When it comes to the psalms, I have long wondered this: does the Lord condone every sentiment expressed by each of the psalmists?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
Another way of asking this: is every line of every psalm inspired by the Holy Spirit in the same manner as all other Scripture, or are they – at least in part – a record of raw human emotion? Maybe even human emotion that occasionally\u00a0runs counter to God’s will?<\/p>\n\n\n
This question nagged me again this morning as I found myself in Psalm 35.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
King David starts the psalm on solid ground: “Contend, LORD, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me. Take up shield and armor; arise and come to my aid.” (1,2)<\/p>\n\n\n
Assuming David is trying to do God’s will, then it seems perfectly reasonable to ask the Lord for help against his enemies.<\/p>\n\n\n
Soon David turns his attention to what he hopes God does to these enemies:<\/p>\n\n\n
“May those who seek my life be disgraced and put to shame; may those who plot my ruin be turned back in dismay.” (4) Sounds pretty reasonable, right?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
But then …<\/p>\n\n\n
“May they be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of the LORD driving them away; may their path be dark and slippery, with the angel of the LORD pursuing them.” (5,6)<\/p>\n\n\n
Reread that.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
That is some dark, dark imagery. The angel of the LORD chasing these people down a dark and slippery path? Terrifying. David is nowhere near the “love your enemies” zone!<\/p>\n\n\n
Perhaps even more troubling, look where he goes next:<\/p>\n\n\n
“Since they hid their net for me without cause and without cause dug a pit for me, may ruin overtake them by surprise – may the net they hid entangle them, may they fall into the pit, to their ruin.” (7,8)<\/p>\n\n\n
Understandable. “You laid a trap for me; I hope you fall in it. You tried to get me fired, so I hope you get fired instead.” I can relate. I have been there. It was my kneejerk reaction, but it wasn’t a spiritually healthy place to remain for too long.<\/p>\n\n\n
I can also relate to David’s next sentiment, but again, it gives me pause:<\/p>\n\n\n
“Then (once you give my enemies what’s coming to them) my soul will rejoice in the LORD and delight in his salvation.” (9)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
Once my enemies get what’s coming to them, I will finally be happy and content in you again, Lord!<\/p>\n\n\n
I’ve been in this place as well. And, at least in MY life, it was NOT inspired or inspiring.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
What do you think? Are at least some parts of the psalms included in Holy Scripture mainly as examples of raw human emotion? Or does every line have God’s stamp of approval?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When it comes to the psalms, I have long wondered this: does the Lord condone every sentiment expressed by each of the psalmists?\u00a0 Another way of asking this: is every line of every psalm inspired by the Holy Spirit in the same manner as all other Scripture, or are they – at least in part […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5530"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5531,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5530\/revisions\/5531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}