Don't Know Much About the Bible - Kenneth C. Davis [118]
so my soul pants for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God
When can I go and meet with God?
My tears have been my food day and night,
while men say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”
(42:1-3 KJV)
Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. (42:5-6 KJV)
Psalm 66
Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth;
sing the glory of his name;
give to him glorious praise.
Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!
Because of your great power, your enemies cringe before you.
All the earth worships you; they sing praises to you, sing praises
to your name.” (66:1-4 NRSV)
Psalm 84
How lovely is Your dwelling place,
O Lord of hosts,
I long, I yearn for the courts of the Lord;
my body and soul shout for joy to the living God.
Even the sparrow has found a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself
in which to set her young,
near your altar, O Lord of hosts,
my king and my God.
Happy are those who dwell in Your house. (84: 1-5 JPS)
Better one day in Your courts than a thousand [anywhere else];
I would rather stand at the threshold of God’s house
than dwell in the tents of the wicked. (84:11 JPS)
Psalm 100
Make a joyful noise to the Lord,
all the earth.
Worship the Lord with
gladness;
come into his presence with
singing.
Know that the Lord is God.
It is he that made us, and we
are his;
we are his people, and the sheep
of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise. (100:1-4 NRSV)
Psalm 137
By the rivers of Babylon,
there we sat,
sat and wept,
as we thought of Zion.
There on the poplars
we hung up our lyres,
for our captors asked us there for songs,
our tormentors, for amusement,
“Sing us a song of Zion.”
How can we sing a song of the Lord
on alien soil?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand whither;
let my tongue stick to my palate
if I cease to think of you,
if I do not keep Jerusalem in memory
even at my happiest hour. (137:1-6 JPS)
Psalms Your Sunday School Left Out
That’s the familiar part of Psalm 137, a picture of Israel held captive in Babylon, awaiting deliverance. Fewer people may have read this part of the psalm:
Fair Babylon, you predator,
a blessing on him who repays you in kind
what you have inflicted on us;
a blessing on him who seizes your babies
and dashes them against the rocks. (137:8-9 JPS)
As this grim verse proves, not all of the psalms painted a rosy picture. Here are a few lines from some of the other psalms that Mother never taught you:
Psalm 68
But God will shatter the heads of
his enemies,
the hairy crown of those who
walk in their guilty ways.
The Lord said,
“I will bring them back from
Bashan,
I will bring them back from the
depths of the sea,
so that you may bathe your feet
in blood,
so that the tongues of your dogs
may have their share from
the foe.” (68:21-23 NRSV)
Psalm 144
Blessed be the Lord, my rock,
who trains my hands for war,
and my fingers for battle;
my rock and my fortress,
my stronghold and my
deliverer,
my shield, in whom I take refuge,
who subdues the peoples
under me.
O Lord, what are humans beings
that you regard them,
or mortals that you think of them?
They are like a breath;
their days are like a passing
shadow. (144:1-4 NRSV)
Happy Are Those Who Find Wisdom
PROVERBS
Come, let us take our fill of love
until morning;
let us delight ourselves with
love.
For my husband is not at home;
he has gone on a long journey.
He took a bag of money with
him;
he will not come home until full
moon. (Prov. 7:18-20)
A fool takes no pleasure in
understanding,
but only in expressing personal opinion. (Prov. 18:2)
* Does “sparing the rod” spoil the child?
Another of the books collected in the Hebrew Writings, Proverbs is often treated as little more than an ancient Hebrew set of Chinese fortune cookies. Like the sayings of Confucius or the pithy advice of Benjamin Franklin in Poor Richard’s Almanac, more than one thousand