- The heavens are telling of the glory of God;
And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. - Day to day pours forth speech,
And night to night reveals knowledge. - There is no speech, nor are there words;
Their voice is not heard. - Their line has gone out through all the earth,
And their utterances to the end of the world
In them He has placed a tent for the sun, - Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber;
It rejoices as a strong man to run his course. - Its rising is from one end of the heavens,
And its circuit to the other end of them;
And there is nothing hidden from its heat. - The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul;
The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. - The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. - The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever;
The judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether. - They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. - Moreover, by them Your servant is warned;
In keeping them there is great reward. - Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults.
- Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins;
Let them not rule over me;
Then I will be blameless,
And I shall be acquitted of great transgression. - Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer. (NASB)
This is my favorite psalm and verses 7,8, and 9 rank near the top of my favorites. It is an amazing thing how God's Word is perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, true, restoring the soul, making wise the simple, rejoicing the heart, enlightening the eyes, enduring forever, and righteous altogether. Praise God, that through His Word we have a vision of what He is.
One of my favorite psalms, as well.
ReplyDeleteMy initial question is: What translation are you using?
Hey Josh,
ReplyDeleteI use the New American Standard Bible. It doesn't always flow as beautifully as other translations, but most agree that it is more inline with the Greek; and I don't have the mental ability to use multiple translations. It causes me to forget which words were used by which translation.
First, the Psalm would have been, originally, in Hebrew since it is in the Old Testament. Greek was the language of the New Testament.
ReplyDeleteI agree that NASB is a nice translation for the most part. I, actually, think that it flows pretty well.
My point is that when we make much of the certain words used, we must be careful to examine the words used in the original language. There are other ways to translate this section and I don't want confusion of translation to undemrine your argument. Give some other translations a look if you don't have any Hebrew background.
Hey Josh,
ReplyDeleteI'll take your advice at looking at some of the other translations when studying Hebrew. I know that this verse wasn't written originally in Greek, but I chose the NASB because it is closest to the Greek, say most scholars, and my main amount of study is in the New Testament.
I don't have back ground in Hebrew or Greek yet. I hopefully will hit on both languages eventually, and I hope to be quite good at reading Greek, not the original manuscripts, but the neatly typed Greek. I will most likely not put forth much effort in learning Hebrew though, nothing much past what Seminary requires, so I like to use aids when reading and studying the Old Testament. BlueLetterBible.com is wonderful for that, as they have the Strong's concordiance, which helps a ton.
Thanks for the good advice. By the way, what translations do you like to use and which is your primary one?
For the NT, I use primarily the Greek New Testament but I tend towards NRSV or NASB for translations. I have enough greek backgroun to do my own reading on most passages.
ReplyDeleteFor the OT, I use primarily JPS, NRSV, and ESV. I supplement with my growing Hebrew knowledge. I'm not good enough to read most of the OT in Hebrew but I can translate slowly. Any time I need to be quick, though, I use the English. I like JPS on the Nevi'im and Kethuvim. I like NRSV or ESV for Torah, primarily.
Hey Josh, interesting. I never thought about using different translation for differnt parts of the Old Testament, though I doubt that I would do that because my memory would get confused. You said that you use the ASV and NRSV for the Torah, and JPS on the Nebi'im and Kethuvim. What about Deuteronomy and the Former Prophets? They all seem to have the same literary style and theology.
ReplyDeleteI commend you one your ability to read Greek, and your rising ability to read Hebrew. That is pretty impressive. The amount of words in the OT nearly double the words of the NT so that is a quite larger task, so good luck with trying to learn both.
I have decided to place most of my efforts into Greek. I would like to be able to eventually read Greek as I do English. I would like to be able to sit down and read some of the great Greek literature in its original language. I guess you'll be able to do that and then read some of the writings of the 2nd and 3rd century b.c. rabbies.
Josh, on my last comment, would have the writings of 2nd and 3rd century b.c. Israel been in Hebrew or Aramaic?
ReplyDelete