Sermon Tone Analysis

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*“השׁיר** **השׁרי** **אישׁ**”*

*מן*

*טספי**  **היל*

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*God was pleased to make this chapter the beginning of the book of Psalm.

The book starts by defining the foundation of the blessed life.

This word is found 25 times in the book of Psalm.

This Psalm gives us a stark contrast between a sinners a righteous man.

*The Holy Spirit gives us a vivid and strait forward description of the life of a blessed man.

As we look closely to the meaning of the words and their relationships we can see the full meaning of the passage.

1.      *The meaning of the words*

1.      *blessed  “ *אַשְׁרֵי (/ʾǎš∙rê/): *blessed!*,

how happy!, i.e., a heightened state of happiness and joy, implying very favorable [1]”

*2.    **Walk *

*                                          i.

**The word walk carries different meanings aside from the literal meaning.

It carries the meaning of desire, thought.*

1.      “… follow , i.e., be an adherent of a person, group, or belief (Ps 81:14[EB 13])[2]”

*                                        ii.

**The word walk is not a negative word by itself.

The syntactical relationship of this word with the adverb “not”  and  the noun “wicked” gives us the contextualized meaning.

*

*                                                                                                                           *

3.      Council

                                                              i.

“עֵצָה (/ʿē∙ṣā(h)/): n.fem.; ≡ Str 6098; TWOT 887a—*1.*

LN 33.294-33.298

*advice*, counsel, i.e., the act. of telling someone what they should do based on a plan or scheme[3]”

4.      *Wicked: *

                                                              i.

*“... */guilty of hostility/ to God or his people, /wicked enemies:/ רשׁע [4]”

                                                            ii.

*“*/guilty of sin/, against either God or man, /wicked:/ האנשׁים הרשׁעים Nu 16:26 (J, rebellious Korahites), [5]”

5.      Stand

                                                              i.

עִמָּד (/ʿim∙māḏ/): prep.; ≡ Str 5978; TWOT 1640b—*1.*

LN 89.107-89.119

*with*, i.e., a marker of an associative relationship in some manner (1Sa 22:23)[6]

6.      Way

                                                              i.

*3.*

“דֶּרֶךְ …*conduct*, way of life, what is done, i.e., behave in a particular way, in the manner one conducts one’s life, including habits, as a figurative extension of a thoroughfare (Pr 6:6; 25:4);[7]”

 

7.

S*inners*

                                                              i.

The root meaning of this word is “חַטָּא (/ḥǎṭ∙ṭā(ʾ)/): n.masc.

[see also 2629.5];

≡ Str 2400; TWOT 638b—LN 88.289-88.318

*sinner*, wicked person, i.e., a class of persons that offend a standard, and so incur moral guilt [8]”

8.      Sits

                                                              i.

This word comes from “יָשַׁב (/yā∙šǎḇ/): v.; ≡ Str 3427; TWOT 922—*1.*

LN 85.67-85.85

(qal) *inhabit*, dwell, live, stay, i.e., be in a place for any period of time, usually implying a longer amount of time (Ge 4:16); (nif) *be settled, be inhabited*[9]*”*

9.      Seat

*“household members*, i.e., those who dwell in residence, who are part of a larger whole (2Sa 9:12)[10]”

 

10.

Scoffers

                                                              i.

“לִיץ (/lîṣ/): v.; ≡ Str 3887; TWOT 1113—LN 33.406-33.411

(qal) *mock*, scorn, formally, talk big, i.e., speak words which show no respect for the object, and make fun of the object, with a possible focus of speaking in the situation with confidence and authority[11]”

*When we take into consideration the meaning of the above words we can see one aspect of the blessed man’s life.

In short the blessed man is a person who is not:*

·         *An adherent of people who are guilty of hostility to God and His people.

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·         *He does not allow himself to be dictated by the advice or scheme and plan of the enemies of God.*

·         *He does not develop the habit and manner of sinners.*

·         *He does not dwell nor make his habitation to become the house hold of people who are mockers and scoffers.*

*It is clearly observable how the words walk stand seat is lined up in an orderly sequence.

Personally I observe a positive feed back mechanism is coming into play in the life of a righteous person.

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*The Psalmist, by going further, gives us the other side of the blessed man’s life.

The portraits of the blessed man in verse one cannot be attained without verses two and three.

What is the source of strength of the blessed man?

Verses two and three give the provision of grace for a man who made a deliberate decision to not to follow the ways and wisdom and life of sinners.*

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*2.    **The blessed man *

*1.    **Delights in the Law of God*

*                                          i.

**He Meditates the Law day and night*

*Meditates *“הָגָה … *meditate*, ponder, give serious thought and consideration to selected information, with a possible implication of speaking in low tones reviewing the material[12]…*speak*, utter, i.e., talk in normal tones so others can hear (Job 27:4; Ps 37:30; 71:24); *4.* LN 25.135-25.145

(qal) *moan*, groan, lament, i.e., make soft sounds expressing grief and sorrow (Jer 48:31); [13]”

This word gives us a beautiful picture of a blessed man.

He is a man whose heart is filled and whose mind is fully occupied with the Law of God.

The moaning and groaning of the word of the Lord happens day and night.

The assistance to wicked ways and the avoidance of association of sinners cannot be attained without this persisstnatn commitment to cherish and delight

 

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[1]Swanson, J. 1997.

/Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament)/ (electronic ed.) (DBLH 897).

Logos Research Systems, Inc.: Oak Harbor

EB English Bible versification

[2]Swanson, J. 1997.

/Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament)/ (electronic ed.) (DBLH 2143, #30).

Logos Research Systems, Inc.: Oak Harbor

n. noun, or nouns

fem.

feminine

Str /Strong’s Lexicon/

TWOT /Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament/

LN /Louw-Nida Greek-English Lexicon/

act.

active voice

[3]Swanson, J. 1997.

/Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament)/ (electronic ed.) (DBLH 6783, #1).

Logos Research Systems, Inc.: Oak Harbor

[4]Brown, F., Driver, S. R., & Briggs, C. A. 2000.

/Enhanced Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon/.

Strong's, TWOT, and GK references Copyright 2000 by Logos Research Systems, Inc. (electronic ed.) (957).