PSinging and Pdancing

Psalms

This week's assigment is a little different... I was asked to write my own Psalm, I need to use it to describe where I am at right now. I should use figures of speech and parallelisms (things studied in class). I also need to REwrite a Psalm and answer the questions for the Personal application section of the standard homework... here we go!

Psalm 151

A Psalm of Eze. Of the times when he needed direction from God

O Lord Almighty

To your presence I come

For I need your guidance

Your thoughts are a lamp

To my trembling feet

And your words are the light

That illuminates my road

Keep me on the right path

So I don’t stumble out of your will

Your kindness is the help I need

For my sinking feet

Don’t let me doubt You

Oh everlasting savior

For your knowledge is deeper than the sea

And your love sweeter than honey

Let me follow you closely

All the days of my life

Praise the Lord all people of the nations

Praise the Lord all nations of the earth

Praise the Lord all beings of the universe

Forever and ever

Amen

Rewrite a Psalm - I will attempt to translate it to modern speech…

Psalm 141                                                               Psalm 141 (reloaded)

1 O Lord, I am calling to you. Please hurry!     Listen when I cry to you for help! 2 Accept my prayer as incense offered to you,     and my upraised hands as an evening offering. 3 Take control of what I say, O Lord,     and guard my lips. 4 Don’t let me drift toward evil     or take part in acts of wickedness. Don’t let me share in the delicacies     of those who do wrong. 5 Let the godly strike me!     It will be a kindness! If they correct me, it is soothing medicine.     Don’t let me refuse it. But I pray constantly     against the wicked and their deeds. 6 When their leaders are thrown down from a cliff, the wicked will listen to my words and find them true. 7 Like rocks brought up by a plow,     the bones of the wicked will lie scattered without burial. 8 I look to you for help, O Sovereign Lord.     You are my refuge; don’t let them kill me. 9 Keep me from the traps they have set for me,     from the snares of those who do wrong. 10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets,     but let me escape.

1 O Lord, I am calling you! I’m so inpatient!  Listen to me when I cry for help! 2 Accept my prayer as a good aroma offered to you, and when I put my hands up take that as a good thing. 3 Guide my words, O Lord, and shut my mouth before I say something stupid! 4 Don’t let me wander to the dark side or do evil things. Don’t let me like the bad things. 5 Let the righteous people hit me!  That would be a nice thing!  If they correct me, it is a great remedy.  Don’t let me say no to them.  But I pray all the time against the bad people and their dark acts. 6 When their bosses are thrown down from the Empire States rooftop, the evil ones will listen to my words and find them true. 7 Like rocks dug out of the earth by an old farmer’s tool, the bones of the bad people will be thrown everywhere with no funeral. 8 I need your help, O Absolute Lord. You are my place of safety; don’t let them kill me. 9 Save me from the traps they have set for me,  from the traps of those evil people.  10 Permit the bad people to fall into their own traps,  but let me escape.

Personal application

Is there a timeless truth, or maybe a specific verse, or perhaps the main idea of the book you are studying that is challenging you in your life?

What area of your life is God encouraging you, convincing you or empowering you in through this book?

Main idea in the Psalms for me is that no matter what, God is there, next to us. His goodness is stronger that all the bad things in our lives. From the lecture I could see that our teacher was totally on board with this idea when she said that God’s there with us, even in our bad times. She also pointed that God is not far away in heaven when we suffer, He is near and ready to help us.

Another good nugget of knowledge is the idea of praising God in my sadness and in my joyful seasons as well! Just like King David did after he learned that his son had died, he worshiped the Lord (2^nd Samuel 12:20). That sounds crazy to me… but when I think about it makes sense… to some extent. In the case of David, I imagine that David was praising God not for the fact that his son had died, but for the fact that his kid had lived! Because David had the chance to have a son for some time, he praised! And I don’t really understand the loss of a loved one, because it has not happened to me yet… but I’m sure one day I’ll go through it and in that day, I hope I can praise the Lord for the life and moments of that loved one. And yes, I will cry and grieve the loss, but I will also be happy that I had the chance to meet such wonderful person/people.

Point of passion

Whether it is a people group or a sphere of society, God’s word can speak into all areas of life. Share in a paragraph or two how the message of this book, or a truth from this book relates to your  point of passion, and how your ministry to this area can use the message from this book to share Christ in your passion.

The Psalms are very personal and real. I had never ever read the whole book of Psalms, and it seems like, back in the day when I was a kid at church, they only had me read happy ones. I found this time around that there's a lot of despair and lamentation! And even then, we need to stop for God says: “Be still and know that I am God!” (Psalms 46:10) 

And the Lord is also referred a lot of times to as a place of refuge. I just met a guy yesterday, at a homeless feeding, and I really did not think much about his house... well, here's a clue, he is home-less, so he has no home. So I got this insight from my wife, most of them have cuts and burns in their legs because they sleep on the lava rocks. Well, this guy said something about the lava rock, and then it finally hit me, he actually sleeps near the beach, probably near (or on) the lava rock, because they keep the heat of the day for a long time... but these rocks are sharp and when you are asleep you turn and twist (at least I do). And that challenged me to think about how God is a place of refuge for him? Can I come to him and tell him that God is his refuge? What would his response be?

BIG PARENTHESIS

Now, please, please, please, remember that these homework assignments are a way for me to process what I read each week, and some of my answers are just my imaginations, ideas and personal answers to the matters created and/or presented to my little brain during class and reading times. Please don't take it as a full description of my understanding of life or the universe but as a series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end, the end of trying to understand better the way I see the Bible itself and all the stuff that is in it.

END OF PARENTHESIS

I don't know the answers to such questions, but what I do know is that when you read the whole Psalm 91, you see that it is a little conditional. It has fine print, if you will. Verse 14 says "The Lord says, 'I will rescue those who love me. I will protect those who trust in in my name'" And it continues in 15 by stating "When they call on me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble. I will rescue and honor them." And ends the progression, in verse 16, by saying "I will reward them with a long life and give them salvation." And I don't want to make this a matter of my statement being the absolute truth, but my guess is that we do better when we do right, and when we obey the laws of the Lord. Now, some people may disagree and I'm completely fine with that too, because I don't have the truth about the matter of why there's homeless people, or sickness or death in the world, other than "it is all product of the sin entering our world." So, the way I have been able to reconcile the questions of unfairness in this world with the fairness of God is to compare this issue to a board game, or a game in general. So, when you know the rules of the game, and you do not play by them, you get punished. So, I hope that next time I talk to the guy, I'll be able to ask him if he knows "the rules of the game" and maybe if he knows what went wrong... I really want to understand poorness and homelessness better because I hope to work to eliminate them some day... so, if you have answers for me, please send them my way. 

Thank you kind reader!

I choose you Pikachu!

1^st Samuel & 2^nd Samuel

First impression: finding the context

What do you see in this book that tells you about the original reader?

The original readers lived in a kingdom that was divided (10 tribes were with Jeroboam, but Judah and Benjamin were with Rehoboam), most likely around 930BC (SourceView Bible p.343)

There’s idolatry across Israel and Israel is declining… (Class Notes: CN), proof of that is that the Empire is divided once again and they don’t either Judges or Kings now. I’m very curious about what’s the next step for their political and social arrangements.

What do you see in this book that tells you about the author?

According to Nelson’s Bible Maps and Charts (p.85) the author of 1^st and 2^nd Samuel is anonymous, but Jewish tradition claims that the prophet Samuel wrote the books that bear his name. Nelson’s also states that most likely, the book was composed by an unnamed prophet who compiled  written chronicles of other prophets such as Nathan and Gad the seer (p.97) This second theory is specially backed up by the fact that Samuel dies and the account of his funeral is recorded by someone else (1st Samuel 25:1)

What are the main themes, and repeated ideas in this book, and what is a one sentence summary of the “main idea”?

Transitions are all around in these books. First of all, there’s a transition from priest/judge to priest/judge [Eli to Samuel], then from the Judges political/social system into a monarchy (Samuel to Saul). And then, within the monarchy we have a change of power (Saul to David).

1^st Samuel 1-8:  Eli to Samuel

1^st Samuel 9-15: Samuel to Saul

1^st Samuel 16-31: Saul to David

What is the primary reason this book was written?

The main reason this book was written is to assure people that David is the right choice of a King for Israel. There’s a lot of comparison between Saul and David, specially in 1^st Samuel, but most of them refer to how respectful and righteous David was, as opposed to Saul who was trying to cling to the throne at any cost.

The book also goes into some other areas where the people of God had some issues (CN) and this account is trying to help them understand these issues, so they can work on them:

·      Rejection of God by asking for a king (1^st Samuel 8:7)

·      They are wicked people for asking for a king, rejecting God again (1^st Samuel 12:17)

·      Saul did not keep the Lord’s command, so God appointed another leader after His own heart [David] (1stSamuel 13:14)

·      God will honour those who honour Him, and despise those who think lightly of Him (1^st Samuel 2:30)

Theme tracing

What does this book show about the character and nature of God?

God is faithful to forgive when people call out to Him. Right after Israel came back to God, they prayed to God and He helped them to defeat the Philistines (1^st Samuel 7:10, 13)

God is called “Lord of Heaven’s Army” many times in Samuel because He is leading the army into victories left and right. He told David not to attack straight, and gave him a different strategy to defeat the Philistines (2^nd Samuel 5:23,24)

He is jealous and wants people to respect His laws, as He had told people that they should not touch the Ark, and Uzzah did it, so God struck him dead right next to the Ark (2^nd Samuel 6:6,7)

God is just. After David sinned by sleeping with Bathsheba and then sending her husband to war, so he would get killed, God “…was displeased with what David had done” (2^nd Samuel 11:27) And God causes David’s family to rebel against him and to publicly humiliate him because of that sin (2^nd Samuel 12:11,12), and we see the completion of this curse when his son Absalom decides to take over David’s kingdom and he has sex, publicly, with David’s concubines (2^nd Samuel 16:22)

What does this book show about God’s redemptive plan for mankind?

No matter what, God keeps rescuing the Israelites from their problems. And no matter what, the people of God always find the way to turn their backs to God, until they need Him again. On 1 Samuel chapter 8, I see an interesting interaction between Samuel (who was old at that point), the Elders of Israel and God: the people of Israel want a king “…like all the other nations have” (verse 5) and Samuel knows that’s not going to end up well for his people, so he consults God about and God says “Do everything they say to you, for it is me they are rejecting, not you. They don’t want me to be their king any longer. Ever since I brought them from Egypt they have continually abandoned me and followed other gods. And now they are giving you the same treatment. Do as they ask, but solemnly warn them about the way a king will reign over them.” (1^st Samuel 8:7-9) And even that little last part of God’s speech lets us know that he cared for them, we wanted Samuel to warn them! And even after Samuel lets them know how bad it is going to be for them to have a king, they “…still want a king, we want to be like the nations around us…” (1st Samuel8:19,20) And no matter what this looks like, God had a plan with the kingship of Israel… even when He did not want someone else to rule over His kingdom, He used the Kings to reunite the tribes of Israel and ultimately to bring Jesus into this world…

And as if this was not enough we get a little reminder from a woman from Tekoa who is speaking to David about a problem that she has, because one of her sons killed his brother, but she wants David to protect her remaining son from the rest of the family who want to kill him. After pleading for her son’s life she drops this couple of lines about God’s redemptive plan: ”All of us must die eventually. Our lives are like water spilled out on the ground, which cannot be gathered again. But God does not just sweep life away; instead, he devises ways to bring us back when we have been separated from Him.” (2^nd Samuel 14:14)

Personal application

Is there a timeless truth, or maybe a specific verse, or perhaps the main idea of the book you are studying that is challenging you in your life?

What area of your life is God encouraging you, convincing you or empowering you in through this book?

If there’s anything that made an impression on me about these books of Samuel and the teachings, was the fact that our staff Mark had a very big “U” turn in his life when he lost his baby daughter and a few months later his wife, yet he decided to continue believing in God’s goodness… that seemed to be a very deep valley to get out of, and he himself told us that his lacked purpose but he did not go away from God. And then, years later, God redeemed this by letting him meet another woman who he married and God gave mark another daughter! By no stretch of imagination I could imagine what he went through but I understand that when you lose purpose it is very easy to drift away from God and even blame Him! So, I admire Mark so much for his dedication to God and for not losing sight of the light at the end of the tunnel. I also was challenged to give the glory to God even in the deepest darkest moments like David did after the loss of his baby boy, he got up, got ready and went to the Tabernacle and… “worshiped the Lord” (2^nd Samuel 12:20)

Point of passion

Whether it is a people group or a sphere of society, God’s word can speak into all areas of life. Share in a paragraph or two how the message of this book, or a truth from this book relates to your  point of passion, and how your ministry to this area can use the message from this book to share Christ in your passion.

I know sometimes I talk about food too much… but I really like to cook and eat… and I believe that some of the best things in life happen around the table, with food and good conversation. So, I have two stories for you:
There is a story in 1^st Samuel 9 and it about three donkeys that got lost and this man, sent his son to look for them to the town nearby. Now, I don't know why this is important but the Bible mentions that he is "the most handsome man in Israel—head and shoulders taller than anyone else in the land." (1^st Samuel 9:2); now, that's not an important fact to my story but I believe my female friends might be more interested in this account and they will keep reading... anyway, so, the son goes out to search for these donkeys. In the meantime, God has spoken to Samuel to look for a man from the tribe of Benjamin in town, tomorrow at this same time, and when he finds him, Samuel is supposed to anoint him as the leader of God's people, who by the way will rescue them from the Philistines. So, as you may be imagining, the very next day at the exact time, here comes Saul, looking for a "seer" (a prophet) who could tell him where the donkeys were! Samuel sees Saul and God tells him that's the man he has chosen. Therefore, Samuel approaches the man and tells him that his donkeys have been found by his dad, and invites him to have dinner with him, gives him the best cut of meat and finally anoints him as the leader of Israel. But Saul's answer is key to my point of passion... he says "But I’m only from the tribe of Benjamin, the smallest tribe in Israel, and my family is the least important of all the families of that tribe!" (verse 21) And this is very important for me, because I feel like sometimes I overlook "the least" and Jesus himself said that whatever we do for "the least of these" we do for him! And the other thing I can extract from this story is that greatness is complete unexpected sometimes. This person who believes he is the least of his family, and his family is least of all the families of the tribe, and his tribe is the smallest tribe, yet turns out to be the king of a great nation! The homeless and the poor, are viewed as the least in our society, but could we be less than them actually? Think about it...

My second story:
Now, think about the account of Goliath for a moment. There’s food in there too! [exciting, huh?] In 1^st Samuel 17:17,18 Jesse [David’s dad] asked him to take some bread, roasted grain to his brothers and cheeses to their captain, who were in the front line, at the battle against the Philistines [which is like the millionth time these two nations went to battle, however is not the last time they do it]. Jesse also asked David to go, and bring back a report of how things are going. David did take the food to the battle… however, he got a little distracted and ended up killing a Giant and winning the war for Israel. Do you see the power of breakfast? Now I understand why they say, it is the most important meal of the day!