YHWH's Majestic Royal Voice

Here's trying my hand at translating Psalm 29. I've attempted to bring out something of the structure, flow, force, and poetics of the Hebrew, while maintaing an essentially literal translation.

A Psalm of David.

Give to YHWH, O sons of God,
     Give to YHWH glory and strength.
     Give to YHWH the glory of his name;
Worship YHWH in holy array.

YHWH's voice is over the waters,
     The God of glory thunders,
          YHWH, over vast waters;
YHWH's voice in power,
YHWH's voice in majesty;
YHWH's voice breaking cedars,
     YHWH shattering the cedars of Lebanon,
          making them skip like a calf,
               Lebanon and Sirion, like a young wild ox.
YHWH's voice hews flames of fire.
YHWH's voice cunvulses the wilderness,
     YHWH convulses the wilderness of Kadesh.
YHWH's voice brings birth pangs on does
          as it strips the forests bare,
               And all in his temple cry, "Glory!"

YHWH sat enthroned at the flood;
      YHWH sits enthroned, King forever.
YHWH grants strength to his people;
     YHWH blesses his people with peace.

Preacher: Acquire Other Languages

C. H. Spurgeon on the value of learning languages to the expositor of sacred Scripture:

The acquisition of another language affords a fine drilling for the practice of extempore speech. Brought into connection with the roots of words, and the rules of speech, and being compelled to note the differentia of the two languages, a man grows by degrees to be much at home with parts of speech, moods, tenses, and inflections; like a workman he becomes familiar with his tools, and handles them as every day companions.

I know of no better exercise than to translate with as much rapidity as possible a portion of Virgil or Tacitus, and then with deliberation to amend one's mistakes. Persons who know no better, think all time thrown away which is spent upon the classics, but if it were only for the usefulness of such studies to the sacred orator, they ought to be retained in all our collegiate institutions.

Who does not see that the perpetual comparison of the terms and idioms of two languages must aid facility of expression? Who does not see moreover that by this exercise the mind becomes able to appreciate refinements and subtleties of meaning, and so acquires the power of distinguishing between things that differ—a power essential to an expositor of the Word of God, and an extempore declarer of his truth.

Learn, gentlemen, to put together, and unscrew all the machinery of language, mark every cog, and wheel, and bolt, and rod, and you will feel the more free to drive the engine, even at an express speed should emergencies demand it.

—“The Faculty of Impromptu Speech,” in Lectures to My Students, Book I, 160-161.

Owen's Hermeneutics: A Breath of Fresh Air

In the modern West, there is almost universally such a strong sense of progress that the past is incessantly despised or looked upon with condescension. I don't think the fields of linguistics and hermeneutics are exempt either. Older handlers of language are frequently spoken of as apes that simply plopped noncontextual dictionary definitions into the meaning of words in a given context, ignoring like idiots the obvious, namely, the larger linguistic structures of which the words partake.

Now in saying this sort of thing, I don't want to dismiss the real instances of progress that have been made, nor ignore the shortcomings or bone-ignorance of the past. But I do want to say that our sense of progress is a bit overblown, and oftentimes overweeningly arrogant. Moreover, and this is my chief concern, important methods and approaches and lessons are sometimes lost.

What follows now is a small sampling (three statements) from John Owen's work on the Spirit, from the third volume of his Works, with my brief commentary along the way. The first one particularly pleases me.

Here is Owen on hermeneutics: "Scripture is able of itself to manifest its own intention and meaning unto humble and diligent inquirers into it" (47).

This sort of statement is conspicuously absent in modern

The LXX and the Protestant Doctrine of Scripture

It is no news that the NT widely uses the Septuagint (LXX) and that this was the OT of the Church until the Reformation when the Hebrew (Masoretic Text, MT) became the Church's OT. But this continues to blow me away. And perhaps it ought to blow away some of our assumptions about the Hebrew Bible.

Now, briefly (there is so much to think about and say, so perhaps more later), what does this awesome fact have to say about our doctrine of Scripture? What are the implications?

Greek, Hebrew, and the Love of Christ

"The main point is, with all and above all, study the Greek and Hebrew Bible, and the love of Christ" (John Wesley, 1703-1791).