The psalms are full of hopeful assertiveness that ‘I shall never be shaken’. Such confidence, even when it is more fragile than its articulation might appear, grounds itself in the world’s presumed moral stability. That is, justice exists and justice shall prevail. If one cannot trust in this feature of Yahweh’s craftsmanship, then little else [...]
Archive for July, 2008
divine guarantee: Psalm 75
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Psalms, textures on July 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
far from home: Psalm 84
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Psalms, textures on July 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Life as often as not places us far from where we’d rather be. Such unruly distance can be resented, resisted, can become the root gland of our bitterest spittle. Alternatively, we embrace the far place as a feature of our vocation. From there we send out what roots we may, we become schooled in affection [...]
newness of life: Romans 6
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Romans, textures on July 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Novelty is not often praised in the Bible. Yet another newish thing—fresh vigor—is a deeply respected asset, sometimes placed before its readers as a goal and frequently celebrated as a gift recently given. The apostle Paul’s discussion of freedom could hardly contrast more sharply with modern and post-modern understandings of autonomy. The modern soul stands [...]
owls in the mix
Posted in clarity, my hometown, tagged fauna on July 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Returning from vacation in Montana to our more humble, flatland environs, my wife and I were greeted in the semidarkness by the sweeping, silent sight of a large owl departing a branch of one of the evergreens that separate our front yard from Holliday Park, just across the street. On the list of my tiltings [...]
generosity’s assymetry: Romans 5
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Romans, textures on July 26, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The fifth chapter of the apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans shows the man bending his mind to sketching grace’s geometry. Over against the human tendency to imagine that heaven’s blessings fall—mechanically and by the dictates of our power of decision—in proportion to earthly behavior, Paul traces out a different story. For him, heaven’s actions [...]
suffering’s beautiful children: Romans 5
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Romans, textures on July 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The density of the apostle Paul’s words makes some of them accessible only to the degree that life’s experience prepares us to hear them well. As he exults in the relationship-restoring labors of Christ, Paul brings even our suffering into those gifts of God about which he is notably unembarrassed: And not only that, but [...]
Hurry!: Psalm 70
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Psalms, textures on July 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Twice in this short prayer the psalmist urges God to move more quickly. He knows his own extinction will be the price of divine nonchalance: Be pleased, O God, to deliver me. O LORD, hurry to help me! And again: But I am poor and needy; hurry to me, O God! You are my help [...]
He of Sinai: Psalm 68
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Psalms, textures on July 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The sixty-eighty Psalm refers to a marching deity with an archaic expression that might be translated as titular: ‘He of Sinai’. Israel’s faith does not begin with abstractions nor with generalizations about a cosmic deity and his unchanging rules. Rather, faith in Yahweh beings, for Israel, with memory of an upending liberation from the invincible [...]
shaking bones: Psalm 6
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Psalms, textures on July 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Biblical spirituality comprehends that extreme crisis of body and soul in which a human being finds himself terrified, anguished, and undone in the presence of Yahweh. At times the soul’s calamity experiences Yahweh’s accusing silence as his only, unholy communication: O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger, or discipline me in your wrath. [...]
calling a spade a spade: Psalm 3
Posted in textures, tagged biblical reflection, Psalms, textures on July 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The biblical psalms are intensely realistic, particularly those that are born in a bed of conflict. No pious evasiveness, no pollyanish denial shows its face in this genre of the biblical anthology. One counts the enemy with subdued precision, missing not a one. Indeed the third psalm, a point in the psalter when things are [...]
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