37 - Turn away mine eyes
from beholding vanity;
and quicken thou me
in the way.
Vanity -- from shav' meaning "emptiness". Quicken -- from chayah meaning "to make alive, to revive."
Allow me to paraphrase verse 37 through the filter of the Hebrew meanings:
"Give me strength to not look upon empty, worthless things, and I shall be revived--have life in my soul!"
Ah! Let the Book be the filter! All other filters for life bring death. The Book brings life!
At the risk of boring by endless repetition, I will repeat what I have said so many times before and will continue saying to any that will hear it: let the Word be the first thing that enters your mind when you awake in the morning. Before texting. Before tweeting. Before email. Before Facebook. Before phone calls. Before conversation. Do whatever it takes to awaken long enough to have time with Him and His Word before you must interact with others or with technology.
Whatever you do first will be the filter through which every moment of your day will pass.
Revival!
"A careless eye is an index to a graceless heart."
~William Seeker, 1660
I love your paraphrase, "Give me strength..." Psalms consistently reminds me that I am not to rely on my own strength. Examples from this chapter so far:
ReplyDelete18 Open THOU mine eyes...
22 (YOU) Remove from me...
27 (YOU) Make me to understand...
33 (YOU) Teach me...
34 (YOU) Give me understanding...
35 (YOU) Make me to go...
36 (YOU) Incline my heart...
37 (YOU) Turn away mine eyes...
And THANK YOU for saying IT again. Please don't stop. So true, He will do so much more "in us, for us, and through us" than we can imagine if we will but get ourselves into that place with Him/His Word FIRST, in every way.
We are humans. Remind us again and again. (And again and again...)
Thank you.
...As I am being reminded every day of my life. I can do all things THROUGH CHRIST... I don't have to do it myself. He WANTS to do it through me if I will back up and let Him.
ReplyDeleteThankful for you. Thankful for your "kindred spirit." :-)