“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him and He will direct your paths.”

A dark night of the soul brought this Scripture back to my heart.  Trying to negate those whispers of darkness that God’s care is for eternity and not for the temporary.

It was then that I was offended.  I turned on my Bible and went to read this Scripture.  I have really, really enjoyed the Holman Christian Standard translation.  But when I read this Scripture, it read

“think about Him in all your ways.”

Somehow this felt like an interpretation from the English, and not a translation from the Hebrew.  So I looked it up because maybe I was wrong.  But there it was.  That word translated in NIV as “acknowledge” and HCSB as “think.”    The Hebrew is

“Yada”

Yada means ‘to know.’

“Adam knew [yada] his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain… Cain knew [yada] his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch… Adam knew [yada] his wife again, and she bore a son and named him Seth… ” (Genesis 4:1, 17, 25)

“He gave justice and help to the poor and needy, and everything went well for him. Isn’t that what it means to know [yada] me?” says the Lord.” (Jeremiah 22:15-16)

To know someone was to be connected to who they were in such a way that life was the result.   For Adam and Eve that knowing produced a baby.  For those who know the Lord that knowing produces justice and mercy.  It’s so much deeper than “think.”  So let’s put it in the text in a literal way:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways know him and He will direct your paths.”

My knowing of Him is not just a head acknowledgement of turth but one that has been tied into a walking and communing of the soul.   It’s this walking and talking that without even realizing, leads me down paths that are good, straight and pleasing.  Because it is Him who is leading the walk as we talk.  And this is the rest of the soul.