Light my Lamp
August 6, 2011 | Posted by Doug
"It is you who light my lamp; the Lord, my God, lights up my darkness...(God is) a shield for all who take refuge... " -Psalm 18:28, 30
| Reading: Psalm 18
Once again this Psalm has some real rough spots. David extols God for making “me head of the nations; people whom I had not known served me,As soon as they heard of me they obeyed me; foreigners came cringing to me… This is the danger of mixing religion and nationalism and pride…. and “You made my enemies turn their backs to me… I beat them fine, like dust,cast them out like the mire of the streets… The challenge of reading through the Hebrew scriptures is to find the gems of wisdom in the midst of what can sometimes be violently nationalistic, ancient, traditional writing. There is some real beauty in the Psalms, given the context out of which it comes. This is also important historical background for understanding the ways Jesus has transformed the tradition.