Working my way slowly through your book. 
We are living in very perilous times!
Posted on 08/30/2010 6:25:02 AM PDT by Buggman
With Rosh Hashanah fast on its way (Sept. 8, for those who didn't know), a number of Messianic blogs (like Derek's) have already delved into Psalm 27, which is traditionally canted during the month of Elul. The Just Jewish blog actually has links to some songs based on Psalm 27. Since part of the purpose of this website is to chronicle the prophetic significance of the yearly cycle of Appointed Times, I would be remiss if I didn't do the same.
This is one of the many psalms that David composed while he was under attack. David here follows his usual pattern of presenting his predicament, and simultaneously expressing his trust that the Holy One would rescue and vindicate him. Given that we are coming out of the brutal time around Tisha b'Av, it shouldn't surprise us that such Psalms would be sung. The question that should drive us is why this particular song is given so much emphasis for the whole month leading up to Rosh Hashannah.
The Psalm opens, "Hashem is my light and my salvation." The Targums, as they often do, substitute, "The Word of the LORD." This seems like an odd substitution, since normally we find Memre, the Word, used to express the aspect of the Holy One that meets with His people, which the rabbis call the Sh'khinah. Why did the translators find the change necessary here? And is it possible that the Apostle John had this passage, as well as many others similar to it, in mind when he called Yeshua the Word of God?
David goes on to speak of a great host encamping against him (v. 3). This brings to mind other Day of the Lord passages like Joel 3:14 and Zec. 12:2. In Zec. 9:9, the prophet speaks of the Holy One appearing over Israel with the sound of a shofar when they went to war with the sons of Greece, and this may be the connection that the rabbis saw between this Psalm and the Day of the Trumpet Call.
Verse 5 is, in my mind, the key to understanding the remez of the passage:
For in the day of trouble He will keep me secretly in His sukkah.The word translated here "keep me secretly" is yitz'p'neini, which means to protect by hiding away, as when Moses was hidden from Pharaoh's men by his mother (Exo. 2:2f), while the word sukkah, usually translated "tabernacle" or "booth," refers to a temporary dwelling. Thus, David expects deliverance by being hidden from his enemies, but not forever; he desires a temporary sanctuary.
In the secret of His tent He will hide me.
He will lift me up on a rock.
The phrase "secret of His tent He will hide me," yistireini b'seiter ahla'u, arranges the sentence to place two forms of the Hebrew word seiter together, which in most cases means emphasis; e.g., qadosh haqadoshim means, literally, "the holy of holies," but is more of the sense of, "the most holy." Here, since seiter means a secret, we could understand the sentence to mean, "He will surely secret me away in the most secret part of His tent."
Normally, this word "secret" has a bad connotation--but not to David. To David, it meant a place of safety: "Jonathan told David, saying, 'Saul my father seeks to kill you. Now therefore, please take care of yourself in the morning, and live in a secret place, and hide yourself.'"
In verse 4, David expressed his desire to dwell in the House of Hashem, to behold His beauty and splendor, and to study and admire His Temple. Here in verse 5 we see that David is not thinking of the earthly tabernacle, which he had visited--and which in fact many people had visited to worship. Rather, his desire is to be taken up into the "secret of secrets," the Holy Tabernacle above which the earthly Holy Place was only a copy of, the grand throne room previously seen only by Moses and (we can safely assume) Enoch.
By calling it a sukkah, David hints at two truths: First, that the joy of this secret Tabernacle is anticipated by the joy of Sukkot, the Feast of Booths and most joyous of all the Feasts of Israel (cf. Lev. 23:40 and Deu. 16:14, which commands us to rejoice on that Feast). But second, that this joyous "lifting up" to to the Most Secret Place will be but a temporary refuge in the Day of Trouble. When that Day is past, then David--and all of us who will be with him--shall return in the company of the Temple not made with hands, our Messiah Yeshua.
As we draw closer to the time of Rosh Hashanah, we would do well to pray with David for the time when we will never leave the Holy One's House ever again:
He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name. (Rev. 3:12)Maranatha, and Shalom.
Shalom.
Thank you so much for this beautiful meditation, dear brother in Christ!
Psalm 27 is my very favorite, and I’ve invoked it often.
Praise God.
Thank you for sharing your testimony, dear Joann37!
Excellent, Buggs.
Hide me, too, Lord.
Read Rashi, Rambam, Rabbi Akiba and so many others scholars and sages.....they all agree. So many of your brothers and sisters throughout the millennium were put to death by the followers of those Gods you have chosen to follow.....they all agree. Our neshama knows the truth because we were there:
שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְהוָה אֶחָד
B'H
Me too. I have worshipped no other god but Hashem in my whole life, and I recite the Shema every day.
Tzetkha l'shalom, and an early L'shanah Tova to you and yours.
HaShem's blessings on you and yours for this:shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach
the gift to all of this study on the forty days
of repentance.L'shanah Tovah
I mostly defend Fundamentalist Protestants on this forum because they seem to be the only people who understand that if G-d says something, it must be so. But it drives me as crazy as it does everyone else that they treat the Protestant bible as self-authorizing. The "new testament" is true because it's in the Protestant bible. The koran and the "book of mormon" are not because they're not in the Protestant bible. The "Apocrypha" was originally in the Protestant bible but was later removed, either because it stopped being the word of G-d or because it took G-d a while to get it removed after the Catholics snuck it in.
May every Jewish soul reject chr*stianity and every other false religion (atheism, b*ddhism, "new age," whatever) and return to HaShem during this penitential season! 'Amen! Ken yehi ratzon!
Deuteronomy 4: 2Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.
Ps111: 7The works of his hands are verity and judgment; all his commandments are sure. 8They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness.
Dt4:15 You saw no form of any kind the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, 16 so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman
Ps146:3Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.
They also ignore:
That Jesus was not a kosher sacrifice, (a human by definition is not permitted) nor was he slaughtered at the alter. His throat was not slit and the blood gathered, he died of suffocation (treif). His blood was not sprinkled on the horns or sides of the alter, his ofal was not burned, the remainder of his blood dumped.
Working my way slowly through your book.
We are living in very perilous times!
The apochrypha was never in the Protestant bible.
There’s no rational reason to believe the Koran or Book of Mormon are inspired. There’s no archaeological evidence to validate the Book of Mormon whatsoever. There’s no evidence Mohammed was a prophet. It’s also full of contradictions, etc.
Way overly legalistic. Missing the forest for the trees.
It was in the original KJV.
There’s no rational reason to believe the Koran or Book of Mormon are inspired. There’s no archaeological evidence to validate the Book of Mormon whatsoever. There’s no evidence Mohammed was a prophet. It’s also full of contradictions, etc.
Scientists and "scholars" tell us that the evidence is against the truth of the Bible as well. I don't believe the Bible because of archaeology. And there are apparent "contradictions" in the Biblical text as well (which actually teach profound lessons, but at a very deep level).
The Torah was written directly by G-d (no other book in world history ever has been). The Prophets and Hagiographa were canonized by the Men of the Great Assembly. The Apocrypha and the "new testament" were canonized by the historical catholic church. If you accept any of these as canonical, you must also accept the authority of the canonizing body (unless you're one of those people who believes the Protestant bible is self-authorizing).
I accept that G-d wrote the Torah. I accept the rest of the TaNa"KH because I acknowledge the authority of the Men of the Great Assembly. I do not recognize the authority of later religions to add to this canon.
Protestants are forced to regard their bible as self-authorized and self-authorizing because that is the only method that doesn't violate Protestant ideology (though it does violate reason and common sense). But however erroneous this particular belief of theirs is, they deserve praise and thanks for remembering something older religions have apparently forgotten--that G-d doesn't lie, and that the Bible is inerrant, not because it authorizes itself, but because it is authorized externally by G-d.
Who worships an image?
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