E
EarlyActs
Guest
A pastor told me recently that one of the regular features of the service there--reading a psalm, which I have really enjoyed--was actually not so well-like by the members.
I have heard a few things that were a bit more primitive than I recalled from last reading. And there is the occasional mouthful of geographic or national names that just don't flow and the stories are not easy to recall.
But I think there might be something else gnawing at people. I propose that it is the soaring expectations for the person who is either in a neutral stage in life or having a bad spell. There might even be a problem with how dreary the canvas is painted in others. There is a strain in Psalms that is almost unbelievable, that seems like we see little of. It might be a spread table in the presence of enemies, for ex.
I have a solution that I hope you will consider. It is that there are quite a few Psalms which are actually about Christ. They are previews of what he would encounter, suffer, and overcome. In a way this doesn't really help us, unless we have a strong value on the sacrifice of someone for us, of a gift being given to us. We should. We have this theme in the NT that we have been lifted up in Christ and that his rising was ours. I'm not talking about something you might experience, but that upon belief in what He did for us, we are transfered from death to life, Jn. 5.
We can find this feature from the fact that so many of the psalms are quoted this way in the NT. They are used about Christ during his life, and retrospectively later.
There is some comfort in the fact of knowing that God would know things could be like this before we get there. We will be strengthened if we accept and expect that life is that difficult, and hopefully we will be able to read a line and say 'it is/was not as bad as that!' No question about that, but I think there can be much more of a peave when the upbeat lines never seem to come our way.
I have heard a few things that were a bit more primitive than I recalled from last reading. And there is the occasional mouthful of geographic or national names that just don't flow and the stories are not easy to recall.
But I think there might be something else gnawing at people. I propose that it is the soaring expectations for the person who is either in a neutral stage in life or having a bad spell. There might even be a problem with how dreary the canvas is painted in others. There is a strain in Psalms that is almost unbelievable, that seems like we see little of. It might be a spread table in the presence of enemies, for ex.
I have a solution that I hope you will consider. It is that there are quite a few Psalms which are actually about Christ. They are previews of what he would encounter, suffer, and overcome. In a way this doesn't really help us, unless we have a strong value on the sacrifice of someone for us, of a gift being given to us. We should. We have this theme in the NT that we have been lifted up in Christ and that his rising was ours. I'm not talking about something you might experience, but that upon belief in what He did for us, we are transfered from death to life, Jn. 5.
We can find this feature from the fact that so many of the psalms are quoted this way in the NT. They are used about Christ during his life, and retrospectively later.
There is some comfort in the fact of knowing that God would know things could be like this before we get there. We will be strengthened if we accept and expect that life is that difficult, and hopefully we will be able to read a line and say 'it is/was not as bad as that!' No question about that, but I think there can be much more of a peave when the upbeat lines never seem to come our way.
