Week 30 Psalm 66
Psalm 66 has four paragraphs and even though there’s probably a unifying theme tying them together I think each one of them could be it’s own individual psalm.
Of the four I like the last paragraph the most (verses sixteen to twenty). It’s a short testimonial: I will tell of what (the Lord) has done for my soul.
One of the things the writer says is: if I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear. A lot of other things in the bible agree with this idea and I accept it as a basic rule or principle.
In my bible there’s a little number beside the word ‘regard’ and I wonder if it will give me a synonym for ‘regard’ (like if-I-embrace sin or if-I-practice sin). But instead the note in the margin changes the tense of the sentence: if I had regarded wickedness in my heart, the Lord would not have heard.
I check to see what a few other versions say. I don’t do a statistical count but quite a few of them also put the sentence in the past. For instance: if I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
Even though it doesn’t make too much difference to the sentence I wish the translators could agree.
But either way the basic idea is pretty clear – that figuratively-speaking the Lord is deaf to the voice of people who embrace evilness.
Note: quotes from Psalm 66:16 18 (NASB NIV)