Emily Josephine's Blog

PLEASE PIN THIS IMAGE: How to mind your business in the Internet ageHow to have an online presence and still mind your own business? Iexamine this question from a Christian perspective in this article. If you’vebeen asking yourself if it’s okay for Christians to be on social media, keepreading.

Susie balked. Her stomach twisted as anger began a slow boilbeneath her solar plexus. Did I.D.K. Much reallydo that when he was a kid? That was worse than anything she’d ever heard aboutB.S. Prez! What was the world of politics coming to?

Thumbs doing a fast dance over her phone screen, shescrolled down to read the comments. Anger became fury, boiling over in hot lavaand a stream of curse words. Her friend was defendingIDK? What the heck?

Like an out-of-control bus, indignation rolled over andthrough her, tightening every one of her muscles. In a flash, she was on herother social media site, thumbs flying as she tapped out her opinion, urgingthe world to stop being stupid by supporting IDK.

The next morning, she went to church and worshipped God.

Or, so she believed…

The 21st century sin.

This morning, I engaged in a debate with myeighteen-year-old son. To respect his dignity – and to avoid hypocrisy, as you’llunderstand as I move on in this post – I’m not going to give details about it.Suffice to say that it had to do with people online spouting opinions aboutother people (whom they don’t know personally), and that I ended up remindinghim that we are not to judge others because the planks in our eyes are biggerthan the specks in other people’s eyes (Matthew 7:3-5).

That got me to thinking about Paul’s admonition in 1 Thessalonians4:11, that Christians should lead quiet lives and mind their own business. It’sa concept I’ve struggled with on and off for the past few years, because if Iblog or upload public YouTube videos, am I not encouraging people to get intomy business? Even if I’m not, there’s always the danger of becoming one ofthose armchair judges of Internet personalities, and allowing my opinions toseep through my content.

The beginning of human nosiness.

The fact of the matter is, people have always been nosier than they ought. Gossip is likely as old as the human race, with propaganda notfar behind. Every technological advance in communication – the printing press,the telephone, radio, television, the Internet – has only served to increasethe difficulty of minding one’s own business. Human beings yearn to connectwith each other, but in our fallen state have done so with an increasinglyheavier pull to do so via manipulation and persuasion of others to ungodlyopinions and perspectives.

I’m not anti-Internet, but…

Twenty-five years ago, websites and online videos pushed thelimit of psychological and emotional manipulation; today, social media has madethe problem a hundred times worse. People on one side of a social or politicalissue are convinced they are right, and do everything they can to persuadeother people to believe the way they do.

And many – most? – of these beliefs are dead wrong.

The use of language learning artificial intelligent modelssuch as ChatGPT for distribution of propaganda on social media sites hasaggravated an already tenuous situation.

I avoid social media for a variety of reasons, but lately,that has become a primary one. From all reports, many threads consist of one oftwo types: people arguing with the vehemence of a cat under a shower aboutsocial and political issues, or people giving the O.P. compliments and virtualpats on the back, cheering them on for their insights and thoughts.

Even when they’re wrong.

Because nobody’s wrong if they believe the same way you do.

And therein lies the problem: human beings are flawed, andtherefore none of us – no matter how close to God we believe we are – know theabsolute truth about every situation. Worse, our past experiences bias ouropinions; and opinions, when ruminated on long enough, become entrenchedbeliefs, which do a bang-up job of masquerading as Truth.

The core of my conversation with (okay, lecture to) my sonthis morning centered on this idea, that what we think is truth, often isn’t.

And the problem is much worse today, thanks to theinsinuation of relativism into modern thought.

But there’s a larger challenge that Christians face, andthat is our flesh. Our flesh – that part of us that flips the birdie at God andsays, “I got this, thanks” – tempts us into responding to posts and threads andcomments that we believe to be wrong, to be contrary to God’s word. Our fleshbegins by whispering that as a Christian, we have a responsibility to correctpeople online, whether friends, acquaintances, or perfect strangers. It tells us that it’spart of what Yeshua meant by being “salt and light.”

Then, once we engage, it provides justifications forreplying with increasing frustration and ire and self-righteousness when otherstake us to task with what we’ve said.

Finally, we end up flipping a virtual birdie at them, and leave the thread feeling angry,dismayed, and perhaps even in despair. We lose all sight of Yeshua’s way,replacing His light and easy yoke with a heavy burden made by our own hands.

Rather, by our minds.

In the process, we lose our witness with those we initiallyset out to help.

Should Christians be on social media? Or give up theInternet altogether?

If to no other time, Yeshua was looking ahead to thetwenty-first century when He told us to be in the world, but not of the world ([John 17). Technology has made keeping our mind onthe things of God more challenging than the pre-television days, and theconstant stream of information, advice, and opinions on social media can makeChristians feel like they’re getting sucked into a deep pit of worldlyquicksand with no way out.

As a fifty-five-year-old woman who has lived most of her life(so far!) without Internet, and who does not engage on social media, I can tellyou for a certain fact that it is possible for anyone to thrive without either.Obviously, I have chosen to use certain aspects of the Internet to myadvantage. But I temper my use, avoiding social media and places likesensationalist websites and YouTube channels. If I comment on a video – which israre – it’s to add to the content, or provide a bit of encouragement, not tomarket my “brand,” debate with anyone, or seek attention.

In other words, I don’t get into other people’s business.

Why?

Why did the apostle Paul advise followers of Yeshua, so longago, to mind their own business? Not having spoken with the man personally, Ican’t tell you for sure. But life experience and common sense, as well as asolid relationship with my heavenly Father, have illuminated several reasons.

It’s a lot easier to follow Yeshua’s command not tojudge.It’s a lot less stressful. Getting into other people’sbusiness is a good way to invite the spirit of fear into your life. And whenyou’re full of fear and anxiety, there’s no room for love. Which brings us to…Getting into people’s business isn’t love. It’smanipulation. Manipulation is thebiggest sin that everyone ignores .You might be wrong. If you stick your hand into a pile ofdung, it will end up all over you if, in the end, your friendly advice orstrong opinion is wrong. You could end up causing more harm than good to theother person.“But what about carrying each other’s burdens?”

You’re allowed to ask someone, “Are you okay?” It’s godly to offersupport and prayer if someone reveals a challenge in their life.

That’s love. That’s compassion.

I believe that when Paul told us to mind our own business,he was telling us, through the Holy Spirit, two things. Number one, we’re notto jump in and try to “rescue” people who are living or believing differentlythan we are. Yes, report a crime. Even stop it, if you can safely do so. Yes,gently correct a fellow believer if they’re obviously choosing a sinful path.

But if you’re an avid homeschooling mother, don’t try to persuade every other mother you meet who sends their children to school to believe what you do about education. Don’t be an armchairnutritionist or physician to people you meet online who talk about theirphysical woes. Don’t tell people they are idiots for taking a differentpolitical stand than you do.

In other words, don't give unsolicited advice and opinions.

Number two, we’re not to obsess over the choices of people outside of our responsibility (usually immediate family) because all that does is lead to worry. Christians worry over a lot of thingsunder the guise of “concern” or “social justice” or “righteous indignation,”but worry is a form of fear, and living in fear is living in sin.

How dare I say that? Well, I didn’t. God did.

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer andsupplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; andthe peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts andminds through Christ Jesus [Philippians 4:6-7].”

Worry is anxiety, and it comes from not trusting God withour problems. This verse cannot be more clear that God’s will for His childrenis for us to walk in peace.

We cannot do that if we are minding other people’s business.

So, how can Christians have an online presence and stillmind their own business? It’s simple. Only engage when and where the Lord leadsyou to.

Completely avoid gossip or anything that even slightlysmacks of sensationalism. Even if a Christian started it.

Conservative Christians are as guilty as anyone else of spreading such half-truths (even full-on lies).

If you end up in worry or judgment by what you read, orpotentially hurting another person due to your comments?

You totally missed God. Perhaps it would be better for youto completely disengage from social media and controversial content onlineuntil you’ve matured to a point where you no longer believe you have the answerto everyone’s problems.

Let peace and love be your guide. 

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PLEASE PIN THIS IMAGE - The real meaning of Psalm 7.What is the true meaning of Psalm 7? If you’ve beenfollowing my ongoing study of the book of Psalms, then you can surmise thatbetween the English translations (yes, even TheMessage) and our general ignorance of ancient Near East culture, theseventh Psalm contains theological gleanings that the vast majority ofChristians never pick up.

In fact, though on its surface it sounds like a simple cryfor help, it’s actually a sophisticated legal document, a raw emotional outpouring,and a masterpiece of ancient poetry all rolled into one.

If I’ve intrigued you, grab your Bible and read each verseas we unpack the hidden nuances of Psalm 7.

A what?

Like many psalms, the seventh one begins with asuperscription, or explanation before the actual piece. This one says, “AShiggaion of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning the words of Cush, aBenjaminite.”

Right away, if you knew Hebrew, you’d realize that Psalm 7isn’t your typical psalm. Scholars believe that the word shiggaion refers to a wild, emotionally intense song, suggesting itmay have been written with an irregular meter or as a passionate outcry.

This sets the tone for everything that follows. David ispouring out his heart in spiritual catharsis, responding to false accusationsfrom a dude named Cush.

The cry of every human heart.

The first two verses state, “O Lord my God, in You I put mytrust; save me from all those who persecute me, and deliver me, lest they tearme like a lion, rending me to pieces, while there is none to deliver.”

I think I have previously touched on the fact that whenancient Israelites used the phrase, YahwehElohai – Lord my God – they were using covenant language.

They were bringing up God’s legal duty to them; in thiscase, David is saying, “You are bound by covenant to protect me.”

Probably every one of my readers can relate to the fearevoked by David’s image of being torn apart as by a lion. However, the ancientunderstanding goes deeper than personal attack or destruction. The underlyingmeaning is that the cosmic order is endangered, in which the innocent will bedevoured if God doesn’t take action.

“Did I do that?”

“O Lord my God, if I have done this, if there is iniquity inmy hands, if I have repaid evil to him who was at peace with me, or haveplundered my enemy without cause, let the enemy pursue me and overtake me; yes,let him trample my life to the earth, and lay my honor in the dust. Selah [vs. 3-5].”

The self-imprecatory oath was one of the most powerful legalinstruments in ancient covenant culture. Apparently, Cush the Benjamite haslaid powerful accusations against David, and to emphasize his innocence, theking calls fire upon his own head should he be lying.

Invoking a curse on oneself was common back then, in covenantcontexts, as violating moral or social codes invited divine judgment.

The legality of the psalm has only just begun. The Hebrewword ra’, translated as “evil,”refers to covenant violation, not general wrongdoing.

The end of David’s self-curse is even more dramatic than itsounds. Allowing his enemy to lay his honor in the dust refers to much morethan his reputation. He’s saying, “If I’m guilty, let my entire being – body andsoul – be crushed.”

Calling up a divine court.

The meaning of Psalm 7:6-8 is more apparent, even withoutknowing that David has been, up until now, using legal terminology. His requestthat people assemble around God, while He sits enthroned over them, judging, isclearly a call for God to convene court. In fact, the Hebrew word translated as“rise up” or “awaken” carries the technical sense of a judge taking his seat tohear a case.

The word shaphatfor “judge” isn’t only about delivering verdicts, but also includes deliveringthe oppressed and punishing the wicked.

In verse eight, when David asks the Lord to judge himaccording to his (David’s) righteousness and integrity, he’s not claiming to bewithout sin. Rather, he’s referring to his covenantal faithfulness – which includeshis community as well as God – and his blamelessness in conduct.

It’s legal innocence language, not an assertion of moralgoodness.

Divine testing.

Psalm 7:9 reads, “Oh, let the wickedness of the wicked cometo an end, but establish the just; for the righteous God tests the hearts andmind.”

“Tests” comes from the Hebrew word bochan, which specifically means “to assay metals.” In case you’veforgotten that lesson from sixth-grade science, to assay a metal is to test itfor genuineness. It requires an intense examination.

In this context, David is saying that God tests theauthenticity of legal claims with the precision of a craftsman.

God is just.

In verses ten and eleven, we read, “My defense is of God,who saves the upright in heart; God is a just judge, and God is angry with thewicked every day.”

English (and I would imagine every other language)translators often lose the deep meaning of these verses when they translate elyon into “God.” Those who tack on “MostHigh” are closer, but the meaning of that addition is usually lost in themodern age.

The word elyon wasused by the Canaanites as well, so by invoking the term, David is reminding hislisteners that Israel’s God is not a tribal deity but the supreme judge overall nations and gods.

You have to remember that back then, even those who werefaithful to Yahweh did not necessarily not believe in the existence of othergods.

God being angry every day is a weak translation of theHebrew. The root suggests boiling rage, and not just occasional, but consistentand daily.

Getting ready for war.

“If he does not turn back, He will sharpen His sword; Hebends His bow and makes it ready. He also prepares for Himself instruments ofdeath; He makes His arrows into fiery shafts [vs. 12-13}.”

Several of the words in this passage are technical militaryterms. The idea of God appearing as a warrior to defend the innocent was notexclusive to the Israelites, but was a common belief among the various culturesof the day.

The “fiery shafts” (“flaming arrows” in more moderntranslations) referred to the ancient warfare tactic of dipping arrows in pitchand then setting them ablaze. Ancient audiences would have immediatelyrecognized such phraseology as serious military preparation.

Testosterone-laden though these two verses might be, theycan bring the modern Christian comfort, reminding us that God is all-powerfuland that when we engage in spiritual warfare, He has the most and strongestweapons in the cosmos.

And they are all at our disposal.

The conception and consequences of evil.

“Behold,” verse 14 begins, “the wicked brings forthiniquity; yes, he conceives trouble and brings forth falsehood.”

The birth metaphor implies intentional, cultivated sin, notjust spontaneous wrongdoing. Evil requires gestation and growth. It’s adeliberate process.

Think murder verses manslaughter.

The pit-digging imagery in verse 15 reflects the ancientlegal principle of “measure for measure” (such as, an eye for an eye). A commontheme in ancient Near Eastern wisdom literature, it reflects belief in moralcausality, where wrongdoing sets inevitable consequences in motion.

David’s declaration of faith.

“I will praise the Lord according to His righteousness, andwill sing praise to the name of the Lord Most High,” Psalm 7 concludes.

Where the NKJ version of the Bible says, “praise,” otherversions say, “give thanks.” They come from the Hebrew word odeh, which has its root in yadah, which implies confession andpublic acknowledgment.

Which gives new meaning to the Yiddish phrase, “yadah-yadah-yadah,”doesn’t it?

Back to being serious.

As in most – if not all – of the psalms, the praise offeredby the psalmist is in a communal setting. Here, David is declaring publiclythat God’s justice is worthy of communal worship.

Finally, by ending with “Lord Most High,” the king bringsthe psalm full circle, affirming God’s supremacy over all other powers and hisrole as the ultimate judge who vindicates the innocent.

It’s a type and shadow of the Messiah who would come athousand years later to save us from the power of evil and make us innocent bythe washing away of our sin.

And it’s done by a covenant written in the heavens by theCreator of the universe, a legal document more solid than granite, and amillion times stronger than steel.

 (For more inspiring content like this, you can follow this blog if you have a Google account, bookmark this blog, follow my blog on Goodreads, and/or check out the books in the sidebar.) 

 I enjoy visiting my family. I do. But there are these undercurrents that make the visits more stressful than a person wants when they've driven 950 miles to make them. The stresses involve an elderly parent, two siblings who will make life more complicated after said parent has passed on, and non-Christian relatives with whom I am not allowed to share my faith, or else.

Worse, my husband hates traveling, and worries for most of the drive and for much of the time we are away from home. 

The straw that almost broke the camel's back this afternoon was when we couldn't get the door to our Airbnb unlocked, and the host took her time replying to my desperate texts, voicemail, and message on the Airbnb website.

Did I tell you the temperature was above 90 and the humidity had to be at least 70%?

The host probably didn't take as long to answer as it felt like, and she was soon at our home-for-the-night, showing us how to use the mechanical lock. Utterly relieved, I took my things inside, used the bathroom, then ate some fruit while moving food from coolers to refrigerator and delegating the moving of various pieces of luggage and other travel bits to their proper places because everything has a place and everything must be in place regardless of where you are.

If, that is, you are traveling with me. 

As I flitted about, the decor of the house caught my eye, its calm atmosphere seeping into my frazzled soul. It's an old house, like all of them in the neighborhood, and much of it has been left in its original state - or has been redone to maintain its original appearance, such as the hardwood floors, doors that remind me of my grandparents' home, and vintage cupboards and drawers in the kitchen.

One closet contains TV dinner stands almost exactly like the ones my family had when I was growing up, the kind with metal legs that folded out and a semi-flexible plastic top covered in a floral design. I have my laptop on one of them as I type.

The curtains, the arrangements and knick-knacks sprinkled around the place, the wall decor, and much of the furniture form an eclectic style that is a mix of mid-century (or older) vintage and tasteful thrift store finds. The light in the corner of the dining room is covered in a beautiful, oblong orange glass that makes the bulb emit a soft, golden glow. A lamp on the dresser in one bedroom is reminiscent of the one my parents had on their dresser: all glass, including the shade, and turned on and off with a thin, metal knob. 

The house is small - maybe eight hundred square feet? maybe? - but one room flows into another, inviting everything from fellowship and laughter to a secluded retreat with a good book.

I'm in one of those secluded places now. Adjacent to the bedroom my husband picked out for us when we came in is another, slightly smaller, space. There is no door between it and the bedroom, and its original purpose has likely long since slid away with the years in which it has been inhabited.

A child's nursery? A sewing room? A home office? A mix of the three, or something different altogether?

Now it has been made up into a third sleeping area, intended, by the metal shelf to my right containing a variety of toys and small quilts, for children. 

I'm not a child, and though I'm happily married to my husband of twenty years, I am going to sleep on the daybed that extends along one entire wall. I am hoping for a better night's sleep if he is not next to me, getting up several times in the middle of the night to take care of bladder business. The curtain separating the two rooms will do nothing to keep me from hearing his snoring, however, so we will see.

A decorative metal arch rises up on the back of the daybed, a quilt splashing the bed with color with its multi-hued star sewn into the middle of it. On the wall above, three soft paintings (watercolor? I need to get a better look) of a baby and two little girls add interest to the room.  

The adjacent wall consists of a a series of windows, adorned with alternating mint green and floral curtains. The wall behind me also is mostly window, covered in the same floral curtain. 

I sit in a chair that looks like it came out of a '70s living room, minus the garish color, with a wood frame, arms of bare, varnished wood, the back and seat containing matching cushions of a more-or-less neutral woven fabric. To my left stands the one light in this space, a retro floor lamp with a metal shade, its base and pole painted a kind of turquoise. 

It's cozy, and for one night, it's mine. My solace. My place to think, to pray, to read.

To write a blog post.

A peaceful corner to help me release the pent-up stress from the past week, and to rejuvenate me for the final day of our journey back home tomorrow.

**** 

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PLEASE PIN THIS IMAGE - The real meaning of Psalm 6.
Psalm 6 is depressing. On its surface, anyway. There islittle about it to evoke the religious warm fuzzies that so many other psalmsdo.

But when you get beyond the sloppy English translations, theoriginal poem gives a much more comforting view of God… though the actualmeaning of Psalm 6 still makes it one of the most emotionally raw prayers inScripture.

Let’s dive past shallow and shaky English translations andexamine the psalm in the light of its original language as well as the cultureit came from.

Divine correction equals covenant love.

“O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger, nor chastise me inYour hot displeasure,” the Psalm begins.

If you’ve never felt these words from Psalm 6:1 at thebottom of your soul, you haven’t been a Christian very long. Yet, this isn’tabout feeling like God is punishing. The Hebrew reveals something beautifulthat English obscures.

The word tokhicheni,which is translated as “rebuke,” comes from a legal root meaning “to argue acase” or “to bring charges.” The psalmist is begging God not to bring chargesagainst him. For the ancient Israelites, this kind of correction was consideredto be an act of covenant love, like a caring father guiding a beloved child.

Similarly, teyasreni,translated as “discipline,” carries the sense of formative instruction, notmere punishment. King David isn’t begging an angry God to stop being mean tohim. Rather, he’s asking his covenant Father to correct him gently instead ofstriking out in fury.

To treat him as a son being educated, not a criminal beingsentenced.

It’s a perfect illustration of how we can approach God inour own times of correction. We can appeal to His fatherly heart, knowing thateven His discipline flows from love.

Two for one.

Another important aspect of the first verse is the twoexpressions of divine displeasure. In the New King James version, they are “anger”and “displeasure.”

The Hebrew word translated into “anger” is ’aph, which literally means “nostril.”The idea is of nostrils flaring in anger.

Chemah, translatedas “displeasure,” suggests burning heat or fury. These were two different kindsof divine displeasure that could be appealed to differently.

English translations completely miss the import of the twodifferent words, as they lose the sophisticated theological vocabulary of theoriginal Hebrew, vocabulary that teach how to understand and approach God’svarious responses to sin and injustice.

Withering like a dying plant.

Verse two reads, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak; OLord, heal me, for my bones are troubled.”

The word translated as “weak,” ’umlal, doesn’t mean merely faint or tired. The connotation is ofwithering or wasting away. It’s the same word used for a plant dying from lackof water.

David is describing his very life force draining away.

The phrase “my bones are troubled” is equally powerful. InHebrew anthropology, bones represented the very structure and strength of aperson. For them to be “troubled” implied the deepest stage of an existentialcrisis.

It’s not hyperbole, as the ancient Hebrews saw emotional,spiritual, and physical suffering as being tightly interwoven. That’s becausethey didn’t conceive of body-soul-spirit as three separate entities, but as oneintegrated entity.

Three in one. A human trinity, you might say.

So if a person stated that their bones were troubled, theywere saying that they were deeply distressed and anguished in every dimensionof their being.

“How long?” Rude, or sacred?

“My soul also is greatly troubled; but You, O Lord – how long?[vs. 3].”

You may have been raised in a denomination that taught younever to question God. About anything. Period.

However, this verse contradicts that way of thinking. TheHebrew cry of ad-matai? appears throughoutthe Psalms and prophetic literature, and when it does, it’s not just aquestion, but also a liturgical formula of covenant complaint.

When David asks, “How long?” he’s essentially saying, “I amsuffering unjustly or disproportionately. How long will You, as thecovenant-keeping God, delay in restoring justice or mercy?”

Again, to our modern ears this strikes us as rude. Butancient Israelite worship encouraged this kind of raw honesty because itdemonstrated confidence that the Lord would eventually respond.

So, too, can we bring our “how long” questions to Godwithout fear of offending Him.

Wait… what?

We modern Christians would like to pretend verse five doesn’teven exist.

“For in death there is no remembrance of You; in the gravewho will give You thanks?”

Wait. I thought that to be absent from the body was to bepresent with the Lord. I thought there was an afterlife.

This verse makes it sound like… there isn’t?

Or that death equals eternal torment in a place as far fromGod as the east is from the west.

The first thing you need to understand is that the word “Sheol”never, ever referred to a place ofeternal conscious torment. It was a realm of silence and non-being whereworship ceased. Before Yeshua came to defeat death, some believe, death meantthe soul falling into a deep, unconscious sleep. Kind of like undergoinganesthesia, they died one second and felt like the next second they weretranslated into heaven – though they had actually spent hundreds and thousandsof years in oblivion until Yeshua’s resurrection.

That place of unconscious waiting was what the ancientHebrews called “Sheol.”

David’s fear in this verse isn’t punishment after death, butthat death was going to cut off his ability to be in covenantal relationshipwith God through worship and praise.

He was basically saying, “Look, Father, if you let me die,You won’t have me around to adore and honor You anymore.”

It was a stark appeal to God’s desire to be in relationshipwith His children.

Today, it is a stark reminder that our present moments ofpraise and relationship with God are precious, and that we shouldn’t take themfor granted.

Honor, shame, and social death.

Verse seven reads, “My eye wastes away because of grief; itgrows old because of all my enemies.”

In ancient Hebrew culture, having enemies wasn’t just aboutphysical threat. It also represented a challenge to a person’s honor andstanding in the community. The enemies in question were people who would benefitfrom the psalmist’s downfall, making this as much about social death asphysical danger.

The wasting away of eyes has nothing to do with maculardegeneration, but a profound grief that encompasses the shame of being publiclyopposed and potentially defeated. Back then, shame equated to devastation of aperson’s identity and relationships.

Swimming in tears.

“I am weary with my groaning; all night I make my bed swim;I drench my couch with my tears,” David laments in Psalm 6:6.

There’s nothing wrong with the translation here, as itcaptures the vividness of the original language well. However, unless you’rea Hebrew scholar or have been taught the entire Bible by a Hebrew scholar, you’renot going to know that all the moisture in this verse is reference toagricultural irrigation.

Which was integrated, by God’s commands, into Templeworship.

In addition, in Near Eastern culture prolonged crying andfasting were external markers of lament. They were public signs of grief beforeGod.

David’s private mourning mirrors the water rituals of templeworship, turning his body’s distress into a legitimate part of prayer. Thepsalm teaches us that gut-wrenching emotion isn’t something to hide or beembarrassed about, but to present before God in transparent vulnerability andangst. It give us permission to bring our whole selves, including physicalresponse to pain, into God’s presence without fear or shame.

When prayer transforms reality.

Psalm 6:8-9 reads, “Depart from me, all you workers ofiniquity; for the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord has heard mysupplication; the Lord will receive my prayer.”

As with similar psalms, this one pivots from despair toconfidence in God in the space of a nanno-second. Why this oft-repeatedliterary technique?

For the ancient Hebrews, prayer was a transformative actthat could realign the sufferer with divine reality even before circumstanceschanged. The word shama, translatedas “heard” and “received,” carries the meaning of intent hearing with intent toact. The sowers of discord must flee because of God’s imminent response.

This isn’t about asking God for a BMW and mansion on a lakeand then thanking Him for the answer, as some kind of magicalname-it-and-claim-it formula. Rather, these verses teach us that prayer itselfcan be the hinge between despair and hope, not because it changes God’s mind,but because it changes our perspective on our circumstances.

Because it revs up our faith.

To sum up…

A deep understanding of Psalm 6 helps us to:

approach God’s correction with confidence in Hisfatherly love;bring our whole selves – body, mind, and spirit – into prayer;express honest protest and complaint as acts of faith;understand that prayer itself can be transformative;recognize the social and relational dimensions of ourstruggles; andtrust in God’s precise understanding of our various needs.

The psalm may be a type and shadow of the confidence thatbelievers should have in spiritual warfare, as the power of Christ throughfaith can defeat every invisible enemy.

I encourage you to read Psalm 6 with these new insights inmind. You will come away from it much more enriched than before.

 (For more inspiring content like this, you can follow this blog if you have a Google account, bookmark this blog, follow my blog on Goodreads, and/or check out the books in the sidebar.) 

PLEASE PIN THIS IMAGE - What I've learned about God through living in an almost tiny home I stared at the furniture arrangement on the graph paper infront of me. Tapped my pencil. Did we really need that bookcase?

I erased it. Decided coffee tables were for covers of homemagazines and rubbed that out of the picture, too.

I redid the furniture arrangement. Figured out the squarefootage needed to accommodate it, plus two small sleeping areas, a bathroom,and a basic kitchen.

“Come here!” I called to my husband. “I’ve figured out howwe can live in 600 square feet!”

That day, I’d been sitting at themuch-too-large-for-the-three-of-us dining table in ourmuch-too-large-for-the-three-of-us 2100 square-foot suburban house. I’d beenbinging on tiny house videos on YouTube, increasingly more intrigued by the ingenioushacks even couples with a few children were coming up with in order to thrivein homes under 500 square feet.

Fast forward about thirteen years, and my husband, son and Ihave been living in 576 square feet for almost ten of those years. A year andtwo thirds before that, we lived in a sixteen-by-twelve foot Tuff Shed with alarge loft.

One hundred ninety-two square feet on the main floor.

The reasons for downsizing to that extreme were bothpractical and spiritual.

I don’t like housecleaning. J and I both despise the cost of maintaining a large house.We weren’t sure how far our nest egg would take us if wecontinued to live in a large place after J’s super-early retirement.We both wanted to reduce our utility bills. For J, it wasfor peace of mind. For me, it was about wanting to be the best steward over theenvironment as possible.

Which was possibly the biggest factor for me in wanting tobuild as small a home as we could get away with.

When it came down to it, I strongly felt that God wascalling us to move to raw land, build a small house, and live more simply.

Buyer’s remorse.

When we first moved into the shed, which J had finished outwith flooring and insulation, it felt like a dream come true. Every day feltlike an adventure.

Of course it did. I finally didn’t have to care for our sonby myself (he was a handful; I wouldn’t realize he was neurodivergent foranother two years), J didn’t have to go out to a job he’d quit enjoying, andour son had five acres to run around on.

But the honeymoon phase didn’t last, as is typical for honeymoon phases. In fact, it didn’t even last an entire year. By thatfall, the reality of the hard work required to manage a large garden, thehigher humidity compared to the city we left a mere two and a half hour driveto the southwest, and the stress of not having a plumbed house (a differentblog post altogether) was weighing down on all of us.

I began questioning whether God had actually called us tothis lifestyle. I blamed God for my broken arm in October of our first yearthere (“If You hadn’t led us here, this would never have happened!”). None ofus had any privacy. I was beginning to think I’d rather go back to having 2100square feet of floors to clean than to continue living in a space where youcould barely turn around without bumping into something.

Or someone.

Of course, moving into our newly-built 576-square-footearth-sheltered house about a year later was an upgrade. I felt like I couldfinally breathe.

And turn around safely. 

But because it’s made out of concrete, we have to constantlyrun a ceiling fan and machines to keep the humidity down, which means we haveto keep the rooms as open as possible.

The bathroom is the only room with a ceiling and doors.

And we are all three introverted autistics.

The honeymoon phase lasted longer with this house, but foryears I’ve had a love-hate relationship with the space. Numerous times I’vequestioned whether J and I missed God about this simple living thing. I’vesalivated over videos of single women my age living in normal-sized homes.Dreamed of running away and living in a cabin by myself.

I still wonder today whether, had I known how turning fiftywould sap the energy out of me, increase my sensitivity to noise and people, ifI would have pushed for such a small house.

However…

He’s working things for good.

During the past couple of years, the Lord has been showingme why He brought us here, why He laid on our hearts to live in an almost-tinyhome. It’s revealed things about Him, and things about myself.

Thing #1: God wants me to be selfless.

I freely admit that I have struggled with selfishness myentire life. I know I’m alone in that problem, so please try not to be shocked.Just pray for me.

Back to being sort of serious: there’s nothing like havingto share 576 square feet with two other people to strip away your selfishness.

You have to compromise on just about everything. Furniturearrangement, bedtime, waking up time, what activities are done where, when tohave a conversation and how loud you can have it.

I haven’t arrived, but during the past year or so I’ve beendoing a lot of letting go of my own wants and learning that I can liveperfectly well without them (say, for example, wanting to sing while I do thelaundry). I am, after all, a product of my environment, having been taught(including by Christians!) that my happiness is the most important thing, andthat I have a right to do everything that brings me that happiness.

Ladies and gentleman, show me where that philosophy is inthe Bible, and I’ll show you one bridge in Brooklyn and another one in SanFrancisco that are for sale.

The fact is, we all have taken on an entitled attitude tosome extent or another, twisting selfish desires into “needs.”

We need ourspace.

We need toexpress ourselves.

We need completefreedom in our lives to follow our whims.

I’ve learned that God calls His people to live just theopposite of those modern Western ideals.

Thing #2: God is a servant, and I am called to be likeHim.

A corollary to #1 is servanthood. Yeshua displayed His willfor His disciples the evening that He got down on His knees with a cloth andbasin and washed their feet.

Face it: most Christians only give lip service to, well,service. We think that if we watch babies in the church nursery once a month,we’ve served. Or if we feed and clothe our own children, we’ve served.

But when you live in a small space with other people, youlearn the true meaning of submissiveness and servanthood. You have to bewilling to give up some of your time and some of your ideas on the perfect lifein order to help the others.

If you don’t cooperate – a kind of service in and of itself –or offer a helping hand when needed, life gets tense and unpleasant.

But when you do, you become a lot more aware of what Yeshuameant about laying down your life for the people you love.

Thing #3: God loves me anyway.

Living in a small space amplifies not only your own flawsand imperfections, but those of the other people you’re living with. There’s noplace to hide.

You can either get frustrated and resentful over it, or lookat God’s character and go the other way.

God tolerates my imperfections. Really, He embraces them. Heis, after all, the One in charge of my existence. And since He accepts myimperfections, I need to accept the imperfections of those around me.

Especially those living with me.

Thing #4: God is worthy of my honor and respect;therefore, so is everyone around me.

Though a servant, God nevertheless is worthy to receivehonor and glory. Much more than any other being that has ever existed, Goddeserves our respect.

Created in His image, we deserve each other’s respect.

Which means, my husband and my son deserve my respect. In ahouse this small, that often translates as maintaining appropriate boundaries.

Full transparency: I’m still a work in progress on thisfront. When I have something to say, I want to say it now, and I often do – even when J is concentrating on somethingthat’s more important to him than what I “need” to blab about.

Still, I let our son have his space (he needs a lot of it)and trust that he’s keeping his room clean enough for his liking. When I’m in a mood,J keeps his emotional distance because I can’t put any physical distancebetween us. 

Yeshua demonstrated boundaries in order to care for Himself and getHis work done. Living in a small space, I am learning the importance of thataspect of relationships much better than I could in a large house.

Speaking of space…

Thing #5: God loves small spaces.

No, that’s not in the Bible. I’m not inventing a newdoctrine.

But there’s something about a constrained environment thatbrings people closer to God. Part of it has to do with the coziness with otherpeople. To rein in your fleshly, selfish impulses, to garner the strength to bekind and patient, you have to continually lean on the power of the Holy Spirit.Continually access the fruits that are within you by His presence.

Part is that when you live in a smaller space, there is lessto do. Which means more time to remind yourself to live in the moment,which brings you closer to God.

In our house, the quiet is a big key. We all wear headphoneswhen we’re listening to or watching something in our separate places. Exceptfor the noise of the A/C window unit or dehumidifier, and the ambient noise ofnature from outside when those machines aren’t running - and as J and our son don’thave a propensity to talk - I can hear myself think and a pin drop at the sametime, for a lot of the time.

That also means that I can hear the wordless voice of theLord within a lot more clearly.

Can you have quiet in a big house? Audible quiet, yes. Butin a large house, there is a continual muttering from the floors in the manyrooms, along with the furniture, reminding you of the dust and dust mites andclutter that need to be cleaned up and tidied.

At least for women, there is.

So. There’s quiet, and there’s quiet.

Maybe it’s just me. Maybe I’m stretching things. Or maybe I’mthe only person in the world who had to downsize in order to deepen myrelationship with God.

But I don’t think so.

Thing #6: God dwells in simplicity.

More transparency: with the three of us being neurodivergent,and only recently realizing that fact, we’ve experienced a lot of complications intransitioning from the city life to a rural life.

Autistic people don’t exactly thrive on change andadventure.

That said, once we settled and realized that God had notcalled us here in order to be self-sufficient in food (long story), our soulsbecame as quiet as our house without the dehumidifier on.

Yes, we have chores. Yes, we sometimes argue. Yes, weencounter stressful situations.

But when you’re living in a small home, your lifeautomatically becomes simpler.

There is less to clean.There is less to maintain.There is less to repair.There is less room for “stuff," therefore less to worry about. And to clean. And to maintain. And to repair.

All of that “less” leads to more.

More time to talk to your loved ones and friends.More time to play.More time to think.More time to pray.More time to relax and just be.

Which is where God is – in your being, not your doing.

And chances are high, you spend much more of your wakinghours doing, rather than simply being. That makes encountering God much moredifficult.

Because He dwells in simplicity.

Thing #7: God takes care of His children.

Being highly sensitive, none of us did well with the variousstresses of city living. The weekend-long noises of lawn mowers, weed trimmers,and leaf blowers never failed to shoot my anxiety levels into the atmosphere.Driving in traffic wasn’t much better.

My husband and son only recently confessed their loathing ofcrowds of any size. I had believed that they, like me, just didn’t care for thesocial scene. But for them, the issue is much more deleterious and insidious.

At one point when we lived in the 'burbs, we had neighbors who engaged in several loud,midnight domestic disputes before the wife finally took their son and left. Themere possibility of having people that close who could get violent caused a lowlevel of stress you can’t be aware of until you leave the city.

At least if you’re highly sensitive.

I could give more examples, but suffice to say that cityliving was much more stressful for us than rural living has been.

The same for living in a very small house compared to livingin a large one.

God brought us here because He loves us. He knew we would doa lot better in this environment.

God takes care of His children, even if it doesn’t alwaysseem that way.

That may be the most important lesson I’ve learned about Godwhile living in 576 square feet. 

 (For more inspiring content like this, you can follow this blog if you have a Google account, bookmark this blog, follow my blog on Goodreads, and/or check out the books in the sidebar.) 

PLEASE PIN THIS IMAGE - The true meaning of Psalm 5 Psalm 5 is a beloved morning prayer that countlessChristians have turned to for comfort. Yet, even as we read the words, we missthe depth of meaning of this ancient poem due to our distance from the cultureand awkward attempts to translate the nuanced Hebrew language.

If you’re interested in understand the true meaning of Psalm5, keep reading.

The raw emotion of wordless prayer.

“Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my meditation. Giveheed to the voice of my cry, my King and my God, for to you I will pray [vs.1-2].”

In a previous post on Psalm 1, I brought out the factthat the word translated as “meditation” refers to a muttering aloud. However,in Psalm 5:1, it carries the meaning of a stifled cry or inward moan.

It’s not a calm, articulate prayer, but a groaning of deepanguish from someone too distressed to form words. Much more emotional than wecan glean from English translations, which make the prayer sound more composedthan it actually is.

Morning prayer as sacred ritual.

The third verse states, “O Lord, in the morning you hear myvoice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.”

In attempt to remain consistent, I’ve been using the NewKing James Version for my past couple of article about Psalms. But the NKJVloses the meaning of this verse even worse than other translations, so here I’mswitching to the English Standard Version.

Verse three is likely the most misunderstood verse in Psalm5. The Hebrew phrase arakh lekha isoften weakly translated as “lay my requests” or “prepare.”

But arakh means toarrange or to set in order – the exact same verb used in Leviticus forarranging sacrificial offerings on the altar. In other words, the psalmist isn’tcasually mentioning morning prayer. He’s describing the deliberate arrangementof his prayers with the same sacred intentionality as a priest preparing asacrifice.

The word that follows, tsaphpah,suggests waiting attentively to divine response, reminiscent of the time Elijahprayed for God to accept his sacrifice on the water-soaked altar.

The gist is that morning prayer is a liturgical act, notmere devotional habit.

Raise your hand if you feel as convicted as I do over thatrevelation.

Yeah. Thought so. ;)

He won’t put up with it.

“For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, norshall evil dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand in Your sight; You hateall workers of iniquity. You shall destroy those who speak falsehood; the Lordabhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man [4-6].”

If those verses don’t tell you where you stand with God,nothing will!

Seriously, these verses establish what we might call the “legalgeography” of God’s presence. The Hebrew gurtranslated as “dwell” would be better phrased as “to sojourn as a guest.”

In ancient Near Eastern culture, a traveler being allowed totemporarily reside in a foreign country was a big deal. Readers and hearers ofthis psalm would understand the huge implication: wicked people aren’t allowedto hang out with God even temporarily.

He will not be in the same room as evil.

Similarly, the phrase “shall not stand in Your sight” evokesthe ancient practice of standing before a king. If you recall the book ofEsther, to stand before a king means that the monarch offered you privilege andapproval. The wicked are not legally allowed a divine audience, especially inworship contexts.

That God “hates” workers of iniquity should be a no-brainer,but it doesn’t refer to the modern way we use the word. Rather, it’s aboutcovenantal rejection.

God refuses to be in relationship with those who violate thecovenant. It’s a theme repeated many times in the various book of the prophets.

Temple geography, sacred orientation.

Verses seven and eight read, “But as for me, I will comeinto Your house in the multitude of Your mercy; in fear of You I will worshiptoward Your holy temple. Lead me, O Lord, in Your righteousness because of myenemies; make your way straight before my face.”

Psalm 5:7 challenges modern worship. Where the NKJV reads “worship,”other translations say, “bow down.” This isn’t the polite bow of greeting ofVictorian England. It refers to prostrating oneself on the ground, face down.

It is, physically speaking, the utmost expression ofhumility and vulnerability.

In verse eight, the verb translated as “lead,” combined with“make Your way straight,” may have referenced literal processional pathsleading to ancient temples. The psalmist is praying for a clear, righteous pathinto God’s presence – one not obscured by deceit or enemies.

The power of the tongue.

In verse nine, we read, “For there is no faithfulness intheir mouth; their inward part is destruction; their throat is an open tomb;they flatter with their tongue.”

The ancient Hebrew worldview understood speech as powerful.Words didn’t just describe reality, they shaped it (see James 3:6 and Proverbs18:21).

The word havvah,translated as “destruction” suggests moral corruption, and the reference to thetomb or grave illustrates the wicked as speaking death rather than life. It’s asharp contrast to the psalmist’s own words at the beginning of the psalm.

Let them ever shout for joy.

I have a pocket-sized Gideon New Testament-Psalm-ProverbsBible that’s almost as old as God Himself, and which contains a font size muchtoo small for my fifty-five-year-old eyes. However, about a hundred years ago Iused it to memorize certain verses that struck me, and Psalm 5:11 is marked asone of them with a blue pen which has long since gone on to Writing UtensilHeaven.

Let me type it out by heart. 

“But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You; Letthem ever shout for joy because You defend them [I have to cheat now]; letthose who also love Your name be joyful in You.”

Then there’s the final verse: “For You, O Lord, will blessthe righteous; with favor You will surround him as with a shield.”

Like many of the psalms it begins with an individual petition,then ends with communal imagery. Most Western Christians glaze right over thefact, seeing only themselves as “the righteous,” completely ignoring the truththat the verses are referring to a large group of people.

A corporate entity, not a single one.

Then there is the phrase “take refuge,” totally flattened inthe English translation. The Hebrew word, chasah,is a technical term for seeking asylum in a sanctuary city or temple. The wordtranslated as either “defend” or “protect” means “to weave a covering.”

Modern Christians take the verses in the abstract. But theoriginal intent was to describe a concrete sanctuary. The psalmist envisionsfellow worshipers of God as sheltered and rejoicing together in God’s presence.

The final blessing is like a royal decree. God legallyblesses and surrounds believers with protective favor. In fact, the wordtranslated as “shield,” tzinnah,refers to a large body shield that would be used in formation fighting. Thissuggests corporate rather than individual protection.

We are His body. Not isolated worshippers who each get toinvent our own idea of God.

Selah.

Despite its brevity, Psalm 4 is rich in nuance and theology.In the Bible, it’s attributed to King David, and has been used through thecenturies as an evening prayer.

It also contains meaning that most Christians miss, and Iwant to touch on that in this article.

Right off the bat…

The psalm begins with a preface. 

“To the choirmaster:with stringed instruments. A Psalm of David.”

The word translated as “choirmaster,” lamnatseach, actually means “to make victorious” or “to cause toendure.” The use of the Hebrew word suggests that the psalm was intended notjust for liturgical performance but for spiritual victory and endurance.

Whose righteousness?

“Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness!” the psalmbegins. “You have relieved me in my distress; have mercy on me, and hear myprayer.”

Elohai tzedki isusually translated as “God of my righteousness,” but that erases the culturalbackground of the writer. In ancient Israel, tzedek, or righteousness, was relational and judicial. It had to dowith being in right standing with the law and judges, especially in disputes.

Thus, David is appealing to God as his divine judge,asserting that he is in the right and asking God to uphold that fact publicly.A much better translation of the Hebrew would be, “God who shows me justice.”

Not just any men.

The second verse states, “How long, o you sons of men, willyou turn my glory to shame? How long will you love worthlessness and seekfalsehood?”

The Hebrew word bneiish isn’t a generic reference to males, but specifically connotes noblemenor other men with influence and status. So the king is likely addressingpowerful men who are opposing and slandering him.

Next we come to a point that we’ll be revisiting repeatedly:in ancient Near East culture, public honor was crucial, and to be shamed wasequivalent to being publically flogged naked and then made to stand tied up fordays on end, inches deep in your bodily waste.

In other words, shame was a big deal, to be avoided at allcosts.

“Worthlessness” refers to idolatrous or deceptive hopes and “falsehood”to false accusations or manipulation.

Godly?

In the next verse, we read, “But know that the Lord has setapart for Himself him who is godly; the Lord will hear when I call to Him.”

The word “godly” here is nearly a mistranslation, as modernChristians have a particular idea what living a godly life means. In theoriginal Hebrew, however, the word used (chasid)refers to covenant loyalty. David is saying that he is confident that God willhear his prayer because of the covenant relationship they have, not becauseDavid believes himself to be particularly pious (which shows that he had a gooddose of self-awareness!).

Be angry…REALLY?

“Be angry, and do not sin. Meditate within your heart onyour bed, and be still [vs. 4].”

If you’ve believed your whole life that the beginning ofthis verse is a command, allow me to begin to gently sledgehammer this idea outof your mind.

The Hebrew word translated as “be angry” is rigzu, which is derived from ragaz. The meaning of that word refersto trembling with fear, agitation, or emotional intensity.

You would therefore be within reason to think that the verseis saying, “Don’t let strong emotions tempt you to sin.” While that’s a goodmotto to live by, scholars believe the best translation is along the lines of, “Tremblewith awe or conscience, and do not sin.” Why? Because for the ancient Hebrews,such trembling could be a response to divine conviction or justice.

The phrase is more about inner self-examination than aboutmanaging emotions.

The second half of the verse refers to the ancient practiceof nighttime reflection. Bedtime was a spiritual checkpoint. I suppose thiscould very well be where St. Ignatius of Loyola got his idea of the “Prayer of Examen.”

A final interesting point to make about this verse is that “bestill” isn’t about silent meditation, but a physical posture of submissionbefore God.

Um… what?

The fifth verse states, “Offer the sacrifices ofrighteousness, and put your trust in the Lord.”

The first nuance you may not have understood (I didn’t) isthat King David is still talking to his opponents.

Second, in a world that long ago ended sacrificing livingbeings to the gods, the richness of phrasing around sacrifices gets lost. Inancient culture, sacrifices without righteous behavior were consideredoffensive to God. The first chapter of Isaiah has the profit railing on hisfellow Israelites for following the religious rules while living deeply in sin.

Scholars believe that this verse shows David calling hisopponents to repentance. Their offering a sacrifice of righteousness would be aturning away of their persecution of God’s anointing. The sacrifices likelyrefer to the specific peace offerings that were supposed to restore covenantrelationship after conflict. In essence, David is saying, “Get right with Godand quit bugging me!”

Verse six.

“There are many who say, ‘Who will show us any good?’ Lord,lift up the light of Your countenance upon us.”

The question in this verse is believed to come from acynical or despairing public, a group who feels maligned or abandoned. It’scountered with the writer of the psalm echoing the priestly benediction inNumbers, a benediction which invokes God’s favor. His countenance or face,according to ancient culture, symbolized His presence, approval, andprotection. So the simple prayer is nevertheless heavy with meaning.

That’s a lot of gladness!

Verse seven reads, “You have put gladness in my heart, morethan in the season that their grain and wine increased.”

In this day where most people live in the city and findtheir provisions at one of many available grocery stores, we totally miss howdeep and rich this statement is. Back in the ancient Near East, grain and winewere symbols of blessing and security. To have an abundance of both equated towealth and/or stability.

Thus, David is contrasting inner spiritual joy with materialprosperity. He’s saying that the inner abundance that comes from a relationshipwith God is exponentially greater than external gain.

Good night.

“I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; for You alone, OLord, make me dwell in safety.”

Similar to Psalm 3, Psalm 4:8 is an expression ofprofound trust. In those days, to go to to sleep when enemies were after youwas tantamount to drawing a red target on your chest. So to be able to go tosleep in the midst of being chased by enemies was to put all of your trust insomeone to protect you.

In addition, the Hebrew word bavetach, translated as “in safety,” conveys that kind of trust,along with the feeling of security such deep and complete trust brings.

With this new knowledge of the meaning of Psalm 4 in hand, Iencourage you to read it through slowly. May its eternal meaning nourish yoursoul today.

 

PLEASE PIN THIS IMAGE - The true meaning of Psalm 3.The book of Psalms is filled with desperate cries for helppushed up against declarations of recognition of God’s majesty and care for Hispeople. The third psalm is the first, and though it is, on the surface, relatedto military troubles, it’s deeper meaning is one that many Jews and Christianshave clung to during difficult periods of their lives. Rereading it now, Iwonder if I would have had a lot easier time emotionally and psychologicallyduring my recent bedridden weeks if I had soaked in its hopeful words earlyon during my trial.

But if you’re like most Christians, you’ve been taught toread the psalms metaphorically or allegorically, with little to no idea of theoriginal meanings. So for the moment, let’s set aside what we want the ancient poem to mean, and takea look at what the author originally intended it to mean.

Many pains in the hind end.

“Lord, how they have increased who trouble me! Many are theywho rise up against me,” bemoans the author in the first verse of Psalm 3.

What is translated is “have increased” and “many” in thisverse, as well as the “many” in verse two, comes from the Hebrew word rabbim. The repetition is a literarytechnique meant to create an intensifying effect to suggest not just anincrease in number of enemies, but an overwhelm of military forces.

Qamim, translatedas “rise up against,” is often, in the ancient literature, used to refer topolitical rebellion or military uprising. The historical reference in thispsalm is David’s flight from his son, Absalom, who was attempting a coup.

Everybody gets Psalm 3:2 wrong.

“Many are they who say of me, ‘There is no help for him inGod.’”

Unless you are intimately acquainted not only with Hebrew,but ancient covenantal language, you’ve misinterpreted this verse for your entire life.

I know I have.

First of all, the enemies’ quote isn’t an observation aboutthe author’s disparaging circumstances. It’s a taunt.

And not just any taunt. It’s a public denial of God’s favorand covenantal faithfulness.

This is huge, because at the time the psalm was written,people interpreted protection and deliverance as signs of God’s favor. To saythat a person had no salvation in God was equivalent to stating that God hadabandoned them. The words are a cruel attempt to shame the target, a disgracefuland hard punch to a person’s identity as a beloved of God.

The first use of Selah.

Psalm 3 is the first psalm to use the word selah, and it uses it three times, inverses two, four, and eight. If you’re like me, you’ve heard that the meaningis something to the effect of “pause and think about that.”

What you likely haven’tbeen told is that the presence of the word in this and any other psalmindicates a musical or liturgical pause. Thus, the psalm was specifically composedfor corporate worship. Rather than an individual lament, the poem was to beused as part of a communal liturgy during national crisis.

In addition, selahis likely a cue to feel the theological weight of the previous statement. Whileyou’re pausing and thinking, you’re supposed to put yourself in the place ofthe writer so you can experience the full range of emotion they were likelyfeeling.

The Divine Warrior.

Verse three states, “But You, O Lord, are a shield for me,my glory and the One who lifts up my head.”

The Hebrew word magentranslated as "shield" is specific, meaning a small, round shield that was usedin close combat. The implication is that God’s protection is intimate andpersonal rather than distant.

Also, the verse implies that the shield was not onlyfront-facing, but surrounded the body. So God’s protection is complete,fending off arrows and swords on all sides.

Moving on, the words “my glory” are a bit awkwardlytranslated. In context, the writer is saying that God’s presence is his truehonor; in other words, he can have no real glory without God.

Finally, in ancient courts, a king would literally lift asubordinate’s chin as a gesture of favor and restoration to honor. Thus, todeclare that God is the lifter of your head is to recognize His majesty andpower, the only One who can make things right in your life once again.

Where is God’s hill?

In the fourth verse, we read, “I cried to the Lord with myvoice, and He heard me from His holy hill.”

If you know your Old Testament, you know that the firstJewish temple was built on a high hill; some even call it a mountain. “His holyhill” is a specific reference to God’s presence in the temple on Mount Zion, toHis earthly throne.

The meaning of the verse is more poignant when you rememberthat it refers back to David fleeing his own son. To stay alive, David didn’tdare return to the temple, yet his prayer reflects his confidence that God, number one, still reigns there despite the political upheaval; and number two,can hear David’s cry despite the physical distance between them.

More profoundly, the verse is a contradiction to what hisenemies believe, that God has abandoned him. It proclaims the writer’sconfidence that he is still in covenant with his God.

A wonderful verse for neurodivergent postmenopausal womento claim.

Okay, so I say that with my tongue firmly embedded in my cheek... though both neurodivergent and postmenopausal women tend to have trouble sleeping. But verse fivedepicts the peace and calm that manifests physically when you fully put yourtrust in the Lord.

“I lay down and slept. I awoke, for the Lord sustained me.” 

The Hebrew construction of the verse emphasizes a completedaction, that David slept peacefully despite being in mortal danger. Recall thatat the time, he was hiding in caves. It wasn’t as though he could lock a doorand set an alarm. There weren’t any doors to lock!

Back then, a soldier going to sleep meant making himselffully vulnerable. He could only do so in peace if he knew he had comradeswatching his back.

The verse illustrates how much trust David carried for a Godhe had never seen.

Broken teeth? What’s the point?

“Arise, O Lord, save me, O my God! For You have struck allmy enemies on the cheekbone. You have broken the teeth of the ungodly [vs. 7].”

The first thing to understand about this verse is that“Arise, O Lord” was an Israelite military cry, used in battle processions asthe ark moved forward.

The next thing just might blow your mind.

In ancient cultures, to strike someone’s cheek was as agesture of humiliation, and breaking the teeth is a metaphor for destroying theenemy’s ability to "devour"with their violence. This verse, then, is a request for divine warfarethat leads to enemy defeat and public shame.

What’s so mind-blowing about this? In Matthew 5, Yeshuasaid, “If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheekalso [vs 39].” For hundreds of years, ignorant Christians (sorry, that’s mostof us) have been taught that Yeshua was against violence in any form, includingself-defense.

I have to wonder how many Christians have allowed theirfaces, even their bodies, to be beaten to a pulp, thanks to the totally wronginterpretation of His words.

Because His statement isn't anti-self-defense. Instead, it's referring to shame and humiliation. Hemeans, if somebody talks smack about you, trying to humiliate you, let themkeep on talking. Shut up and let God deal with them. Remember, vengeancebelongs to the Lord? That’s part of the faith walk, part of trusting.

"...not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing [1 Peter 3:9]." In this verse, the apostle was clarifying the meaning of Yeshua's admonition to "turn the other cheek."

The covenantal blessing formula

“Salvation belongs to the Lord. Your blessing is upon yourpeople. Selah.” So ends the thirdPsalm.

The first thing to notice is the inclusion of all Israel. The prayer segues from personal petition to corporate intercession,showing the remembrance that salvation is not a private possession, but acovenantal benefit for all of God’s people.

I’ll end by homing in on the word “salvation” – in sometranslations, “deliverance” – which comes from the Hebrew word yeshu’ah. You got it – that’s the nameMary and Joseph (really Mariam and Yosef) gave their son the night He was bornin a stable in Bethlehem.

Because He is the Savior.

I don’t think it’s coincidence that the final phrase “Yourblessing is upon your people” employs technical covenantal language, and thatit comes just after the use of yeshu’ah.

Yeshua -- the Son of God -- is the fulfillment of God’s promise to save Israel.

And "Israel" includes those of us who are grafted into the family by faith in the Savior.

Selah.

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PLEASE PIN THIS IMAGE - My return to my first love of writing picture books.I shrunk into my seat, half embarrassed, half proud. I didn’tknow my teacher, Mr. Gilbertson, was going to photocopy each Thanksgiving storythat his third-grade students had written, then hand a copy out toeverybody. Looking through the stapled mass, I wondered if some of my peerswould have done a better job if they had known of our teacher's sneaky plan. Some of the kids hadn’t writtenmore than a paragraph. The next longest story besides mine was a page long.

My Thanksgiving story? Four pages. 

Okay, so my printedhandwriting was pretty big, but it arguably outdistanced every other story by amile in word count.

When Mr. Gilbertson had made the assignment, I hadn’tintended to create the biggest and the best. But he’d told us to write aThanksgiving story, and in my eight-year-old mind, a story had interestingcharacters and a beginning, middle and end with an interesting plot. With allmy heart I believed most of the other students had thought that, too, and weregoing to write a story-story, not a boring retelling of the pilgrims or amundane description of Thanksgiving at their house.

It was the first time I had an inkling that I had a knackfor writing stories that other people didn’t.

But it wasn’t my first “publication.” That summer, I hadwritten, illustrated, and bound (stapled the pages together) a children’s bookentitled, “Anne Learns to Spell.” I wrote another title in what could have beena long series related to this little girl, “Anne’s Birthday Party.”

That one I never finished illustrating, probably because myADHD brain got bored with the project.

After my brilliant masterpiece entitled “Turkey Escapes,”the harrowing journey of a domesticated fowl desperately trying not to be themain course for the upcoming Thanksgiving menu, I continued writing the longeststories of my classmates all the way through seventh grade. My teachers must have thought I had some talent, too, as I earned aCreative Writing award at the end of the school year three years in a row.

Not to brag, but that was before elementary teachers wererequired to give every child somesort of certificate at the end of the year. (And with that, she remembers oneof the most annoying year-end tasks during her years as a teacher in the 90sand early 2000s.)

In the late nineties, creeping up on thirty years of age, Iwrote several stories that I hoped one day would be turned into children’spicture books. One of them was entitled, There’s an Elephant Sitting in the Apple Tree. I’m not sure why I never triedsubmitting it to agents or publishers; maybe all the rejections from children’smagazines for my perfectly good (really!) stories had disheartened me.

I think I also decided I’d make a lot more money if I couldpublish novels, so put all my focus there.

And there’s where I went wrong.

All creatives* know that once money becomes their priority,creative expression – even true calling – goes down the drain. Although even asa teen I enjoyed reading novels, I secretly wished I could keep on readingpicture books. I didn’t because I knew people (including siblings) would makefun of me. In fact, I remember reading picture books as long as I thought Icould get away with it – into the fifth or sixth grade, I think.

But not just any picture books. Not the kinds with serious,real-life stories. Not the historical fiction, or the ones with main characterswhose parents were fighting all the time, or who were faced with a tragic loss.

Nope. Not me.

I mean the ones with talking animals, fairies and light magic,children getting into silly scrapes. Ones with either cartoonish illustrations, or illustrations full of color and warmth and whimsy.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I was drawn to the "little kid" picture books (though, early-reader chapter books like the “Mr. Putter and Tabby”series qualify). One of the joys of an otherwise stressful teaching career wasbeing able to read aloud such books to my students.

I enjoyed them as much as they did. In many cases, probablymore.

Finding my way back.

If you clicked on the title of the “elephant in apple tree” bookabove, you’ll see that I recently self-published it.

Now, I wish I hadn’t.

Well, sort of. I was happy to help out a work-at-home mom bypaying her to illustrate my book. Colleen did a perfect job, in my view.

But.

I found out too late that purchasing book promos is nolonger a profitable way to market. And that had been my original marketingplan, to promo the e-book, and make a profit when parents purchased thepaperback. Eventually, the profit would equal enough money to pay Colleen toillustrate the next book in what I’d intended to be a four-book series.

But the self-publishing landscape has become over-saturatedduring the past few years (thanks in no small part to the immoral, lazy cheatersasking AI to write books for them), such that it now takes a lot of upfrontmoney to build an email list and buy enough promos and enough ads in order toget enough readers who will potentially buy enough of your books so that yourbank account will eventually get – and stay – in the black.

But there is no guarantee, and chances are really small these thatwill happen. 

I don't care what a fake self-pub guru on a YouTube ad promises in their ad copy. 

Which brings me to the point: I wish I had worked up thenerve to query agents regarding the book. It’s the best in the series I hadintended to create, “Adventures in Silly,” and I wanted to be able to tellwhichever agent might have been interested that I had three more suchmanuscripts ready to go, if a publisher were interested.

My mistake notwithstanding, I’ve decided to take the nextbook in the series and pitch it to an agent who represents children’s picturebooks.

And I’ve decided, whether anyone ever accepts it or not, tokeep writing for children my primary fiction focus.

The little girl inside me demands it. She finds it much moreenjoyable and fulfilling than writing novels. She doesn’t care about makingmoney, she just cares about expressing herself.

Hmm. Could this have been part of what Yeshua meant when Hesaid, “Let the little children come onto Me…for of such is the Kingdom of God”?

Anyway.

What silly childhood dream has been knocking on your heart lately? Maybe it’s finallytime to answer.

With a big, hearty “YES!”

 

*By “creative,” I mean people who create their own authenticproduct. Cheaters who ask AI to generate product and then put their name on itare excluded from this precious group of hardworking, imaginative individuals.

PLEASE PIN THIS IMAGE - What is Psalm 2 really about?What is the meaning of Psalm 2? Certain verses of the secondPsalm have been interpreted as hints of a Messianic coming, but there is a lotof ancient Near Eastern culture infused within the words that add much moredepth than the vast majority of Christians are aware of.

Unlike Psalm 1, the poem that follows it hardly evokeswarm fuzzies. But it does provide acompelling view into how God’s justice reins over the evil in the world. Anddespite its difference in tone with Psalm 1, many scholars believe that thefirst two psalms are meant to go together.

Let’s have a look at the second psalm in the Bible.

Why do the nations rage?

Verse one begins the psalm with a question: “Why do thenations rage and the peoples plot a vain thing?”

The Hebrew word translated as “plot” is yehgu. Interestingly, the word translated as “meditate” in thefirst psalm comes from the same root. There, the meaning referring to how God’speople murmur His law to themselves.

In Psalm 2:1, the same root describes rebellious scheming. AHebrew reader who is paying attention and reading the Psalms in order wouldnotice this contrast in thinking between the righteous and the wicked. Like I just stated, many Hebrew scholars believe the first two psalms were intended to be readtogether, as a pair.

The Lord and His Anointed.

“The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers takecounsel together, against the LORD and against His Anointed [vs. 2].”

In this verse, the word “anointed” originates from theHebrew word Mashiach, which directlytranslates into “Messiah.”

However, for the ancient Jews, Mashiach referred to a king who had been anointed with oil, as whenthe prophet Samuel sought out David and anointed him to be king of Israel afterSaul. It didn’t mean a divine or eternal figure.

On the other hand, back in those days kings were consideredto have been appointed by God to act on His behalf on earth. The verse was notwritten to foretell a coming Savior, but was in reference to King David.

Divine laughter.

Moving on to verses four and five, we read: "He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall hold themin derision. Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, and distress them in His deep displeasure.”

Although you can get an idea of what kind of laughter God isdoing from the context, the English doesn’t make it as clear as the Hebrew. Theword translated as “laughs,” yischaq,points to divine superiority over human pretensions. It’s not amused laughter,but scornful.

“Do you pipsqueaks reallythink you can get away with that? Seriously?”is the sentiment.

Since ancient peoples believed that their kings reflecteddivine authority, rebellion against the king was part and parcel to rebellionagainst God.

Spare the rod…

“You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them intopieces like a potter’s vessel…[vs. 9]”

If you’re like me and picture a piece of rebar when you readthis verse, you’re a little off. The rod of iron actually refers to a shepherd’sstaff made of iron.

And if you think that the words reflect physical violence, well... yes and no.Primarily, the iron staff here is a symbol of absoluteand unbreakable authority.

The “potter’s vessel” refers to a clay pot. Thus, the verseillustrates the ease with which the king’s enemies will be destroyed (probably by violent means).

If you want to impose a spiritual interpretation on theverse, you’re probably correct to do so, especially if God had inspired theauthor of the psalm to unwittingly infuse it with hints of a future messianicrule. As Christians, through Christ’s authority and power, we have the abilityto strike down demons as easily as a clay pot can be smashed to pieces.

Christians sort of get this verse wrong.

In verse seven, Psalm 2 reads: “I will tell of the decree:The LORD said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you.’”

If you’re like me, you have been told only that this was areference to the future Messiah. But there is more to it than that, as itoriginally held no such meaning.

The Hebrew words for “son” and “begotten” are royal andcovenantal terms. In ancient Near Eastern culture when a new king received his crown,some such statement – along with the verbiage – was used to show how the divinebeing was adopting the ruler as a son and bringing him into covenant.

Unlike a lot of verses in Psalms that have been wronglyinterpreted as messianic, this one is correctly assumed to carry a doubleentendre. In the books of Acts and Hebrews in the New Testament (13:33 and 1:5,respectively), the authors apply this verse to Yeshua.

However, in doing so they are declaring His Kingship overheaven and earth and thus, His divine authority. They are not suggesting thatGod “begot” Yeshua in a temporal sense at a point in time. This fact flies inthe face of those who deny that Yeshua is equal to God.

An emotional ‘90s worship song… which took this versecompletely out of context.

Back in the 1990’s, the lyric of one of the more popularcontemporary worship songs went, “You said, ‘Ask and I’ll give the nations toyou.’ That’s the cry of my heart. Distant shores and the islands will see Yourlight…”

Both the melody and the lyric tug at the heartstrings. Theymake you want to get on a plane and fly to Africa and start a mission.

Because that’s the intention of the song, to give you aheart for missions. To encourage you to evangelize.

That’s all well and good, except the verse isn’t aboutChristian missions or spreading the Gospel.

At.

All.

Instead, the statement came out of the ancient Near Easternidea that a deity grants dominion over nations to the chosen king. As thePsalms were assembled (and primarily written, some scholars believe) duringvarious times when the Israelites were in exile, such words were an impliedchallenge to whatever empire was dominating them at the time. They portrayIsrael’s belief that God would ultimately rule over the entire world.

It’s not about romance or affection.

“Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way,”reads the first part of the twelfth verse.

Christians have invented their own meaning for the verse,and they might be on the right track. The Hebrew words translated as “Kiss theSon” could also be translated as “Do homage in purity.” Scholars believe thisambiguity was intentional, the author providing a double meaning to the wordswhich the original hearers would have understood.

In ancient Israel, to kiss either a sovereign or an idol wasa gesture of submission and loyalty. With either translation, the verse is acall to surrender and allegiance to the divine king.

The rest of the verse says, “Blessed are all who put their trust in Him.”

This “blessed” comes from the same Hebrew word translated as“blessed” in the first of all the psalms. As Psalm 1 and Psalm 2 are so closelytied, this statement is believed to be a literary device, closing the twopsalms with similar wording with which they began (“Blessed is the man…[Psalm1:1]”).

Now you know!

Psalm 2 is packed with references to ancient royal ideology.At the same time, it points forward to ultimate divine kingship. I encourageyou to read the first two psalms together with your new knowledge in hand, andsee what God has to say to you through them.