Dignoscentia

There are three things that I notice right away when reading this psalm:

The most obvious is the pain one feels when a “friend” betrays you,
David wasn’t as brave as people have come to believe, and
A day is described as such: “evening, morning, noon.”

I don’t want to beat the first point to death. If we all [...]

It’s been a while since I’ve stumbled upon something the likes of The Da Vinci Code. The historical and religious inaccuracies portrayed in it, as well as the bad writing, make me cringe. Thankfully, there are people in the know who have taken the time to put together resources that will show us the truth. [...]

Those of you who read Dignoscentia on a regular basis know that I use the NJB (New Jerusalem Bible), and I sometimes refer to the KJV (King James Version). This psalm proves the usefulness of having at least two good translations of the Bible in your home. In my case, the NJB (which usually clarifies [...]

The Bible is a literal life-saver. If you already have one, dust it off and get reading! If you don’t have one, get one! There are many organizations that give them out for free - probably any church will do this for you.
Of course, it helps to have a Bible you can understand. Which translation [...]

At first sight, this psalm sings the praises of Mount Zion and the old, powerful Jerusalem, in particular of God’s protection and blessing upon the city. And I don’t think it’s a mistake to interpret it that way.
Yet there is another way in which one could look at this psalm. Like in Psalm 46, there [...]

My NJB calls this an eschatological hymn. While I agree that it is referring to God, I don’t see it as an end-times psalm. I think this is an Israel-centric psalm, and some things mentioned in it aren’t quite accurate.
Here’s one example: “He brings peoples under our yoke and nations under our feet.” While it’s [...]

I suppose this psalm could be considered as a simple historical piece, a prayer and praise to God which talks about Jerusalem and God’s saving presence there, but I think it’s much more than that. As one reads through it, one can’t escape the prophetic references to the New Jerusalem described in Revelation.
Let me just [...]