Leviticus Eighteen / Psalm Eighteen

Leviticus 18

1 - 30 Unlawful Sexual Relations

6. My NRSV says, "None of you shall approach anyone near of kin to uncover nakedness." I read this to be a soft way of saying "Don't have sex with" (Hey look - that's how the NIV states it.

22. There it is!

24. Don't defile yourselves in any of these ways, for by all these practices I am casting before you have defiled themselves (My notes remind the reader of Adam & Eve, Cain, Noah's generation - "Here, however, the pollution is confined to the Land of Canaan. Therein lies the theological basis of the holy land, namely, that all who reside on this land, including all aliens, must observe God's prohibitive commandments"). Whoa.

Psalm 18

Prayer for Rescue from Persecutors

1 - 4 3. My God, my rock, my shield, my saving horn, my stronghold!

5 - 20 The description of God's saving reminds me of the creation story.

21 - 31. The psalmist is very sure that he has kept the laws of God, and therefore God has saved him. 26 - 27 "Toward the faithful you are faithful; to the honest you are honest. Toward the sincere, sincere; but to the perverse you are devious (This is NAB - my NRSV says, "with the crooked you show yourself perverse). This is Freud's theory of projection - we hate (love) in others what we hate (love) in ourselves.

32 - 35 The Psalmist praises God and how he "trained my hands for war" - prepared him for his tests.

36 - 46 The psalmist praises God for how he helped vanquish the enemy.

47 - 51 The psalmist praises the Lord - 47: The Lord lives! Blessed by my rock! Exalted be God, my Savior!