Ears Thou Hast Dug for Me

 

Psalm 40:6

aznayim karitha li , literally “ears thou hast dug for me”

“mine ears thou has opened” (KJV)

“thou has given me an open ear” (RSV)

“my ears you have pierced” (NIV)

The psalm poet was bold to imagine God swinging a pickaxe, digging our ears in our granite blockheads so that we can hear, really hear, what he speaks to us.

The primary organ for receiving God’s revelation is not the eye that sees but the ear that hears – which means that all our reading of Scripture must develop into a hearing of the word of God.

Eugene Peterson (2006), Eat This Book: A Conversation in the art of spiritual reading, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 92)

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