Tuesday, March 3, 2015

"Punish the Wicked!"

Psalms 58: [To the chief Musician, Altaschith, Michtam of David.] Yes, that's the title above this Psalm in my Bible; it's a little scary, but I think I might have heard something yesterday that helped me to get over some of the worry I had in getting started; because believe you me, I thought about it quite a lot as I was driving around between appointments. As with the previous Psalm, and the next, David has these same two words, Altaschith and Michtam, which if you remember, Altaschith possibly means "destroy not", as I have it written in my Bible, or "do not destroy", as it is shown in the Lexicon. Michtam is commonly considered to simply mean "something written, specially a poem"; however, there is something mentioned at the beginning of the translation that caught my eye, which is, "a very bold conjecture". Not quite sure if that relates to the interpretation of the word, or if it relates to the interpretation given of the word; but regardless, it is something that drew my attention, and with that, I think that I am going to go with it. A 'conjecture', for those that may not know, is opinion or judgement based on inconclusive or incomplete evidence; an opinion or conclusion based on guesswork. If you know anything about how that we are not to judge others, then you might want to consider how important this word is when it comes to making our case against others for their sins. And to consider something that might be deemed "a very bold conjecture", I would presume it involves more than just a brief summary, but it contains all sorts of vivid detail, expressing not only how they sinned, but why they sin, and how incapable they are to stop sinning. This really could get quite interesting; but before I go any further, I must try and tell you what I heard yesterday, which was about Abraham's questions to God when He had told Abraham the He was going to destroy Sodom; more than that, it was more about Abraham's statement about God's righteous judgment: "Wilt Thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt Thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are there? That be far from Thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from Thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Genesis 18:23-25) There are some very wicked people in this world, the worst of which do not really see their actions as being wicked, but truly believe that they are doing good towards the betterment of mankind, even at the expense of innocent life... "Now these be the last words of David. David the son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel said, The Spirit of the LORD spake by me, and His word was in my tongue. The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain. Although my house be not so with God; yet He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although He made it not to grow. But the sons of Belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away, because they cannot be taken with hands: but the man that shall touch them must be fenced with iron and the staff of a spear; and they shall be utterly burned with fire in the same place." (2 Samuel 23:1-7)

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