Judaism
Psalms 92
Text
A Psalm, a Song. For the sabbath day.
It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, And to sing praises unto Thy name, O Most High;
To declare Thy lovingkindness in the morning, And Thy faithfulness in the night seasons,
With an instrument of ten strings, and with the psaltery; With a solemn sound upon the harp.
For Thou, LORD, hast made me glad through Thy work; I will exult in the works of Thy hands.
How great are Thy works, O LORD! Thy thoughts are very deep.
A brutish man knoweth not, Neither doth a fool understand this.
When the wicked spring up as the grass, And when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; It is that they may be destroyed for ever.
But Thou, O LORD, art on high for evermore.
For, lo, Thine enemies, O LORD, For, lo, Thine enemies shall perish: All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.
But my horn hast Thou exalted like the horn of the wild-ox; I am anointed with rich oil.
Mine eye also hath gazed on them that lie in wait for me, Mine ears have heard my desire of the evil-doers that rise up against me.
The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree; He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
Planted in the house of the LORD, They shall flourish in the courts of our God.
They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; They shall be full of sap and richness;
To declare that the LORD is upright, My Rock, in whom there is no unrighteousness.
Text: The Holy Scriptures, Jewish Publication Society (1917), public domain, via Sefaria.
✦ Connected Across Traditions
Impermanence & Letting Go
Dhammapada 20:277 (trans. F. Max Müller)
“‘All created things perish,’ he who knows and sees this becomes passive in pain; this is the way to purity.”
Tao Te Ching 76 (trans. James Legge)
“Man at his birth is supple and weak; at his death, firm and strong. (So it is with) all things. Trees and plants, in their early growth, are soft and brittle; at their death, dry and withered.”
Ecclesiastes 3:1
“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”
Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 2 (trans. Edwin Arnold)
“Nay, but as when one layeth His worn-out robes away, And taking new ones, sayeth, "These will I wear to-day!" So putteth by the spirit Lightly its garb of flesh, And passeth to inherit A residence afresh.”
The Path to Wisdom
Dhammapada 20:282 (trans. Bhikkhu Sujato)
“From meditation springs wisdom, without meditation, wisdom ends.”
Analects 2:11 (trans. James Legge)
“If a man keeps cherishing his old knowledge, so as continually to be acquiring new, he may be a teacher of others.”
Tao Te Ching 33 (trans. James Legge)
“He who knows other men is discerning; he who knows himself is intelligent.”
Quran 39:9
“Are those who know equal with those who know not?”
Good vs Evil / Light vs Darkness
Yasna 30:3
“Now the two primal Spirits, who reveal themselves as Twins, are the Better and the Bad, in thought and word and action.”
John 1:5
“And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”
Dhammapada 2 (trans. Bhikkhu Sujato)
“Intention is the leader of things; intention is first, they’re made by intention. If with pure intent you speak or act, happiness follows you like a shadow that never leaves.”
Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 16 (trans. Edwin Arnold)
“The Doors of Hell Are threefold, whereby men to ruin pass, The door of Lust, the door of Wrath, the door Of Avarice. Let a man shun those three!”