Concepts
Ashrei is about three concepts. These are:
- People are happy when they are close to God.
- God cares about the poor and oppressed.
- God rewards good behavior and punishes evil.
Significantly, there is no invidious comparison here between Israel and the other nations, nor any mention of the hostility of, or toward, other nations. The Psalm praises God whose justice and mercy applies to all peoples. In verse 9 (ט) we are told "The L is good to all and His mercy extends to all He has created." By verse 21 (ת) - "All flesh shall praise Your name ...." - all mankind expresses its gratitude.
Also significantly, this prayer is entirely praise of God, without asking for anything.
Also emphasized in Ashrei is God's kingship over all the universe; in particular, Psalm 145:1 is the Bible's only use of the phrase "God the King" (as distinguished from many occurrences of "my king" or "our king").
Read more about this topic: Ashre
Famous quotes containing the word concepts:
“When you have broken the reality into concepts you never can reconstruct it in its wholeness.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“Science is a dynamic undertaking directed to lowering the degree of the empiricism involved in solving problems; or, if you prefer, science is a process of fabricating a web of interconnected concepts and conceptual schemes arising from experiments and observations and fruitful of further experiments and observations.”
—James Conant (1893–1978)
“It is impossible to dissociate language from science or science from language, because every natural science always involves three things: the sequence of phenomena on which the science is based; the abstract concepts which call these phenomena to mind; and the words in which the concepts are expressed. To call forth a concept, a word is needed; to portray a phenomenon, a concept is needed. All three mirror one and the same reality.”
—Antoine Lavoisier (1743–1794)