The song that hits our ears when we open the Hebrew songbook is not a childish pipedream. It has become so for the stuck-in-kindergarten class.  Like when Yeshua begins to talk about his death – serpent lifted up in the desert – the crowd thins out, so the opening song, Psalm 1, strikes at the pride of the simple and the rebellious; the spiritually juvenile. The description of the happy man’s delight vs the result of ungodly counsel does not seem to be as interesting as the tree planted.  If I knew how a tree planted in the perfect place could not be fruitful and under what circumstances its leaves can wither I would tell. 

Tree, vineyard, garden 🏡

If God so arranged the ancient peoples’ many latent problems so as not to impede the fulfillment of his promises to Abraham,  I cannot think of a path for the maxing out of promises for all humanity that does not end in success.  God finishes what he starts, and because some people did not reach the promised land, there is no reason to believe that God is any less in control of the agenda.  Can the happy man be like a tree planted by the roadside, on a stony ground, or among the thorns?

When the seed connects you are set

Every believer or concert knows beyond a shadow of a doubt when regeneration has happened. It is never “Oh, now I understand”. It is obvious that all the doctrines we pump into people do not constitute the life-giving turning point over which God is sovereign. The church has always had God’s authoritative Spirit to certify the message of salvation. There is not another Spirit for teaching the converts. There are battalions of believers who are doubting God’s planting.

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.