Rocking My World

If any of you all have been around me these past 8 weeks, you have heard me complain about my Hebrew Exegesis of Psalms class. The professor requires more work than i have ever had in a class--6 mini exegetical papers (each using 6ish sources) and 1 15-18 exegetical paper (requiring 20 sources)--all in 10 weeks, plus a midterm and several translations. I have spent more time in the library this quarter than I think I have spent there the rest of my Fuller career combined. And I am hardly seen without a Psalm commentary or the Hebrew Lexicon dictionary in hand. One classmate told me today that he was sure that I'd be carrying my Hebrew BDB with me whenever I moved to next, because of the deep habit I have formed this quarter. All this for a class I'm taking pass/fail...

But, as I have been immersed in the book of Psalms, digging more deeply into Scripture than I have ever dug before...slowly my world is being rocked. I love this book! The sheer, raw emotions expressed by the Psalmists are incredible. Anger. Doubt. Devastating Sadness. Huge questions. Confusion. It is in these deep emotions that the Psalmists meet God.

My new favorite psalm is 106, a historical psalm. It retells the stories of the Torah (first 5 books of the Bible) and confesses the common theme of the sin of forgetfulness by the Israelites. Each time things got hard or confusing the Israelites forgot God--but in the end God saved them despite their sin. As I think about the future and all the many questions that lie in front of me--I confess that I, too, forget God. I forget God's faithfulness and look other places for guidance. I see myself in this psalm. All I can do right now is agree with the confession of this psalm and cling to the praise offered up at the end in verse 48, "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting...Praise the Lord."