Can't See The Trees For The Woods
Psalms 119
A truck loaded with thousands of copies of thesauruses crashed yesterday
Witnesses were stunned, startled, aghast, taken aback, stupefied, confused, shocked, rattled, paralyzed, dazed, bewildered, mixed up, surprised, awed, dumbfounded, nonplussed, flabbergasted, astounded, amazed, confounded, astonished, overwhelmed, horrified, numbed, speechless, and perplexed.
(Anonymous)
Throughout Psalm 119 there are so many different words used to describe the Scriptures, but they do all refer to the Scriptures. And these vary from translation to translation. But less noted are the many various conditions of a man, a person. As each word describing the Scriptures is used it used to correspond with the particular condition of this man. While in the opening there are dozens of words to convey the response of witnesses to that reported wreck and they may bting a smile to some, the depths of the many parts of God's Word addresses so many things we need God to use to work on that part of our lives. In the Geneva Bible there are only a dozen words used to refer to the Word of God. Nearly every verse in Psalms 119 makes a direct reference to the Word of God. And nearly every version of the Word of God requires a totally different concordance to look up each word for the different way the original language is translated. Since I have been using the Geneva B8ble for my studies the last couple of years I will be using it to enumerate these different words.
In order of quantity I found these usages in the Geneva Bible.
29 thy word, or thy words
25 Law of the Lord,thy law, law of thy mouth
24 statutes
23 testimonies, thy testimonies, testimonies of thy mouth
23 thy commandments, commandments of my God
20 judgments, thy judgments, judgments of thy mouth, righteous judgments
18 precepts
12 promise, promises, just promises
3 his ways
2 thy truth
1 thy wondrous works
1 thine ordinances
Each of these different translated words are placed together with related actions and results as written which in turn directly make a lasting difference on the author and nowy own interaction. The way this Psalm is written reminds of how often I begin to pray reminding God of who He is to me and sometimes it immediately turns around and draws me in to see how inadequate I am in and of myself. And here this writer begins acknowledging how God's Word is changing and affecting them personally.
Next week I will begin looking at what the writer has to say of the interaction of Scripture with His very personal life.