Faith and life – Page 3

The real choice

The most basic choice you make is not between left and right, liberal and conservative. Something else is more basic.

Really, Psalmist? Again? More tears, more moaning, more self-pity? More in number than the hairs of your head? So you have counted them? Either the hairs or the enemies? Good lord, if you had a violin in addition to that harp somebody in your own house would have to shoot you. Are you sure aboutContinue reading “Claiming innocence (Psalm 69)”

All day long (Romans 10:21)

“ALL DAY LONG I HAVE HELD OUT MY HANDS TO A DISOBEDIENT AND OBSTINATE PEOPLE.” —Romans 10:21, citing Isaiah 65:2 How to feel about the recalcitrant? (Here is just another lesson in the long course in imitatio Dei that is the Christian life.) They just don’t get it. Are they incapable of understanding? Do theyContinue reading “All day long (Romans 10:21)”

The choice we make (Psalm 1)

Psalm 1 is about two kinds of people: wicked and righteous. The point is not polarization (setting up an Us versus a Them, two fixed and opposed groups) but moral choice: the whole point is that we can, we inevitably do, decide which type to be, and we are being urged to be one wayContinue reading “The choice we make (Psalm 1)”

Ecology as doxology (Psalm 104)

To understand the structure of the cosmos and expound its workings in a way that acknowledges its creator is to be filled with wonder and overflow with praise.

Living between divine love and human iniquity (Psalm 36)

Abiding in God’s love does not make us pious dopes who think (or pretend) that everything is always wonderful. It enables us to see evil clearly, call it what it is, and understand that in the end it is powerless before the power of Love.

Defining human existence (Psalm 139)

To be is to be known by God. God’s omniscience is knowledge not only of everything but of everyone. There is no one whom God does not know. My existence resides in the fact that God knows me. My identity is this: I am who God knows that I am. And since God speaks, andContinue reading “Defining human existence (Psalm 139)”

The point of Psalm 139

The point of Psalm 139 is not theological speculation, and certainly not prooftexting for contemporary partisan politics, but to move me to desire to seek God’s leading.

On dissing (or not) the ESV

(My reply to a friend’s comment pointing out that the English Standard Version of the Bible was conceived as a complementarian blast in our culture wars, as can be seen by its manipulation of several gender-related passages.) The ESV “translators” fiddle with more than a few gender-related passages. They know more than the Bible andContinue reading “On dissing (or not) the ESV”

You thought that I was one just like yourself (Psalm 50)

Psalm 50 opens with an announcement of coming of God to call the people of the covenant to account. On the day of judgment God shines forth and “does not keep silent” but speaks forth. The reader of this psalm should remember the nonsilence of the heavenly Judge with some trepidation on arrival at verseContinue reading “You thought that I was one just like yourself (Psalm 50)”