On the Move?

jIH DIchDaq ghobe' taH vIHta'.

I shall not be moved. Psalm 16:8

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Imagine for a moment that you are travelling in a rocket that goes 30 kilometers per second. This is on the order of 67,000 miles an hour! At that speed, you could reach the moon in 4 hours - not the three days it usually takes.

This isn't really hypothetical - you ARE moving that fast - at least if you are on the planet Earth. Given the Earth's annual path around the sun, over 900 million kilometers, our planet ("spaceship Earth," if you will) and everyone on it is moving that fast. You might think you won't be moved - but you're wrong - you've gone hundreds of kilometers (or miles) while listening to me.

Now when David expresses his confidence in God in Psalm 16, he says

jIH DIchDaq ghobe' taH vIHta'.

I shall not be moved. Psalm 16:8

For "moved" he uses the Hebrew word mowt (mote), a word used nearly 40 times in the Bible. It's a primitive root, meaning 'to waver' by implication to slip, shake, fall, be carried, cast, be out of course. For the Klingon I used the word vIH (to move) plus -ta' (is-accomplished) to express "moved"

This word, mowt, shows up over half of those times in the book of Psalms, and it expresses a number of thoughts. Unfortunately, it's even been misunderstood by some to suggest the Earth was the unmoving center of the universe, when Psalm 93 says: The world also is established. It can't be moved. (93:1)

But David knows he'll move - even if he didn't know about the Earth's orbit. Rather, he's expressing trust that his path, his course through life won't be derailed. He can trust God to keep him on track. Better than that, he knows God will set him right if he DOES move off course, as we read in Psalm 94:

When I said, "My foot is slipping!" Your loving kindness, O LORD, held me up. (Psalm 94:18)

[And yes the word translated "slipping" there is mowt.]

We're not immobile, we do move through life. The early believers who followed Jesus spoke of being part of "the Way." They didn't feel like they'd arrived, they were following Jesus as he led them through life.

jIH DIchDaq ghobe' taH vIHta'.

I shall not be moved. Psalm 16:8

Putting our trust in God, we can move forward, with a confidence that God WILL keep from being moved off track, providing the mid-course corrections we need, when we need them. Hallelujah!