A Psalm by Asaph.
1The Mighty One, God, Yahweh, speaks,
and calls the earth from sunrise to sunset.
2Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God shines out.
3Our God comes, and does not keep silent.
A fire devours before him.
It is very stormy around him.
4He calls to the heavens above,
to the earth, that he may judge his people:
5“Gather my saints together to me,
those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
6The heavens shall declare his righteousness,
for God himself is judge. Selah.
7“Hear, my people, and I will speak.
Israel, I will testify against you.
I am God, your God.
8I don’t rebuke you for your sacrifices.
Your burnt offerings are continually before me.
9I have no need for a bull from your stall,
nor male goats from your pens.
10For every animal of the forest is mine,
and the livestock on a thousand hills.
11I know all the birds of the mountains.
The wild animals of the field are mine.
12If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
for the world is mine, and all that is in it.
13Will I eat the meat of bulls,
or drink the blood of goats?
14Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving.
Pay your vows to the Most High.
15Call on me in the day of trouble.
I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
16But to the wicked God says,
“What right do you have to declare my statutes,
that you have taken my covenant on your lips,
17since you hate instruction,
and throw my words behind you?
18When you saw a thief, you consented with him,
and have participated with adulterers.
19“You give your mouth to evil.
Your tongue frames deceit.
20You sit and speak against your brother.
You slander your own mother’s son.
21You have done these things, and I kept silent.
You thought that I was just like you.
I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes.
22“Now consider this, you who forget God,
lest I tear you into pieces, and there be no one to deliver.
23Whoever offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me,
and prepares his way so that I will show God’s salvation to him.”
In his rage, Nebuchadnezzar ordered that the furnace burn seven times hotter than usual. Seven is a figurative number symbolic of perfection or maximum intensity.
Many numbers in the Bible are symbolic, not literal. Babylonians in the Sixth Century BC would not have possessed the technology to measure whether a furnace was burning six, seven, or eight times hotter than usual. Nebuchadnezzar was using a symbolic figure to make a point.
Likewise, when Psalms 50:10 says, “For every beast of the forest is Mine, the cattle on a thousand hills,” it does not mean that the cattle on the thousand-and-first hill are not God’s. One thousand is a symbolic number, meaning “all hills.” In the same way, 2 Peter 3:8 says: “But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day.” The number one thousand in this passage means a very long time. We are not supposed to take this so literally that we conclude that Jesus is still in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea because His three days in the tomb equal 3,000 years!