Safe!

(I'm BACK! I spent the last week visiting other worlds, filled with robots, fantastic voyages and more! See?)

vaD SoH, joH'a' mob, chenmoH jIH yIn Daq safety.
For you, O LORD alone, make me live in safety. Psalm 4:8b

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As I write this, I'm soaking wet - due to having moved a car into the garage for fear of an approaching hailstorm. It gives me a little appreciation for the Klingon slang word for "to be safe" - QaD, literally to be dried out. Anyone caught in a summer thunderstorm can appreciate the link to "keeping dry" as being "safe."

You'll note that my KLV didn't map the word 'safety' - that's due to the relative infrequency of the word safety (19 times) or safe (13) in the WEB translation. As I've noted, my initial creation of this "relexified" (not translated ) text only touched on FREQUENT words, used more than 100 times in the English text. I've relaxed that rule - especially as I've done these studies, but "safe" and "safety" haven't made the cut yet. And, of course, safety is rarely a priority for Klingons.

vaD SoH, joH'a' mob, chenmoH jIH yIn Daq safety.
For you, O LORD alone, make me live in safety. Psalm 4:8b

On planet Earth - well on (or off of) any planet (even Pluto! - I'm not giving up so easily on that one) safety IS a concern. From pre-launch checklists to flood insurance, we think about and seek to attain it in many ways.

But. We know there is no guarantee. At the end of these two psalms, 3 and 4, we've heard David oscillate between his struggles and his confidence in God giving him security. This final verse wraps up with David, at last, saying his safety is founded on God alone.

The word here in Hebrew, betach, means to hie for refuge - that is, it acknowledges there is much in this world from which we need rescue. AND it is only God who offers that rescue. We do not find safety in denying our troubles - saying "everything is fine," when it is not.

Perhaps we need to, as David did, come to the end of our rope to realize how much we need rescue - and that God offers it.

As Peter says:

casting Hoch lIj worries Daq ghaH, because ghaH cares vaD SoH.

Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about what happens to you.
(1 Peter 5:7 NLT)

Then we'll know the answer to this life's bad news:

ghaH DichDaq ghobe' taH vIp vo' mIghtaHghach news. Daj tIq ghaH steadfast, trusting Daq joH'a'.

He will not be afraid of evil news. His heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD. (Psalm 112:7)

This life will bring us storms - real and metaphorical - and it is not always possible to be QaD, safe. But there is one to whom we can always turn, for He will always give us that safe port in every storm we need.

vaD SoH, joH'a' mob, chenmoH jIH yIn Daq safety.
For you, O LORD alone, make me live in safety. Psalm 4:8b