matched my aspirations and personality as a young person. Secondly, I was introduced to the tune by my older brother who whistled it frequently. I dare say that by now I have whistled it more than him, because I did for many years, though only occasionally now. Thirdly, the pipe organ has both an awesome and eerie sound that brings out the full emotion of this tune. This brass rendition is very good. I realized after I had listened to all of it that the flugelhorn is brighter, less eerie, and smoother than the powerful, foreboding, staccato of the organ (1). I like both, but it also occurs to me that this flugelhorn quartet speaks more to my present personality. Music is far more than notes. Even renditions attempting to be identical in tempo and instrumentation may be far different in emotion and intensity. God has given us a great gift in music, which we should use as Bach did: “Soli Deo Gloria” (2)
- “Bach – Fugue in G Minor BWV 578“
- “To God alone, the glory”
Posted in Implications, Memories, Music | Tagged bach, classical-music, Fugue in G Minor, Implications, johann-sebastian-bach, Memories, Music, video | Leave a Comment »
December 25, 2023 by creatorworship
My daughter, son-in-law, and I went for hike on Saturday before last to bag her thirteenth Sixer. My wife and I drove down to Candler, NC, to spend the night with them in an Airbnb so we could start reasonably early the next morning. My wife, Mamaw, was only too happy to spend the day at the Airbnb with two of our grandchildren. We were headed for Shining Rock up the Old Butt Trail. It is quite steep. The began only overcast, but we experienced hours of drizzle before the day was done. See what else we got into at “Not So Shining“.
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December 23, 2023 by creatorworship
I must confess that I have been to so many waterfalls in East Tennessee and Western North Carolina that relating names to scenes is a lost cause with me. So, when my hiking partner said that he would like to take his brother to Margarette Falls, I responded that I had probably been there but couldn’t remember. His brother was in for the week on business and to visit from Vancouver, WA. I knew miles before we got to the parking lot that I had been there not so long ago. In fact, it is a bit embarrassing to recall that it had been as recently as September, 2022 (check it out at “Birthday Hike“). This hike was different for many reasons. Compare this Tuesday hike of about ten days ago with the one 15 months ago at “M and B Falls.”
Posted in General, Hike, Nature, Outdoors, Photo, Waterfall | Tagged Bushwhacking, Hike, Nature, Outdoors, Waterfalls | Leave a Comment »
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