Images - Psalms

I've just spent a week at the General assembly of the Presbyterian Church and now I'm at Synod School, which is a week long family camp for Presbyterians. I'm hoping that the Psalms keep me a little bit sane! It certainly is a wonderful book. Rich and thick with emotion, energy and imagery. God is: a rock, a fortress, a deliverer, our strength, our help, our wings. Yesterday I ran across this: "You show me the path of life, in your presence there is fullness of joy." I like that! Sometimes I find these little gems in Psalms. A phrase - a line that just smacks me between the eyes and says everything that I need to hear. I hope you all come across some lines like that. Let me know!

Job - blessings and curses

Job...what a great book. I might almost be bold enough to say...the greatest book in the Bible. It really cuts to the heart of so many of our questions about ourselves and about God. In fact, the entire question that the book is intended to address may be, "What is it that we can really say about God?" The book emphasizes words - good words and bad words, words that are full of wisdom and foolish words.

In 1:21, after Job has been inflicted with pain for the first time, Job says, "Blessed be the name of God." The Hebrew word of blessed is BARAK. It is the same word that Job's wife uses in 2:10 to tell Job, "CURSE God and die." Blessing and curse - the same word. Job's wife is probably being sarcastic here as in, "Yeah, right, Job...go ahead and bless this so called God of yours. What's so blessed about God now?"

What can we say about God? Can we know what God's up to? Read more!!!