Psalm 119:1-8 Aleph Stanza

As I discussed in my post yesterday, the Hebrew letter Aleph (as seen at left) carries the meaning of strength.  The original pictorgraph version of the letter closely resembled the horns and outline of an oxen's head and in conjuction with this letters place as the first letter of the Aleph-Beth carries the meaning first, strength and leadership.

In verse 1, we learn that the undefiled in the way walk in the law of the Lord.  What is the Hebrew word for law used here?  It is Torah.  Yes, the Torah.  I know ... the Torah is "the old way" and now we live in liberty.  I think we need to remember that all good things are from God (James 1:17).   God gave the Torah, so it's not Torah/bad and Jesus/good.  It's Torah/good, Jesus/better as the fulfillment of the Torah.
What are the rewards of living according to the instructions God has given?  The rewards are:
1. Be blessed (Asher - happy)
2. Walk in the way of righteousness
3. No shame
Keeping all of the instruction of God is no easy thing for people with a sin nature.  In fact, it's impossible.  Todah a El that Yeshua/Jesus fulfilled the Torah - lived a life without sin and bore the penalty for our sin so that we may be saved.  Where we fall short, Jesus is strong.  He is our High Priest who can sympathize with our weakness and intercede on our behalf because of the work that He did on the cross.  He is our Melech Tzedek - our King of Righteousness; our Melech Shalom - our King of Peace.
In this day many use "Christian"as a social moniker for advancement instead of what it is meant to mean - follower of Jesus.  I'm moving from even calling myself a Christian anymore, but rather Follow of Jesus.  Jesus is our leader.  He is our strength.  Blessed and happy are those who are followers of Jesus.  I have committed myself to walk in His ways.  When I fail?  I will look to Him who Saves.  Todah Yeshua!

My Plan for the Next 22 Weeks

I love the Hebrew language and am on a quest to learn it and comprehend it.  What do I mean by that?  Well, Hebrew is a deep, rich language.  To learn it is one thing ... to really comprehend it is another.  Did you know that all languages of the world point to Jerusalem? West of Jerusalem, we read from the left to the right and east of Jerusalem, they read from the right to the left. Hebrew itself is read from right to left. The Hebrew aleph-beth (first two letters - where we get our term alphabet) contains 22 consonants and no vowels. There are vowel sounds in the language, but they are not written. The Hebrew reader knows what the word is based on the surrounding context. (Modern Hebrew does have vowel markers, but again, they are not always written.) Another interesting aspect of the Hebrew language is that each individual character has meaning. When combined into what we recognize as a word, the meaning of the word is derived from the combination of the meanings of the letters. Take for instance the Hebrew word for father - Ab (pronounced like Av - the "b" is soft and the a as the "a" in father).

The Aleph (a gutteral with no sound.)  The unwritten vowel sound is what you hear.



The Beth (pronounced: Bait) can have a hard (b) and soft sound (v).

The Aleph means "strength" and the Beth means "house."  So when you combine the Aleph and the Beth to make the Hebrew word Ab it carries the meaning, "strength of the house."


Psalm 119 is the longest Psalm as well as the longest chapter in the Bible. It is also what is called an acrostic Psalm with the first letter of each verse within each stanza starting with a successive letter of the Hebrew aleph-beth. If you open your Bible and look at this Psalm, you will see the way it is divided up - there is an Aleph section of 8 verses followed by a Beth section of 8 verses and so on.  All 176 verses are divided into stanzas of eight verses each. In each of these 8 verse sections, each verse starts with a letter of the Hebrew aleph-beth. So, for instance, in verse 161, which is the beginning of the "Shin" stanza, the first word is Sarim (saw-reem) - Hebrew for Princes.  Nothing in the Bible is there by accident and coincidence is not a kosher word.  Over the next 22 weeks, I'm going to commit myself to sharing brief devotionals on this blog from Psalm 119 taking into consideration the underlying meaning of each letter.  So stay tuned ... much more to come.

Matisyahu

Matisyahu (Matthew) is quickly becoming a musical favorite of mine ... check out his Rap/Reggae styling in the video below. Keep in mind that he is a Chasidic Jew - not Messianic. He does not believe that Yeshua ha-Meshiach - that Jesus is the Messiah.

No More Christians

I was looking through the news this morning and saw this article.

Christians do some pretty silly things to get people into the church and often overlook the key thing ... simply teach the Word.  Topicals can be great and dynamic and I enjoy a good topical teaching.  However, nothing feeds me and teaches me like a verse by verse buffet of scripture.  At one time it was commonplace for a pastor to teach verse by verse and chapter by chapter.  Now, it's rare.  Why?  What do you think about this?

Florida Church Seeks Attention With 'No More Christians' Campaign

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Fox News

A Florida church is trying to persuade people to return to worship with a provocative campaign that has raised a few eyebrows around town.

The Mosaic Church of Crestview, a non-denominational Christian church, used the slogan "No More Christians" to spark conversation and attract the attention of people who have grown lackadaisical in their religious practice, the Crestview News Bulletin reported.

The campaign advertises a series of discussions with names like "Why you should be an atheist instead of a Christian" and "Why you should be a Muslim instead of a Christian."

Mosaic Church Pastor James Ross said the discussions are meant to "creatively and aggressively try to show (people) that God loves them so much that even though they are still sinners, Christ died for them," the News Bulletin reported.

"We were really trying to catch the attention of people who are searching," Ross told the newspaper.

Unfortunately, Ross told the newspaper, the signs have also drawn negative attention.

What's in a Name?

1 Kings 8:28-30 "Yet regard the prayer of Your servant and his supplication, O LORD my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which Your servant is praying before You today:29 that Your eyes may be open toward this temple night and day, toward the place of which You said,'My name shall be there,' that You may hear the prayer which Your servant makes toward this place." NKJV 

Teaching through the book to the Hebrews on Saturdays for Reach and Teach Bible College has been a blast because it's like being in a gold mine. Everywhere you turn, there's a nugget you didn't notice before. From the Rabbinical teaching method of Remez to Melech Tzedek and the Cohen vay Melech to the things that aren't even technically in the text, but you end up discussing in class. Totally Holy Spirit led - there have been many "moments" through the class where we have entered into discussion on something that technically isn't directly from the text, but touches someone's heart because it is a response to some situation in their lives.

Last week I was talking about how God has placed certain things right in front of us to be seen as faith builders (I think we were at the end of chapter 3 moving into chapter 4 discussing belief.) One of those things that I mentioned is from the 1 Kings scripture above where God says that He will write His name on the land. Orthodox Jews and even some more liberal Jews will not speak the name of God or even write God ... instead they write something like G_d or say Ha Shem - which means The Name in Hebrew. Sometimes, they will even use the first letter of Shem to refer to God, which in Hebrew looks like a rounded "W"and is called the Shin (sheen) - see below:

Now, and this is really cool, look at an Aerial map of Jerusalem or visualize based on the topographical representation below.  There are three valleys that run through the land.  On the eastern side of the temple mount is the Kidron Valley.  Running up right next to the western side of the temple mount and under what is known as "Robbinson's Arch" and seperating Mount Moriah from Mount Zion is the Tyropoeon valley.  Just a little further off to the west on the other side of Mount Zion is the Gehenna Valley.  These three valleys join together at south just under the old City of David, forming a letter Shin - Ha Shem - The Name - the name of God written on the land.

Awesome.  There is no god like our God Most High.  Baruk Ha Shem!

The Crisis of Credit Explained

This is perhaps one of the best explanations of why the economy has taken the plunge that I have seen. Check it out. It's originally from here: http://jonathanjarvis.com/.

Better than the Original?

OK, so I've never been a huge fan of Matallica, but I can certainly be a fan of four guys doing a Metallica tune on Kazoos. Usually re-makes are pretty lame, but this rocks.



Do you think it's better than the original?