full - teblu'ta'

ghaH muSHa'taH QaQtaHghach je ruv. The tera' ghaH teblu'ta' vo' the muSHa'taH pung vo' joH'a'.
He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the loving kindness of the LORD.

Psalm 33:5

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If you were to visit my office, that is, once you got to the basement, down the corridor, found your way past the security doors, then down more stairs and finally made your way to our office (which is sort of underground (no really)), when you finally found the space that I call my own.... well, then you'd notice some things.

I hope you'd see my desk, my computers, the bookshelves and all the standard stuff. You'd find the technical manuals, the notebooks and whiteboard and you'd get an idea of the sort of work that goes on here.

But then, I'd guess you might look around and pick up on the personal details, and then might get an idea about what KIND of person worked in this space.

And SPACE would be the operative word - you'd notice pictures tacked up of space vehicles (real and imaginary), not to mention models of robots and spaceships (also real and imagined). You might even notice that one or two of the reference books have to to with rockets, not the computers and networks that I work with. Added together you'd be safe to conclude that the person who works here loves space travel - this cube is full of the love of Outer Space.

The tera' ghaH teblu'ta' vo' the muSHa'taH pung vo' joH'a'.
The earth is full of the loving kindness of the LORD.

The NLT recasts the psalmists words as "the unfailing love of the Lord fills the earth." and you might wonder how anyone can say that is true, but it is. I know, I know - I need nothing more than scanning the headlines online to find a world full of tragedy and loss. Of course we ask, where is this unfailing love? But it is there.

malae is the Hebrew word that I've represented as teblu'ta' in Klingon - pretty basic words, both carrying the idea here of something "filled up" with a substance. The substance here is "Hesed" God's faithful covenant love - often translated as "lovingkindness" in the KJV, hence the Klingon loving (muSHa'taH) plus kindness (pung).

Our eyes can miss the lovingkindness that fills the earth - because we know of what is wrong in it. We need to be reminded that the unfailing love of the Lord fills the earth.

As one writer notes:

The overflowing kindness of God fills the earth. Even the iniquities of men are rarely a bar to his goodness: he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends his rain upon the just and the unjust. Adam Clarke.

Search for the trouble and you'll find it.Like the recent disaster in Haiti - a mountain of despair cast down on a people already broken under poverty and more. But look at the response from believers and non-believers who have flooded that tiny nation with assistance. A web search for news about "people helping Haiti" yields thousands of hits- that is God's lovingkindness bearing fruit amidst all that trouble. And why else would we worry in the face of tragedy if our hearts were not kindled by that love God sheds abroad in the world. Of course we despair - we want to see God's love bearing fruit.

A person who visits my workspace won't find a note "Joel is a space cadet" or "Joel loves rocket ships" - but all the little extras you find scattered about spell it out pretty clearly.

It is the same in this world. The people who build Habitat homes, who help out a Gospel missions, who send money - or themselves - off to rebuild in time of disaster - all those "little clues" point out that God indeed fills this world with his love - and we have the great gift of being able to share it!

ghaH muSHa'taH QaQtaHghach je ruv. The tera' ghaH teblu'ta' vo' the muSHa'taH pung vo' joH'a'.
He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the loving kindness of the LORD.

Psalm 33:5