Week 14 Psalm 34
A while ago I created three categories of psalms using my Title Underlining System:
Good psalms (not underlined in my bible);
Really good psalms (underlined in black);
Best psalms (underlined in red).
Today I landed on: PSALM 34 (red underlined, so one of my best).
Verse four caught my attention: I sought the Lord, and He answered me, and delivered me out of all my fears.
While I’m reading the bible two things are going on. First, I’m reading my chapters to get through. Secondly I’m asking: is there any kind of mutuality going on here – anything in play between me and the text? Is there some derivative for me?
But then there’s something else going on. Let’s say I find a derivative that makes good sense to me. If I do that’s pretty satisfying.
But what if I find a derivative that doesn’t make sense? Let’s say the text says: I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me, freeing me from all my fears. But what if my real life experience is that I prayed to the Lord, and he didn’t answer me, and didn’t free me from all my fears?
Sure, one solution is to just say the bible is useless. But my rule-to-self is: you gotta make distinctions between what the text says and what the text means. If the bible was a grade-three reader I maybe don’t need the rule. But I’m thinking it isn’t.
Note: quote from the NASB and the NLT.