Lamentations

The Book of Lamentations was written by the prophet Jeremiah. He predicted the final fall of Judah during the reign of Zedekiah. Toward the end of Lamentations, he also predicts God’s restoration of the nation.

Most of the book, as you would expect from the title, expresses Jeremiah’s mourning for his fallen nation. He understands that God has abandoned Judah to a predatory empire because the nation had long abandoned him. As he mourned the nation, he wept for it. As he preached to the captives, he wept for their condition. He knew that his country would suffer under a long occupation, and he wept for that.

The different sections of the book have overlapping themes. Some of these themes are: the catastrophe coming to Judah is a result of the people’s sins, that God loved them but they rejected His love, the horrors of the siege of Jerusalem, and the time to come when God would relent and restore the nation.

Even in the midst of all this gloom, Jeremiah holds onto a glimmer of hope. He trusts in God’s mercy. He knows that when the people turn their heart to God again, he will gladly gather them back together and restore them.

The book is organized as five poems. In the original language, four are acrostics with each verse starting with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet in order (similar mnemonic devices are used elsewhere in the Bible, especially in poems).

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Jeremiah

Second Chronicles

Second Kings

The Writings

The Writings is a collection of poetic and wisdom books. These books are Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon. In Christian Bibles, these Old Testament texts are typically placed between the historical books and the prophets. These books are organized a little differently in the Hebrew Bible, where they are grouped with other books that some considered to be of similar vintage (the Ketuvim).

Poetry is a link to all these books. Job and Song of Solomon are both long poems. Psalms is a collection of songs, but these lyrics can be read as poems and follow poetic forms used in the other books. Proverbs and Ecclesiastes also use poetic forms; the contrasting or comparing couplet in particular is used in much of Proverbs.

These books also deal with subjects that can be difficult. Job suffers incredible loss, and has long debates about sin and suffering with friends who are supposedly there to comfort him. Many psalms are songs of praise and thanksgiving to God, but in some the psalmist, especially when it is David, freely expresses grief, anger, disappointment and fear. The wisdom literature collected in Proverbs sometimes shrugs its shoulders hopelessly at folly, and Ecclesiastes takes a very dark view of life. Song of Solomon deals frankly with passion and physical love in marriage, possibly to the point of eroticism.

These books address tough issues, but they do not offer easy answers. Sometimes the best they can offer is trust God. Trust God is good advice. Even so, we often would like to hear something else. We’d rather have an answer, or find strength in ourselves or our communities, or be assured that we can reason it all out on our own. We’d rather do almost anything instead of trust God.

Because of this, these books can be tough going for both the faithful and nonbelievers. I encourage Christians to read these books. Come prepared with an understanding of the more straightforward parts of the Bible. You’re going to wrestle with challenges in your life, and you’re not always going to have easy answers, or answers you can even understand. Wrestling with these books, prayerfully and faithfully, can help you prepare to deal with the strange difficulties of real life, where prayer and faith seem to be all you have and even that doesn’t seem to be enough.

You may find these books troubling, especially if you are a new Christian and you’re still seeking answers and encouragement to help you live your new life. You may find yourself asking, “Why would God including this in His Word? Why would he bring up these issues and say things about the I cannot fathom?” I don’t know. Trust God.

Song of Solomon

What is an erotic poem doing in the middle of the Bible? The Song of Solomon, or Song of Songs, is a beautiful poem, but some find it hard to reconcile with the more solemn books on either side of it (in most editions, it is between Ecclesiastes and Isaiah).

The poem celebrates the courtship, marriage and continuing union of a couple.  This couple is the King, referred to as the Beloved (Solomon), and the Shulamite, one of his favorite wives. In much of the poem, the Beloved and the Shulamite express their love for each other and the delight they experience in being loved by each other.

Though it is masked in metaphor, there is clearly physical attraction and pleasure in the relationship. The Shulamite compares her husband to a feast, and she is deeply satisfied (maybe pleasantly drunk) from enjoying him. The Beloved compares his wife to a beautiful garden, and he wants to smell every flower and taste every fruit.

Some have taken the entire book to be a metaphor for something else. It has been read at Passover by Jews, who see it as a reference to the God (the King) initiation relationship (marriage) to Israel (the humble and lowly Shulamite). Christian scholars have often taken it as a metaphor of the relationship between Christ and the church, which is often referred to as the bride of Christ in the New Testament.

These ideas no doubt have merit, but I would not want to lose the more straightforward story of the song. Marriage can be full of passion and pleasure. A committed couple can find ways to make that passion last and continue to enjoy each other. God created marriage, and I think He wants husbands and wives to enjoy each other in many way, including sex.

The poem has multiple narrators and take place in multiple settings. In addition to the Beloved and the Shulamite, we here from the ladies of the court, the Shulamites’ brothers, and other possible guests of a wedding feast or similar event. The original text does not readily identify shifts in speaker or setting except through internal clues, such as changes in pronouns. Many editions of the Bible including notes or headers to make understanding the poem easier, but these are the addition of editors.

Song of Solomon. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Psalms

Psalms is a collection of songs. Many of the songs are attributed to the poet and king David. Others are attributed to Asaph, the sons of Korah, Solomon and even Moses. Many are anonymous.

The songs were meant to be sung, and sometimes they contain annotations suggesting a certain style, tune or instruments. I find that sometimes the structure or words of a psalm suggest that it was probably intended for a soloist, a chorus, or a call and response.

Many of the psalms, especially those attributed to David, deal with the faithfulness of God and the blessed life of those who trust Him. Other psalms suggest that David encouraged, and probably enjoyed, corporate singing of praise to God. David is particularly honest in his prayer-like psalms, and is not afraid to express his anger, disappointment and fear. Even in these moments, he is grateful for God’s mercy.

Several psalms have a messianic message, foreseeing and describing Christ before His coming. Jesus even suggests that these psalms refer to Him, along with other Old Testament scripture (see Luke 24:44).

Other songs were written for, or have become associated with, certain ceremonies. The Hallel psalms (113-118) are sung as part of the Passover celebration. The Songs of Ascent (120-134) are associated with pilgrimages to Jerusalem.

You will find there is a psalm that resonates with almost any emotion, mood or experience. Though the music of these songs is lost to most of us, they still invite us to explore our thoughts and experience, reflect, pray, and connect to a God who cares, who’s mercy is at hand. Even the structure of much of this Hebrew poetry, in which ideas are repeated, compare and contrasted, invites one into meditation.

Psalms. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

What I Read (10)

Date: July 25, 2007
Title: Epic
Author: John Eldredge
Thoughts: “We have grown dull toward this world in which we live; we have forgotten that it is not normal or scientific in any sense of the word. It is fantastic. It is fairy tale through and through” (quote from the book).
John Eldredge also wrote Walking with God and co-wrote The Sacred Romance.

Date: August 29, 2007
Title: The Complete Verse and Other Nonsense Author: Edward Lear (Vivien Noakes, editor)
Thoughts:
“How pleasant it is to know Mr. Lear!
Who has written such volumes of stuff!
Some think him ill-tempered and queer,
But a few think him pleasant enough” (quote from the book).

Date: December 7, 2007
Title: The Numbers Behind NUMB3RS
Author: Keith Devlin & Gary Lorden
Thoughts: I enjoyed this. Not too much math. Actually, I could have stood a little more math. What I enjoyed is seeing how tools are used to solve problems as they are used to solve crimes on the show.

Date: December 14, 2007
Title: Kidnapped Author: Robert Louis Stephenson
Thoughts: A very fun adventure that I much enjoyed. I’m afraid that I would fare even worse than David Balfour on such a journey.

Date: December 21, 2007
Title: Peace of Mind Through Possibility Thinking
Author: Robert H. Shuller
Thoughts: “Never forget that you are God’s idea. And know that God thinks only great ideas” (quote from the book).
Robert H. Shuller also wrote Self-Love.

Date: December 26, 2007
Title: The Golden Age of DC Comics: 365 Days Author: Les Daniels, Chip Kid & Geoff Spear
Thoughts: Mostly pictures. I enjoyed it much.

Date: December 28, 2007
Title: Acres of Diamonds Author: Russel H. Conwell
Thoughts: “Young man, remember if you know what people need you have gotten more knowledge of a fortune than any amount of capital can give you” (quote from the book).

Date: January 25, 2008
Title: The Mindful Way through Depression Author: Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindal Segal & Joh Kabat-Zinn
Thoughts: “In many ways, subtle and not subtle, depression and low mood undermine us by robbing us of the energy to do the things that would nourish us the most. Simply engaging or reengaging in such activities can have unsuspected power” (quote from the book).

Other Parts of What I Read:
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5,
Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9