Psalm 18:4
4 The sorrows [chebel] of death [maveth] compassed ['aphaph] me, and
the floods [nachal] of ungodly men [baliya`al] made me afraid. [ba`ath] KJV-Interlinear
4 The
cords of death encompassed me, And the torrents of ungodliness terrified me. NASB
The word sorrows, ‘chebel,’
means cord, noose, rope, snare, and is used as in a trap in which death is the
only obvious result. Where actual death
does not occur, then the sorrows of extreme anxiety, worry, and so forth ride
heavily on the individual.
Floods, ‘nachal,’ refers
to innumerable streams that flow out of a mountain. They begin with rain, that
develops into creeks, then streams, then flow into rivers as a constant and
continuous and never ending flow, resulting in a flood or torrent that
overwhelms. The flood comes from many
different places.
Ungodly, ‘baliya al,’
refers to worthlessness, without use, without profit, useless. And so ungodly people, or those who do not
have God in their lives, or those who pursue life without God, without a
spiritual life or activity, whether believers of unbelievers, then are defined
as worthless.
Worthlessness points to
those who occupy space, but have no value or purpose as they determine their
lack of purpose by means of their own thoughts and actions.
Ungodliness is the lack
of spiritual thought and function in the life.
Ungodliness or wicked
people, live in history, and fill space, and thus become nothing more than
historical filler, to occupy space and then are discarded from life.
Therefore, this verse
teaches us that the world is constantly and continuously filled with people who
are by definition, worthless. And they
are all around, everywhere.
The sorrows, the threats,
the burdens of life are constantly in our daily lives, and they all threaten
death for us, quite literally by means of physical death, by which any one of
us can die by choking, or slipping, or by violence, or accident, or natural
causes, and so forth.
But also, there is the
far greater threat of spiritual death by means of the influence from worthless
people who can pull us into their realm of worthlessness. And that worthlessness can extend into
eternity and the loss of reward, and so forth.
The obvious principle
here too, is that worthlessness often times does not recognize nor realize its
own worthlessness.
So the question is, are
you numbered among the worthless, or do you even know, and how is it that you
can know.
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