Say what?

Reading this morning, I came across a section that I must have read the proverbial one thousand times. Ho hum. Racing across the words, I tripped and fell. Actually, I raced passed them and belatedly realized that I’d shot passed something interesting and threw on the brakes, coming to a screeching halt (envision Fred Flintstone coming to a skidding halt with his feet in his neanderthal car).

Throwing the eyes into reverse, I retrogressed the territory I’d already covered until I came to this:

Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers.But they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night.

“Delight?”

Hmmm. All sorts of definitions ran through my head. In fact, there were so many that it reminded me of living in Brazil during the rainy season — coming into the kitchen at night, turning on the lights, cockroaches the size of mice would scurry everywhere. Just like then, the definitions were not what I wanted to see.

So, being the inquisitive fellow I am, I ran down the Hebrew meaning of the word.

In Hebrew, “delight” is the word “chephets” (pronounced khay-fets). Technically, it means “pleasure;” but more accurately “desire.” By extension, chephets is a valuable thing.

Then I read this same verse in this version:

How well God must like you— you don’t hang out at Sin Saloon, you don’t slink along Dead-End Road, you don’t go to Smart-Mouth College. Instead you thrill to God’s Word, you chew on Scripture day and night.

Bingo! Pass the chephets, please. I’m ready for a supernatural thrill ride…