Poetry of the Bible

Psalms

Psalms is usually credited to King David although some were written by his chief musician. They are filled with praise and honor toward God. We also find David's appeals to God during his times of trouble.

I Chronicles 25:1 "Moreover David and the captains of the host separated to the service of the sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who should prophesy with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals; and the number of the workmen according to their service was:" It goes on to name them.

So I think we can conclude that the book of Psalm was a direct result of the instructions of David to sing Praise to the Lord.

They are also historical. You can relate many of the Psalms to events in David's life.

It is said (I have not counted to confirm it) that Psalm 119 is the middle book of the Bible. It is all about the word of God and that in itself is amazing.

Psalm 119:9 "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word."

For me, Psalm 22,23,24 stand out. We all know of Psalm 23 "The LORD is my shepherd..."
I have long look at the three books as belonging together. Psalm 22 describes the sufferings of Christ. Psalm 24 talks about the king of glory. Psalm 23 deals with the good shepherd and is beautiful. I have thought for some time that if 22 is the suffering and 24 is the glory then 23 must fall in between in someway in regard to Christ's suffering. I like to think that as he prayed in the garden and confirmed his acceptance of the cross that Psalm 23 was the peace he felt inside as it so boldly walked to the mob and declared that He was the one they sought. While they beat him and drove the spikes, he was beside still waters. Anyway, I can see the picture in my mind, although I don't know if any agree. Psalm 23 can be the state of mind for a Christian during suffering and affliction. We must learn to rise above the troubles of this life through our faith and the grace of God.

Psalm 23:4 "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; they rod and thy staff they comfort me."

Proverbs

King Solomon asked God for wisdom to lead his people. In his writings he imparts some of that wisdom to us. It is filled with practical things often telling young men how to avoid the pitfalls of life.

Ecclesiastes or

The Preacher is a view from man's point-of-view or perhaps the hopelessness of self efforts in the face of eternity and judgment. It is from the natural man and provides us contrast. I must admit that I do not totally understand it and the words 'all is vanity' seems depressing. So, in these pages we can see the helplessness of man apart from redemption and God's salvation plan.

Song of Solomon

Using the purity of marriage and love, a description and even prophecy of the love of Christ and the church in a language that might seem quite blunt in an unspiritual thought and mysterious in some ways. To a spiritual mind it depicts a pure relationship that almost causes one to pull away from the impact it has on the heart.

Song of Solomon 8:6-7 "Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm; for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it; if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned. "

I am debating on whether to go through these books now or go on to Isaiah.

Search for Wisdom Job 28

Job 28:27-28 "Then did he see it, and declare it; he prepared it, yea, and searched it out. And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding."

We have so far in the conversations discussed whether or not the trials of Job are because of wickedness. The friends think so. Job declares his righteousness and rather expresses that it is God's business and He can do as he wishes.

Now we hear Job talking about the difficulty of finding wisdom and then ends with the above verses. After all the discussion, it all comes down to fearing God.

Also in this chapter we get a lesson in minerals and some geography.

We find that silver runs in a vein and that gold must be refined: v1 "Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for gold where they refine it."

Then there is iron and brass. v2 "Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out of the stone."

Job gives credit to the Lord as the one who controls everything.

Job even knew of the fire under the earth: v5 "As for the earth, out of it cometh bread; and under it is turned up as it were fire."

If you are looking for precious stones, you should know this: v6 "The stones of it are the place of sapphires: and it hath dust of gold."

Then the question "V12 "But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding? "

Verse 15 tells us that wisdom cannot be bought for no price can be put on it: V15 "It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof."

We know where to find all sorts of precious metals and jewels and they can be used to purchase many things but wisdom is not one of them. Job again asked the question:

v20 "Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding?"

Now Job tells us the place to find wisdom. It is with the one who measures the wind and the water of the sea. Sometimes you just got to go to the source to get the right answer.

v23 "God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof."

When we consider, as Job did, that God is the maker of all that is, He controls the wind and the waves, He tells the elements to stay in their boundaries. It is only the sensible thing to do to fear the One who made it all and can change it as He sees fit.

So we have the conclusion: v28 "And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding."

I Kings 4:20 "And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the seashore."

Psalm 111:10 "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all they that do his commandments; his praise endureth forever."

Job speaks of wisdom and understanding.

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Job's Long Speech Part 1 Job 26

Job 26:1-2 "But Job answered and said, How hast thou helped him that is without power? how savest thou the arm that hath no strength?"

This is followed by several other questions that would make the most devoted person wither:

v3 "How hast thou counseled him that hath no wisdom? and how hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is?"

v4 "To whom hast thou uttered words? and whose spirit came from thee?"

Then in a final (well not completely final) Job shows an edge to his words:

v5 "Dead things are formed from under the waters, and the inhabitants thereof."

Although there are many precious insights gained from Job and even his friends that give us an idea of when Job was written, when he lived and their knowledge of the earth; it seems to me that their conversations have turned accusatory in nature. We are leading up to another person who is waiting on the sidelines or in the wings if this were a play and not real life.

I think Job may be feeling some better. Perhaps the healing process has already begun. We will find out later and it seems obvious that Job has started to justify himself some. He also has become a critic of his 'friends'. I do not think it is a good thing to return spiteful words with the same.

The next verse goes back to the previous discussion of whether God is hide in heaven and cannot see what goes on on earth (as one friend said) or as Job rightfully said, that his eye is everywhere.

v6 "Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering, he stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing." v7

That last verse would have helped NASA and scientist long ago if they had read the Bible: "He...hangeth the earth upon nothing."

Job goes on to talk about the clouds holding rain, how the oceans are held in place and relates their movement to the day and night (tides). The chapter but not the speech ends with this verse:

v14 "Lo, these are parts of his ways, but how little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand?"

Psalm 139:6 "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it."

Job has shown that he knows a lot about most everything. He must have been a great teacher. But he reached the same conclusion as David in the verse above when he said:

Job 42:3 "Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not;"

Job speaks of God's expanse.

Previous study post.

Eliphaz on Righteousness Job 22

Job 22:3 "Is it any pleasure to the Almight, that thou are righteous? or is it gain to him, that thou makest thy ways perfect?"

My answer to both questions would be YES. I don't know about these boys who have come to Job to comfort him. They tell him he is suffering because of wickedness, then one switches as if to say, 'Okay so you are righteous, Does God care?'

I think it is so important to God that he sent his only begotten Son to die so that man had the opportunity to be pleasing to the Father.

Romans 6:13 "Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God."

I Timothy 4:8 "For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come."

There are many verses to answer Eliphaz's questions in a positive way. At this time, they did not have the New Testament so many things were a mystery to them. Abraham would like to have know the details of the mysteries (I suppose) but he went on faith.

Now Eliphaz tells Job that God is far away and cannot see what is going on. Basically, it seems, he is saying that God just does not have time for people and the goings-on on earth.

v14 "Thick clouds are a covering to him, that he seeth not, and he walketh in the circuit of heaven."

The thick clouds were to protect the people not hide God. Sinful people before a holy God would not last long, so as in the case of Moses, God choose to appear in the thick cloud. But to say that God cannot see what's happening, is to be naive and misinformed.

Proverbs 15:3 "The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good."

In verses 15-16 Eliphaz refers to the flood in which Noah and his family were saved. See Genesis 6.

"Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden? Which were cut down out of time, whose foundation was overflown with a flood;"

So Eliphaz brings it down to one thing: if you are innocent you will be delivered.

v30 "He shall deliver the island of the innocent; and it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands."

We ought to try to live right and do right. One preacher said 'It is never wrong to do right and it is never right to do wrong to do right.' However, man can not deliver or redeem himself by pureness because he has none. If man could save himself, I use to jokingly say: 'Pick up one foot, (while standing) now the other but keep the first one up too.' Also, it is not always God's will to deliver us from our suffering or testing time. True in the end we will be with Him and be just fine but some of our troubles just have to be gone through, often for purposes that only God knows. But He does know!

A good sermon can be found on testing time at this church website in the sermon section. It was about two Sundays ago in the morning service.

Job reasons about God in the next couple of chapters.

Psalm 62:1-2 "Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defense; I shall not be greatly moved.

Eliphaz talks about God being far away.