Psalms — Chapter 116
I love the ETERNAL One for hearing my voice, my pleas;aI love the ETERNAL ONE / for hearing my voice, my pleas Heb. transposed for clarity; in contrast to others “I would love that the LORD hear,” etc.
for turning an ear to mewhenever I call.
The bonds of death encompassed me;the torments of Sheol overtook me.I came upon trouble and sorrow
and I invoked GOD’s name,“O ETERNAL One, save my life!”
GOD is gracious and beneficent;our God is compassionate.
GOD protects the simple;I was saved, after having been brought low.
Be at rest, once again, O my soul,for GOD has been good to you.
YoubYou I.e., God. have delivered me from death,my eyes from tears,my feet from stumbling.
I shall walk before GOD in the lands of the living.
I trust [in GOD];out of great suffering I spokecI trust … I spoke Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
and said rashly,“All people are false.”
How can I repay GOD for all the bounties given to me?
I raise the cup of deliveranceand invoke GOD’s name.
I will pay my vows to GOD in the presence of all those assembled.
The death of God’s faithful onesis grievous in GOD’s sight.
O ETERNAL One,I am Your servant,Your servant, the child of Your maidservant;You have undone the cords that bound me.
I will sacrifice a thank offering to Youand invoke GOD’s name.
I will pay my vows to GOD in the presence of all those assembled,
in the courts of GOD’s house,in the midst ofdof In contrast to others “of you.” Jerusalem.Hallelujah.
✦ Connected Across Traditions
The Golden Rule
Matthew 7:12
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Hadith (An-Nawawi 13)
“None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.”
Mahabharata 5.1517
“One should never do to another what one regards as injurious to oneself.”
Dhammapada 10:1
“All tremble at violence; all fear death. Putting oneself in the place of another, one should not kill nor cause another to kill.”
Divine Compassion & Mercy
Quran 1:1
“In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.”
Luke 6:36
“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
Snp 1.8
“As a mother would risk her life to protect her child, her only child, even so should one cultivate a limitless heart with regard to all beings.”
Guru Granth Sahib, Ang 1
“One Universal Creator God. The Name Is Truth. Creative Being Personified. No Fear. No Hatred.”
Impermanence & Letting Go
Dhammapada 20:277
“All conditioned things are impermanent. When one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering.”
Tao Te Ching 76
“A man is born gentle and weak. At his death he is hard and stiff. The soft and yielding is the disciple of life.”
Ecclesiastes 3:1-2
“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.”
Bhagavad Gita 2:22
“As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.”
Good vs Evil / Light vs Darkness
Yasna 30:3
“Now the two primal Spirits, who reveal themselves as Twins, are the Better and the Bad, in thought and word and action.”
John 1:5
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
Dhammapada 1:1-2
“Mind is the forerunner of all actions. If one speaks or acts with a pure mind, happiness follows like a shadow.”
Bhagavad Gita 16:21
“There are three gates to self-destructive hell: lust, anger, and greed. Therefore, one must learn to give these up.”