Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Psalm 1

In my OT class we are beginning to study the book of the Psalms, and my professor is a Hebrew scholar, and spent much time specifically studying the beginning of the book, Psalms 1-2. In preparation for class I decided to begin to translate through the first two chapters to get a better grasp of where he is coming from.
Verse 1 of chapter 1 is pretty straight forward. While some translations render the first word "happy," thats probably not the best translation, as studying God's Word doesn't always make us happy (since if we are correctly applying it, we will necessarily have to change our life in order to line up with what it teaches, which isn't always fun) it will bless us. Here is the text of Psalm 1:1 and my translation:
אַשְֽׁרֵי־הָאִישׁ אֲשֶׁר ׀ לֹא הָלַךְ בַּעֲצַת רְשָׁעִים וּבְדֶרֶךְ חַטָּאִים לֹא עָמָד וּבְמֹושַׁב לֵצִים לֹא יָשָֽׁב

Blessed is the man who/which does not walk in the council of the wicked and stand in the path of sinners and does not dwell in the seat of scoffers.


Fairly straight forward translation. While most translations in the last part of the verse go with "sit," this is word also can mean "dwell," which I think might be more appropriate for this verse.

כִּי אִם בְּתֹורַת יְהוָה חֶפְצֹו וּֽבְתֹורָתֹו יֶהְגֶּה יֹומָם וָלָֽיְלָה׃


Because in the Law of the LORD he delights, and in the law does he murmur, growl speak to himself, meditate day and night.


This word is an interesting one, and has a wide semantic range. It is also used of a lion growling or even drooling over his prey. Another way of picturing it is for a man to be murmuring to himself about the Word. This is how this man is being presented as reading the Bible, consuming it. This idea I've gotten to some extent from the book entitled "Eat this Book" by Eugene Peterson. He presents the idea of how we are to read the Bible not as a text book, but consume it so it will touch every part of our life. This is the idea that is presented here as well


As I continue to translate and study through these few chapters, I will fill more this idea of who this man is presented as, and explain more about how it should be applied to us.




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