{"id":89373,"date":"2021-02-24T09:12:35","date_gmt":"2021-02-24T07:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=89373"},"modified":"2021-02-24T09:13:33","modified_gmt":"2021-02-24T07:13:33","slug":"bees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/bees\/","title":{"rendered":"Bees!"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"89373","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":78133,"related_cahpter":"685","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"But protection from enemies is not automatic\r\n\r\n","content":"

This beautifully poetic psalm has multiple repetitions and word coupling. It truly reads like a song. Verses 10, 11, and 12 provide a vivid image of enemies surrounding the reading by repeated words :\u00a0 “All nations have <\/span>beset<\/em> me; by the name of the LORD<\/span> I will surely cut them dow<\/em>n<\/em>\/ they <\/span>beset<\/em> me, they <\/span>surround<\/em> me; by the name of the LORD <\/span>I will surely cut them down<\/em>\/ They have <\/span>beset<\/em> me like bees; they shall be extinguished like burning thorns; by the name of the LORD<\/span> I will surely cut them down<\/em>.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The reader feels surrounded by the enemy! These verse seem to provide a positive note- my enemies surround me, yet God is there to protect me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What’s odd here is that it seems like the subject of the psalm has to reassure themselves three times that God will protect them. Why would the subject require that? One could return to the vivid image and see the subject standing in a valley with enemies encircling them, and the subject – maybe with eyes shut, then open, then shut – repeating these verses.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps these verses are not meant to be positive. There is one simile that appears “they have beset me like bees.”\u00a0 There is only one other time in Tanach where an enemy is referred to as a swarm of bees. In Deuteronomy 1:44, Moses retells the story of the spies and the curse that God put on the people that they would not enter the land. A small group tried to disregard God’s edit and marched forward towards the land of Canaan. This adventure was short lived: “Then the Amorites who lived in those hills came out against you like so many bees and chased you, and they crushed you at Hormah in Seir.”\u00a0 One could imagine these very tragic renegades rushing towards the forbidden border repeating in their mind “my enemies surround me, but God will cut them down.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The message is that God’s protection is not automatic. A person must be deserving of God’s protection. Only then will God “Open the gates of victory for me that I may enter them and praise the LORD” (verse 19).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":80118,"id":80118,"title":"ps5-bees","filename":"ps5-bees.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/ps5-bees.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/on-the-nechilot\/ps5-bees\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ps5-bees","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":80117,"date":"2020-09-20 16:01:35","modified":"2021-02-24 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