理解上帝的善良Comprehending God’s Goodness
[每日靈修] 11/9/2018, 駱鴻銘編譯
作為一個孩子，我學到的第一個禱告是一個簡單的餐前禱告。它是這樣說的：「上帝很偉大，上帝很美善。我們為桌上的飲食感謝祂。」當時，我沒有意識到聖經裏的一個詞同時捕捉到了上帝的偉大和祂的良善的雙重觀念。這個詞就是「聖潔」。
聖潔這個詞最早的形式，可追溯到迦南人，它帶有「分開」的意思。任何神聖的東西和其他所有東西都是分開的或是分離的。這個意思指向普通和非凡、平常和罕見、一般和偉大，之間的區別。
在宗教的詞彙方面，聖潔這個詞將上帝與所有其他事物分開，將祂置於一個特殊的範疇（祂自己獨屬於一個類別）。「至聖者」是擁有最完美本體的那位。祂超越所有被造物，與所有被造物不同。祂是最威嚴、最崇高，最令人敬畏的存有物。由於祂的本質是既奇妙又令人驚歎的，受造物——在思考聖潔的上帝時——就會因為祂的偉大而以驚奇和讚歎作出反應。
活在神的面光中（在神面前禱告）：
今天請花一點時間禱告，特別感謝上帝所對你顯出的美善。
進一步研讀：
詩卅一19 敬畏你、投靠你的人，你為他們所積存的，在世人面前所施行的恩惠是何等大呢！
詩八六10 因你為大，且行奇妙的事；惟獨你是神。
詩九二5 耶和華啊，你的工作何其大！你的心思極其深！
Comprehending
God’s Goodness
As a
child, the first prayer I ever learned was a simple table grace. It went like
this: “God is great, God is good. And we thank Him for this food.” At the time,
I did not realize that a single biblical word captured the twin ideas of God’s
greatness and His goodness. The single word is holy.
The
earliest traceable form of the Semitic root of the word holy, reaching to a
Canaanite source, carried the meaning “to divide.” Anything that was holy was
divided or separated from all other things. This meaning pointed to the
difference between the ordinary and the extraordinary, the common and uncommon,
the average and the great.
In
religious terms, the word holy divides God from all other things to put Him in
a category that is sui generis (in a class by Himself). The Holy One is the One
who possesses the supreme perfection of being. He transcends or is divided from
all things creaturely. He is the most majestic, most exalted, most
awe-provoking being. Since He is both marvelous and wonderful in His very
essence, the creature—when contemplating the Holy God—responds in marvel and
wonder because of His greatness.
Coram
Deo
Take
time in prayer today to thank God specifically for His goodness to you.
Passages
for Further Study
Psalm
31:19
Psalm
86:10
Psalm
92:5