Hebrew Word Study – Be At Peace  – Shakan – שְׁכָן  Shin Kap Nun 

Psalm 37:3-4 “Trust in the Lord and do good, dwell in the land and cherish faithfulness.  So shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and He shall give you the desires of your heart.”

“Dwell in the land…”   Does that not go without question?  I mean we are not fish so we can not dwell in the sea,  we are not birds so we can not dwell in the sky and we are not stars so we can not dwell in space.  Where else will we dwell?  Dwell here is in a Qal imperative form. An imperative is a command, I mean that is one command we have no choice but to obey. If the writer meant a specific place he would have used the word esach  instead he uses ‘eres which means the world, the earth, or the ground.  Why state something so obvious.  Poetry to be sure, but also this a hint that there is something deeper. As I grow in my love for Jesus, it becomes more difficult to dwell in this land, I can only do it by His command.

Trust in the Lord.  The word trust is betach which is the same word used in Proverbs 3:5 which means to adhere or to use a modern term to weld yourself to the Lord. In modern Hebrew it is the word for glue.  “Do good…”  the word for good is tov which means to be in harmony with God.  Then we are to dwell in the earth.  As indicated, unless you are an astronaut, you pretty much have that command sewed up.  However, the word dwell is not yashav which you would expect and means to inhabit, but it is the word shakan which means to rest, be at peace with.  I cannot be at peace in this world without His Word and His presence so that is what I consume to take the edge off of this world in which I must yashav.

When you weld yourself to God and live in harmony with Him, you really don’t feel like you are a part of this old world. You just don’t feel at home in this world. I used to spend a minimum of three to four hours a day studying the Word of God, now that we opened up our All Access site I am spending a minimum of six to eight hours a day studying the Word of God in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic.  I show all the signs of addiction, I get a few moments down time on my disability bus, I have my IPad open searching the Scriptures.  I get home and the first thing I do is sit down and start researching those scriptures in the original languages. I fall asleep about 7:00 PM and wake at 10:00 PM reaching for my Hebrew Bible to search out some questions lingering in my mind. I fall asleep around 1:00 AM and wake at three or four in the morning where I continue my quest in the Word of God and then I get ready to go to my disability bus and start the routine over again. I am a pitiful case, I am totally hooked on the Word of God.  If I go twelve hours without reading some Scripture I start going through withdrawals, the shakes and all.  I start getting irritable. I mean I start getting physically sick to my stomach until I am able to immerse myself in the Word of God and His presence and then I stop getting the shakes. Calm and peace return. 

As the song writer said: “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full into His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.”   Yet, as the Apostle Paul said, we are ambassadors in this world and an ambassador must live in peace in the country he serves.  Jesus said: “My peace I give unto you, not that the world gives.”

So how do we find peace in this world that is not our home?  The answer is in the word we render as dwell which is shacan.  We find the word is spelled Shin which is used for  joy and peace./  The next letter is the  Kap which is a vessel that needs to be filled and the last letter is a final Nun  which shows us a revelation of the light (I call that light Jesus). I know, I am one of those crazy gentiles that find Jesus all over the Old Testament which is enough to drive any rabbi to throw salt in the air.

I have now learned from experience when that is done then that is when we will delight yourselves in the Lord.  The word for delight here is ’anag. It is in a Hithpael form which makes it reflexive.  It means to be delicate, as well as to take pleasure in.   It is a romantic word.  As a lover takes pleasure in gently caressing his love, speaking gentle, loving words to her.  Sharing an intimacy with her that no one else can share, an intimacy that is special only to her and no one else.  Once you have felt that gentle, caressing presence of God that comes as you immerse yourself in His Word, you are hooked, you are addicted.  The enemy fought for many years to keep me from becoming a Bible addict, but he failed and I have fallen headlong into my addiction. The enemy is trying his best to free me from my addiction, but it just has such a hold on me that no enticement of this world will break it and I fear that is all he has to use to try and break my addiction to the Bible.

Please note that this is just a brief overview of our weekly Bible Study on Zoom on Monday night at 7:00PM  We would like to have you join us if you can.  You can sign up at www.hebrewwordstudy.com 

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