As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:
6Because
to ages he will not be shaken,
a memory of ages a righteous one will be.
7He
will not fear bad news,
His heart being established, being
confident in the LORD.
8His
heart being supported, he will not fear,
Until which he will look on his enemies.
My last two blogs have been composed looking at these three
verses even while I have been facing what to me are insurmountable trials. I
concluded my exegesis of the verses, thought I understood them, then went to
work and got clobbered by two terrifying situations. Then as I struggled
through those, it seemed like my workload snow-balled to where I don’t see how
I can possibly get it all done. All the while, I have been very aware this is
all from the Lord, that He is (very kindly) wanting me to learn how to have a
heart that is “established” and how to be “confident in the Lord” even while I
face what to me are terrors.
I am very thankful He teaches me this sort of thing. I have
lamented for years how I am so easily given to worry and fear and I certainly
would love to become (someday) a man who “will not be shaken,” who “will not
fear,” and who really is “confident in the Lord.” What my present trials prove
is that I’m not there yet. But I want
to get there. And I know the only way to get there is by exactly what is
happening here. The Lord teaches me Scripture that is precisely what I need,
then gets out His blow-torch to show me I don’t “got it” and then puts up with
all my whining even while (hopefully) I really am learning (a little).
What really stands out to me this morning is the phrase in
verse 7, “confident in the Lord.” Interestingly, it looks like verses 7&8 are
a chiasm:
7He will not fear bad news,
His
heart being established,
being confident in the LORD.
8His heart being supported,
he will not fear,
Casually surveying the psalm, it’s possible the whole thing
is a chiasm and this is the apex – “being confident in the LORD.” That wouldn’t
surprise me at all. That really is the key to all the other blessings in the
whole psalm – being confident in the Lord. A legalist would take “fearing the
Lord” and turn it into “all these blessings come to the man who obeys the Lord.”
Grace would say, “That would be nice if you had it in you to obey the Lord, but
the plain simple undeniable fact is that you don’t. Give up your hopeless quest
for legalistic righteousness and instead fall into the arms of His grace. Be a
Mary, sitting at His feet and falling in love with Him. As you grow in
confidence in Him, in His wisdom, His kindness, and His goodness, you will more
and more find yourself actually living those very “commands,” not because you’re
legalistically “trying” but simply “because He is.”
Another thing I want to observe is that most translations
render this phrase “trusting in the Lord.” As I was doing the exegesis, what
bothered me was that the word translated “trusting” is a passive. I fear the
translation “trusting in the Lord” changes it to an active, with the
implication it is something I’m doing, that somehow I’ve achieved stellar
success in choosing to place my trust in the Lord. That would be okay, I guess,
but the word is not active. It is passive. You could literally translate
it “being trusted in the Lord,” but that obviously doesn’t work. Finally I ran
across another exegete who recognized the problem and proposed the translation,
“confident in the Lord.” I don’t know if that yet quite accurately translated
the passive, but it’s a whole lot closer, especially if, back to Mary, that
confidence is not something I’ve “whomped” up but rather the fruit of my relationship
with Him. I can see that is what I need, to actually be confident in the Lord.
These assignments and events are from Him. He intends them for good. I need to
simply trust Him and love my way through whatever it is that’s going on.
The other encouraging thought as I head back into the fray
is II Tim 1:7, “For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and of
love and of a well-ordered mind.” A “well-ordered mind.” That’s the other thing
I need. I thought of that verse, then wrote out all the things I have to do. Somehow,
seeing them all lain out in one place, they don’t seem quite so impossible. I
will try to keep that sense in my head, of when things need to get done, what
it takes to get there, and tackle them one by one.
Well, God help me. I’m headed back to the fray. I pray I can
go even just a little bit more “confident in Him.”
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