Psalms 103:6: “The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.”

The Lord executes righteousness and judgment. Some translations say that the Lord will work, others say the Lord gives, and some say the Lord performs, the Lord continuously does what is right, the Lord does what is fair and the Lord is doing.  They all mean pretty much the same. But stop and just think about it in your own understanding of the English language.  I have heard from people all over the world who read my blog and they obviously understand English, but do the words work, perform do, and execute mean the same thing to someone in South Africa as it does to someone in New York or South Georgia.

There are differences in nuances of the meanings of each one of these words.  Performing has more of the idea of something that is well thought out before you do it.  Doing it just means jumping in and doing it without thought.  Executing gives the impression of carrying out an order or fulfilling the requirements of a law and giving shows that this is carried out with a sense of benevolence and love.   You see if you just do a quick read of this verse it pretty much means the same no matter what translation you read, God gives, performs, executes or does righteousness and judgment, he just carries it out, praise the Lord let’s move on.  But if you are one of those Christians who love just love God to death and are totally in love with His  Word you will want to devour every word, you will pause and meditate on each word like reading a love letter.

Now say I find a love letter one the ground, I pick it up and read: “Dear Bunkie…” I won’t even bother to think about the word dear, it was not written to me, and it has no relevance to me.  I just see the word dear and move on.  But if I get an email from some woman that I am desirous of receiving her attention I will read; “Dear Chaim…” and immediately pause and think: “What does she mean by dear? Is it just a formal introduction or did she say it because she wants to express that I am special in her life?”  If I am special why just dear? Why not My Dear, or Dearest?  Oh my, this relationship is headed now where.”

You see these little nuances become very important when they become personal. If you have a love relationship with God this verse becomes a personal message to you from God and you will stop and think: Executes righteousness?  Gee how formal, is God executing righteousness and judgement because He has to do it? Because he wants to preserve His reputation so He has to  defend me if I am oppressed? So now that I am He has to step up to plate and say, “Oh alright already, I said I would so I will.”  If I read another translation I may read: “The Lord performs righteousness and judgment.”  I may think: “Golly gee, God is going to perform righteousness and judgment like an actor when I am oppressed.  Whoopee do, he is performing, perhaps He will take bow after delivering me from the oppression and have everyone cheer for Him. Great act there God you are a good perform, good actor, I am glad I was the poor slob to come along so you could have an opportunity to show off abilities to everyone.”

God is my first and deepest love and when I read His love letter to me, I am going to pick at every word and try to find out what meaning is behind each word just as a lover will do when he receives a love letter from His beloved. I hope those of you who read these little studies will realize that I am sharing something deeply personal, this is my journal, my musings over a love letter I receive from the God I love.  Whether you agree with my conclusions or not means little to me because I am not writing this for your benefit, I am only sharing with you something that is deeply personal.  I have little to no social life, I am pretty much locked away and shut in and when you love someone you what to share that joy of your love and brag about your beloved. Since I have few friends, from my self-imposed hermit life style, to share my joy in my love with you, I put it out over my blog and talk to you about each word that my God, the love of my life shares with me because I am hoping He is also the love of your life. My love for Him is not a possessive love, I want everyone to share in it. So come on help me understand what my beloved God is really saying in this one word which is differently translated into English.

That word is ‘asah which means to do, to fashion, to accomplish, to make, to work to produce, to deal with, to act with effect, to prepare, to acquire, to appoint, to ordain, to institute, to be offered, to press, to squeeze, to be busy, to bring forth, to bestow, to have charge of, to commit, to deal, to finish, to fly, to fit, to follow, to govern, to grant, to greatly hinder, to hold a feast, to be industrious, to maintain, to meet, to observe, to occupy, to bring to pass, to sacrifice, to serve, to set, to show, to spend, to take, to be very thorough, to vex, to yield or to use. 

Want more, I’ve got more.  I remember a rabbi once telling me that every word in Hebrew can have up to thirty different English words to apply to it. After all there are only 7,500 words in the Biblical Hebrew so one word can go a long ways in the English language which has over one million words.

So which one applies to this verse? Which is the correct English word out of all these English words I have listed that is the true Word of God?  The true word of God is ‘asah it is between you and the Holy Spirit to decide which English word to plug in.  You see, that is my joy in studying the Word of God. I see it as a personal love letter to me. When I read it I don’t want some translator sitting in his lofty academic tower who hasn’t kissed his wife in twenty years telling me what message of love my beloved God is sending to me. I want His Holy Spirit to whisper it to me personally.

There is absolutely no reason in the world for any who has a computer or can read a lexicon or the back of Strong’s Concordance to not be able to compile all the possible renderings for a Hebrew word.  If you need help go to Amazon.com and look under Chaim Bentorah and purchase my book and workbook Beyond the Lexicon and in six simply lessons you will be doing word studies just as well if not better than my advanced Hebrew students could do when I taught Hebrew in a Bible College.

So what word did the Holy Spirit whisper to me to use instead of  “He will execute righteousness and judgment?”  Sorry, that is private between me and my beloved God.  Go on, get out of here and find your own word. You have plenty to choose from, listen to the Holy Spirit for once and not Chaim Bentorah. You let the Holy Spirit whisper that special word to you as your own personal message from God.