Eating Your Words

Today I want to announce the official release of my latest book, Eating Your Words: An Introduction to Reading Biblical Narrative. (Available on Amazon.com--click the cover for a link.)

"What's it about?" you might be asking. "Food? 'Cause I think of food when I look at the title."

It is about food, namely the word of God, which is food of the highest culinary transport. The Bible mentions in several places that God's word is food, a delight to the heart. For example, in Jeremiah 15:16, the prophet says  

Your words were found, and I ate them, 
and your words became to me a joy 
and the delight of my heart, 
for I am called by your name.

One can almost picture Jeremiah's exhuberance as he finds the word of God, the savor of the flavor in his mouth (pardon the rhyme), and the swelling delight of his heart.

King David mentions something similar in Psalm 119:103:

How sweet are your words to my taste, Sweeter than honey to my mouth!

In his lengthy celebratory discourse on the law of God in Psalm 119, he stops multiple times to proclaim his delight in God's word. Here he says the words are actually sweet to his taste, sweeter than honey.

And so it is.

And this is the starting point of Eating Your Words. The Bible is a feast, waiting to be tasted and savored, waiting to nourish and brighten our souls. But if we do not come to the table aware of what we're eating, we’ll surely miss some of the experience.  
 
Eating Your Words invites readers to remember the rich color and texture of the Bible, and to read it with eyes that see and understand the narrative art and craft of its stories. Why? Because grasping the biblical narrators’ literary form and technique allows us greater understanding of the Bible's meaning.  
So come. Come to the feast. Eat of God's words—as Jeremiah did. See that they are, indeed, sweeter than honey to the mouth. Hear and see and believe. Be saved and sanctified by the very active Word of God, as it pierces the innermost being. And yes, see that the true story—as story—is good.

The Psalms... they read us

This week I'm doing a brief study on the Psalms, with the intention of giving a broad overview of the entire book... in less than an hour!

Hardly possible.

Oh well, despite the daunting task, I did find some great summative comments about the Psalms. Here are a few passages I came across while preparing:

“The Psalms, Calvin said, are a virtual textbook of the human soul, the central text in biblical psychology. As such, the Psalms give expression to all the experiences of the Christian life; they give words to our pains, joys, afflictions, despair, and by giving language to our experience they bring those experiences under description, make them knowable as our Father’s loving care for us.

The Psalms are also a textbook of prayer, frequently employing language that is unnerving in its vehemence. Psalms indicate that an overwhelming desire for justice should animate our prayers, that we should express our disappointments with honesty, that prayer is not ‘quiet time’ but a time of wrestling and passion.” (Peter Leithart, Against Christianity)

These comments by Leithart really struck me a few years ago when I first read them. They still do. I sense that I need the Psalms. They are the expression I'm looking for.

Last night, to my delight, I found the Calvin quote Leithart was referencing:

“There is not an emotion of which anyone can be conscious that is not here represented as in a mirror. Or rather, the Holy Spirit has here drawn to life all the griefs, sorrows, fears, doubts, hopes, cares, perplexities, in short, all the distracting emotions with which the minds of men are wont to be agitated.”  (Joshua. Psalms 1-35)

A mirror. The Psalms are a mirror into our soul. Anyone get an inkling to look into this mirror? Anyone sense an urgency to do so?

Finally, here are some comments that Tremper Longman, III made about the Psalms

“As we read a psalm, the psalm’s emotional expression becomes a kind of foil to our own state of mind… the psalmist could express the reader’s feelings in a way far better than the reader could. In this way the psalms articulate our feelings and become a model prayer to us. They give us words by which we may address God.” (A Complete Literary Guide to the Bible)

The psalms are a foil to our own state of mind. They express our feelings, often times better than we can ourselves. They articulate our feelings.

***

Let me add to these ideas that the Psalms read us. Oh, no doubt we read them, but what happens is they read us. They speak into us. They speak for us. They utter what is in us, because they speak with the authority of their inspirational God.

Been read lately? In what way? Let me know if you get the opportunity.

Incline my heart

"I incline my heart to perform your statutes

     forever, to the end." ~ Psalm 119:112

The above verse was part of the Old Testament reading at church yesterday morning. I probably would not have noticed it out of the twenty four or so verses read, but beside this verse I had some notes written in the margin. I can't remember exactly where I got them  (a book? a Sunday school lesson? a sermon? my head?), but they are fitting commentary on the verse.

Here they are:

* obedience

* humility

* submissiveness

* a desire to please

Simple, and not too terribly profound, but helpful. My thinking? Having a heart inclined to perform God's statutes entails having a heart that is obedient (willing to follow), humble and submissive (willing to listen and not fight against a direction from on high), desirous to please (the one giving the direction). An inclined heart leans toward God. Such a heart knows that God knows what is best for us--for our heart and soul health--and thus his laws and statutes reflect this.

We should follow his laws. Such is for our own good. Oh, not that we might earn his favor, but that we might live better lives, lives that honor him and the kingdom he is building.

Oh, Lord, incline my heart unto you, unto obeying your statutes.