Flowing together with Jehovah....

Psalm 34:5

This is a relatively short verse but it is packed with incredible meaning!

Come with me as I take you on the journey of pulling this verse apart to see what "knowledge nuggets" we can find...are you ready?  Okay....let's get started!

"They looked unto Him and were lightened and their faces were not ashamed." 

 Yup, that is all there is to this verse...not very long at all but once you begin to take a deeper look at it, your eyes of understanding begin to see the treasure hidden in the English wording.

First, let's see what the Hebrew words were and what they mean...
   
nabat = looked....meaning is regard, pay attention, consider
nahar = lightened....meaning is to shine, beam, be radiant, to flow, stream, flow together
chapher = ashamed....meaning is to be ashamed, be confounded, feel abashed, cause embarrassment
paniym = faces...meaning is face, faces, presence

What is interesting is that the word "nahar" is used only 6 times in the entire Old Testament!  The word is translated to mean "flow together" five out of the six times it is used; it is translated to be "lightened" in this verse.  But what if we translated this word to be the same in every verse it was used?  What or how would that change the tone of this verse in Psalm 34?   SO glad you asked!

Let's put this verse back together using what we found hidden in the Hebrew meanings...

"They that paid attention and considered Him flowed together with Him and their faces were radiant and not ashamed."

This translation has a bit more depth to it than the translation in the modern versions of the Bible!

Jesus said to the Samaritan women by the well in John 4 "...but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.  Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life."  Also in John 7:38 "Whoever believes in Me, as scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."

Jeremiah 2:13 says "...for My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me the fountain of living waters..."  God refers to Himself as the fountain of living waters!  How incredible that the verse in Psalms tells us that those who pay attention to Him will "flow together" with Him...

The image of flowing down the river of life with the Father is one that gives me hope....He is the fountain of living water and from that He offers it to me...He offers to become the source of the spring that flows from within me.  It is up to me to choose which fountain I will allow to feed my spring....choose this day whom you shall serve...blessings or cursing...life or death.....the choice is left up to me.   Do I choose to take from the cup offered by Jesus and so have my life-spring connected to the Living Fountain?  Or do I choose to deny His cup?

The same choice is presented to you today......

If you are troubled and have felt like you have tried everything but things are still out of control....stop and ask yourself this - Have I truly been paying attention to God?  Have I considered His Way of doing things over my way?

Nowhere in the Bible does it tell us that life will be easy once we give our lives to God.  However, He does promise us Peace in the midst of storms and a place of quietness among the chaos....when we surrender to His will and pay attention to His ways and consider Him.  

When we do that, our journey down the river of life will not seem so much like rapids but have a wonderful calm to the rocking of the boat ;)

May you take the time to pay closer attention to the One who Created all that you see and everything you cannot see.....may your journey take you closer to His Heart than away from it....and may you choose to drink from His cup and experience the Living Waters of life....