Psalm 119:21 You rebuke the proud–the cursed, Who stray from Your commandments. After reading the post on Skip Moen’s website this morning, I thought that I’d do something light here, some fluff, shiny happiness. Yeah. Then God had this waiting for me. No fluff today, I guess. To really understand where I’m coming from with this verse, you really ought to read the post this morning. It might help to understand the context from which I’m coming. In some ways I feel like crying. Anyway, here we go. Here’s the last few lines of the post (in case you didn’t read the whole thing) and you’ll see why I sighed when I started reading Psalm 119 this morning: Of course, He isn’t husband to all nations or to just anyone who happens to acknowledge that He is God. He is husband to Israel and to all those who take upon themselves the obligations of the marriage contract given to Israel. Did you get that? What happens to the martial contract when someone who does not accept the terms of agreement between God’s chosen and God decides to step into the place of the wife? What would you do in your marriage if someone claimed he or she had replaced you? [1] Coming off of that question, I faced the verse in Psalms. So, of course, I looked at the Hebrew to get a deeper understanding of the verse. The word for rebuked is ga’ar and it means to rebuke, reprove or corrupt. Hmmmm, our nation has become rather corrupt lately… perhaps God is rebuking/reproving/corrupting. The word for the proud is interesting, too. It sheds some light on why the proud might be: they are the zed, the arrogant, presumptuous ones. Is the church today presumptuous in assuming that Israel is no longer chosen, that she has been replaced? The proud are cursed. Scary thought. The word for stray (or err) is shagah and it has lots of meanings: 1) to go astray, stray, err a) (Qal) 1) to err, stray 2) to swerve, meander, reel, roll, be intoxicated, err (in drunkenness) 3) to go astray (morally) 4) to commit sin of ignorance or inadvertence, err (ignorantly) b) (Hiphil) 1) to lead astray 2) to lead astray, mislead (mentally) 3) to lead astray (morally) [2] I particularly thought “to commit sin of ignorance or inadvertence” was interesting, as the majority of those in the church today would completely disagree with much of what Skip proposes about the validity of the Old Testament covenant, and the inappropriateness of replacement theology. I don’t think they ignore God’s commandments, His Torah, maliciously (I certainly didn’t), but in ignorance and centuries of swerving, meandering theology has slowly caused a swerving in the Way. And finally, mitzvah is the word used for commandments, and it means pretty much that. The commands of God. Interesting how what I read in Psalms today dovetails with the study from Today’s Word. Perhaps God was speaking despite my ignorance. Perhaps God is speaking. Period. [1] Moen, Skip. “Today’s Word» Status: Married.” Hebrew Word Study | Skip Moen . N.p., n.d. Web. 15 July 2010. <http://skipmoen.com/2010/07/15/status-married>. [2] ”Psalms 119 (Blue Letter Bible: NKJV – New King James Version).” Blue Letter Bible. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 July 2010. <http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Psa&c=119&v=15&t=NKJV#conc/21>
Malachi 3:9-10 You are under a curse, for your whole nation has been cheating me. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the LORD Almighty, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Let me prove it to you! This is the infamous verse that is always used when trying to get people to tithe. It’s not necessarily a bad thing because this verse holds a great promise. But if you read the verse before it (vs.10), it puts a little bit of a different spin on it. Malachi is talking to the nation of Israel, collectively and individually. I think that in this case, the majority of people had been cheating God by not tithing (they were supposed to bring a tithe of animals or whatever it was that they raised or produced). And so they were under a curse. It makes me wonder if God still follows that kind of pattern today – can you imagine the curse that America would be under? Our former pastor used to say that less than 10% of the members of the church actually tithe 10%! If that few Christians tithe, imagine how many other people who don’t believe in God or the Bible don’t tithe (obviously)… Even if the verse just applied to Christians (because we should know better, having read the Bible and probably having heard this verse a million times), 90% or more still don’t tithe back to God what is due to Him…. thereby creating a situation where, if God works the same with us as He did with Israel, our nation would be under a curse because we are cheating God… Scary thought. On a positive note, my family’s been testing God on this one. We haven’t really seen the windows of heaven opened up, but God has consistently been faithful to provide for our needs each week. Sure, I’d like to take it literally, that we’d be provided for in such a way as to have more than just our needs met. But, then I’m reminded that the blessing of heaven is not necessarily monetary. God doesn’t say He’ll throw money at us. He says He’ll bless us. And in that regard, I am blessed in so many ways – my family, my job, my car, my church. So maybe it’s a matter off perspective. I’d love to have enough money in the bank that I wasn’t afraid of overdrafting my account every time I paid a bill, but just because I don’t see that happening doesn’t mean that we’ll stop tithing. God has been faithful in the past, and whether the blessing is financial or physical or spiritual He is faithful today, and I believe He’ll be faithful in the future. So there’s my 10 cents on this often-preached on verse.