Measured in millimeters: 0.0000001

This evaluation is based on the answer to a question posed by a Trump town hall attendee.

“My soul waits in silence for God only;” (Psalms 62:1a, NASB)

Here is an example of how the order of words can be misleading.  In Hebrew, this clause reads: ak el-elohim dumiyyah naphshi.

Only towards God the silence of my soul

The New American Standard Bible reads: My soul waits in silence for God only; (Psalms 62:1a, NASB) The writer’s interests are in order. This exclusivity is diagnostic, because it identifies the songwriter as reserving dumiyyah for Elohim. Only towards God [is] my soul’s silence  My silence is reserved for GOD! Only God silences me! This is not waiting, because waiting can be accompanied by various activities, some of which conflict with divine presence and the vision of divine majesty.

This ain’t waiting, this is the way things are

David also tells himself, “You ARE in silence for God only”. My soul’s silence is reserved for God and this is a silence unlike all others. There is no “waiting” verb in the sentences, verses 1 and 5. The message is focused on a kind of one-eyed attention without anxiety and expectations.

“My soul, you are in silence for God only…” (Psalms 62:5a, my translation)

“Trust in Him at all times, O people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. Selah.” (Psalms 62:8, NASB)

The unusual watery heart; to be poured.

I have to imagine that  pouring out a heart is akin to

• Pouring a drink
• Falling rain
• Sweet talking a loved one
• Wooing a person with impressive words

As long as God is the target of our pouring the heart’s contents will not be surprising, though they can be astonishing.  Unlike a lot of other interactions or encounters with God, this heart pouring happens to his face, lᵊpanayô. David is expecting the people enjoying his song to have an experience that affirms Yahweh as an incessant refuge. Let there always be an open and pouring heart relationship! Each of us has a friend with whom we know we can pour out our hearts and rest assured that safety is in the mix. Start pouring; see what comes.

You may think MAGA Republicans, criminal presidents and well-educated but semi-conscious public officials are phenomenal, but they, like British colonialists  of the last four centuries  and crooked cops are the grease that keeps the squeaky wheels of tyranny from being too obvious. Here is a look at the moment a Jewish high priest, presiding over a hearing, decided to assault the witness, an exceptional Jewish male who had become a follower of Yeshua of Nazareth. The account comes from Luke, a physician who accompanied Paul on his journeys throughout Asia.  It shows that miscarriages of justice have happened in plain sight and in exceptional environments.

1) Paul, looking intently at the Council, said, “Brethren, I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day.” 2) The high priest Ananias commanded those standing beside him to strike him on the mouth.” (Acts 23:1-2, NASB)

⚖️ ⛔

I have seen judges muzzle witnesses by threatening a contempt citation and by having them removed from the court, but the levitical High Priest took matters to a personal level that is so low observers could not have failed to notice that assaulting a prisoner or witness was an outrage.

Punch the witness in the mouth

The order given by the president of the high court raises questions about what may have happened behind closed doors to hundreds of nameless people who found themselves outside the fold of New Testament Judaism.  An order to punch the witness in open court was clearly given to an officer of the court; it was not a knee jerk reaction by the high priest himself.  The violence that accompanies Mosaic law must not be overlooked as a temporary arrangement.  Since Canaanites targeted for annihilation and indicted tribes in the neighbourhood could receive mercy and a place in Israel’s daily life we must certainly put shunning, stoning, flogging and physical assault in the history book and leave them there.  Judges who are averse to empathizing with defendants and are quick to emphasize the maximum sentence for selected defendants, or side with vigilante justice, are existential threats to justice.  We should be ready to see more and similar outrageous behaviours in courts and in the legislatures where traditional values are more important than fixing bad policy and helping citizens to thrive.

Justice trashed despite the appearance

A perfectly good conscience was unconscionable outside of New Testament Judaism

Ananias, the high priest, must have been as ruthless as the Romans who were oppressing the Jewish people, and the people who were likely to attend a hearing to silence a follower of Christ were not going to say anything against anything the hateful mob wanted. So, yes! Punch them in the mouth, for saying “A perfectly good conscience does not allow me to keep following Moses”. Punch them in the mouth and deny them access to the synagogues, cut them off from livelihood and life itself. New Testament Judea was a far cry from the French and American republics.  Judea and Samaria were often more like exotic outposts of the PRC and the Russian Federation.  That the words “, I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day“should trigger an illegal reaction in court, is evidence that people’s opinions given under oath hold no water in a court that has lost sight of decency and justice. Such courts are in no position to correct their downward slide into abject hypocrisy and irrelevance.

Donald J Tump, the greatest at everything he tried fell.  His fall is so catastrophic and decisive it is denied only by sleepwalking fans of rancid slogans, supporters of tyranny, and faithless religious operatives.  DJT might have become a fist, a Thor with a hammer, but he was too weak-kneed to do things required by his rabid band of deniers.  He had to fall: a total ban on Muslim immigration could not stand.  His sordid attempts to cover up and deny a trail of immoral behaviours could not stand.  The alliance of Protestants and Catholics was likely questioned in private but could only stand if both parties renounced their reason for being, therefore any success accruing has to end in failure.  Today, the 45th president of the United States is less than a finger.  He is a dwindling and vanishing digit, his shuffling profile heading to court, likely to prison, ignominy, and historic obscurity.

How many of Digit’s cronies in the Congress fall with him is a well kept secret, but we know that nearly all those who condemned his coup attempt then supported it should face the music.  They can lie to the public about election losses but let us hope that their sworn statements and evidence given to the police will pass the smell test.  The first deceived themselves.

“…Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!…”

Revelation of John 18:2b, NASB

“…Ἔπεσεν, ⸀ἔπεσεν Βαβυλὼν ἡ μεγάλη,…”

Revelation of John 18:2b

Rather than being a prophet of doom or a silent watchman it is better for me to relate to the hate-free movements of people who have consistently taken care of the planet and the next generation.  As late as New Testament times people in Palestine were still associating God, his voice and awesome power with thunderstorms, moon configurations, red sunrises etc., so why did primitive cultures get labelled pagan, heathenistic, and ignoble?  Far too many people are being sucked into the abyss of politics, which is either a revolving door of Heckles and Heckles, or a despot’s perfect dinner.  Deceiving the whole world is not a cheap religious slogan.  Beware the pied pipers, beware the Merlins of Camelot, beware the physicians who do not heal themselves, beware those who divide households and then parade themselves as united and strong. Harlotry is always playacting.

It would be interesting to discover the circumstances under which a believer might evaluate God as being silent to his prayers.  So let’s make sense of David’s line in Psalm 28, “Do not be deaf to me, lest you hush and I die”.

1) To You, O Lord, I call; My rock, do not be deaf to me, For if You are silent to me, I will become like those who go down to the pit. 2) Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry to You for help, When I lift up my hands toward Your holy sanctuary.

Psalms 28:1-2, NASB

Whatever the trouble might have been that David was experiencing, he was certain that God’s voice would keep him alive, and we must note that that is what matters. We must also note that David ascribed security to Yahweh, calling him “my Rock”. I see God’s deafness and zipped lip as both miniscule panic and poetic over-dramatization. No believer need think that God is deaf or silent. Finally, let us be aware that David wrote kee shama qôl tachᵊnunaee, because he HEARS the sound of my supplications. The son of David shows us that without his word to us we are dead.

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

John 5:24, NASB