Skip to main content

What Does It Mean?


Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel. (Psalm 22:3) 
           (Or, "Yet You are holy, enthroned on the praise of Israel") 

            One of my favorite questions: "What does ________ mean?" Today's passage is full of opportunities to ask meaning. First, there is the question of what the Hebrew text means. There are two translations provided in my study Bible. By looking the elements, perhaps the meaning of the whole will become clearer.
            What does "Holy One" mean? What does it mean that God is the Holy One? Does it mean less to say "You are holy"? According to the Oxford Dictionary of English, "holy" means dedicated or consecrated to God. In describing God as holy, it might be better to say that "holy" means dedicated or consecrated as God. Whether dedicating or consecrating "to" or dedicating or consecrating "as," it means setting apart or separating. That thing which is holy is different, special, to be treated with unusual respect. To describe God as "the Holy One" expresses the idea that He is the definite article, the one and only One who is truly holy. While it is true that God is holy, it seems greater praise to express the truth His holiness. He is holy in a way that makes all else profane or common by comparison. 
        To enthrone someone means to establish (or recognize) the authority of that person, effectively to set that person aside as being over everyone else which makes it like being holy. Thrones tend to be set on daises, or platforms, so that they are above those around them. In a sense, to enthrone means to lift up.  It is entirely appropriate for the Holy One to be enthroned and recognized as the Holy One. 
           It is also entirely appropriate for Israel's praise to lift up or enthrone God, which means that He is holy. When you praise, you lift up or hold up (picture raising your hands....) which means you dedicate or consecrate, or declare something to be holy or enthrone something (which separates it from everything else and lifts it up.) These ideas are closely related, perhaps even just different ways of saying the same thing (which is not unusual for Middle Eastern poetry of the time.) All of which is to treat as separate that which is unique.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Shepherd!

                 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep . (John 10:14) God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Genesis 3:14) The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths     for his name’s sake. Even though I walk     through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil,     for you are with me; your rod and your staff,     they comfort me. (Psalm 23:1-4) For the Jews, it was politically incorrect to make claims about yourself as a teacher (or possibly as anything else.) Teachers were expected to take pride in the...
Post a Comment
Read more