What's up, I'm back, and with the reading of these three books, I'm officially more than halfway done with the Bible! Impressed yet? Well, you should be. Psalms and Proverbs are not fun books to read in one (per book) fell swoop. Fortunately for you, nothing entered my ocular tissue by my own hand, so you get to read about them. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing grossly boring or terrible about them, but after a while you want to hear stories again. On the plus side, I really really liked Ecclesiastes and might have been even more receptive to it thanks to the fact that it was not written in verse. (It doesn't hurt that Ecclesiastes is next to Leviticus on the 'fun to say' scale.) So, I can assure you that these won't be the most in-depth responses, critiques or reactions I've ever written, but like I said, wanting to drive a pencil in your eye and refraining from doing so has this way of diverting attention.
Psalms! If you've ever been to a church you know at least Psalm 23, and even if you've never stepped into a church you probably still know Psalm 23 (at least one stanza of it). I guess it's not really correct to say the psalms are in verse, but they're not prose. Well, they're little sections that are prayers to God, praises to God, complaints to God, and some advice for fellow mortals.
"When you are disturbed, do not sin; ponder it on your beds, and be silent. Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord" Psalms 4:4-5. That is, don't act rashly, ruminate on it and how to fix it and how you can learn from the issue!
"For there is no truth in [my enemies'] mouths; their hearts are destruction; their throats are open graves; they flatter with their tongues" Psalms 5:9. The imagery here (specifically that of the throat being an open grave) is awesome.
"When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have... crowned them with glory and honor. You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet" Psalms 8:3-6.
"Put them in fear, O Lord; let the nations know that they are only human" Psalms 9:20.
"Fools say in their hearts, 'There is no God.' They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is no one who does good" Psalms 14:1. This one has a bit of ambiguity (or maybe none at all) that I do not like one bit. It says there is no-one who does good--but does it mean no-one of the fools do good, or no-one in general, even those who are righteous, do not do good? I certainly hope it was just poor wording and it is the former, because if even the good actions come to naught (or worse than naught!)... Well, the thought of it certainly disheartens me.
Okay, so Psalm 22 is the "Plea for Deliverance from Suffering and Hostility". Back in the day I blogged about the Collected Poems of Oscar Wilde--one of the poems I wrote about was 'On the Sale by Auction of Keats' Love Letters'. He talks about how the letters were being auctioned by a man who didn't understand the greatness of the letters and compares it to Roman soldiers throwing dice for Jesus's clothing after he was crucified or while he was being whipped. Well, I bring it up because believe it or not, I think I may have been incorrect in that take on it. Psalm 22 is written from the point of view from a starved and tortured man, and in one stanza he implies that he has been jumped. Being so frail thanks to starvation, he cannot fight back and can only watch as "They stare and gloat over me; they divide my clothes among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots" Psalms 22:17-18. I'd say it works pretty well. I'm still tempted to stick with it being more about Jesus just because of how much Wilde loved Keats, but it's likely that this is it too. Or both! It can be both.
Ah, Psalm 23! It begins with this: "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul" Psalms 23:1-3. (Or, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside still waters..." et cetera.) No? Doesn't sound familiar quite yet? Well, let's move on to stanza two: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff--they comfort me". Ahaaaa. (By the way, this isn't the version used within this copy of the Bible, it's the King James version. But the King James version is the way I've always heard it, so I'm going to be terribly biased for a moment, okay?)
"Let lying lips be stilled that speak insolently against the righteous with pride and contempt" Psalms 31:18. Though it isn't about exactly the same thing, I believe the connection drawn is still pretty obvious: "'Never speak disrespectfully of Society, Algernon. Only people who can't get into it do that'"--Oscar Wilde (The Importance of Being Earnest).
"Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it" Psalms 34:14.
A Man Without A Country, he writes about how that quote makes Marx look like he was putting religion in a negative light. Opiates are bad, they make you lazy, shiftless whatever--so people assume that that's what Marx is saying about religion. But at the same time, opiates make you feel calm, peaceful, relaxed, comforted--that's what Vonnegut believes Marx meant about religion. And you know what? After reading that, I agree. It's often a source of hope for those in less than hopeful situations. I like that. I like the people who can still find hope in that if nothing else. I can respect that. As for the second bit with the afflictions and God rescuing the righteous from them, obviously it doesn't mean literally, it means... Well, after, I suppose. Though heaven hasn't been expressly mentioned as an alternative to Sheol, I think we're getting there...
"Do not fret because of the wicked; do not be envious of wrongdoers, for they will soon fade like grass, and whither like the green herb" Psalms 37:1-2.
"Mortals cannot abide in their pomp; they are like the animals that perish. Such is the fate of the foolhardy, the end of those who are pleased with their lot. Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol; Death shall be their shepherd; straight to the grave they descend, and their form shall waste away, Sheol shall be their home. But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me" Psalms 49:13-15. This section when I first read it made me start thinking, and what I wrote about above (that of Vonnegut and Marx) made me think some more. Maybe those who don't believe in God just aren't good at deferring pleasure... Does that sound strange? I'm not quite sure how to word this. They want it now instead of later, they don't rely on optimism and constant improvement, they're willing to... to settle? To be "pleased with their lot". They choose to ignore possible improvement because they haven't the faith to...? Auuuugh. I don't know if I'm speaking well. Let it be known that I did try, however...
"You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart" Psalms 51:6.
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever" Psalms 111:10. Okay, so I bring this up because of the fear thing. I really like the fact that this does not beat around the bush--in every other version of the Bible I've perused and even in Sunday school and church itself, mostly everybody does things out of love. I think fear is a way more appropriate (and real!) driving factor for doing most anything in the Bible. So, thank you for not beating around the bush, New Revised Standard version of the Bible!
"The desire of the wicked comes to nothing" Psalms 112:10.
And we've made it to Proverbs! Proverbs contains exactly what you think it does. Therefore, I haven't got a lot to put down, but hey, stuff does exist...
There's a lot of warning against prostitutes in this book, I have to say. And women are always the villains; they're always doing the seducing and convincing... Which I bring up because of Lysistrata. It's clear that perception of women is still pretty much the same between when Proverbs was written and when that play was written... (They were probably written very proximally in time, now that I think about it...) Buuuut, my point was that women were thought to be completely ruled by 'natural' impulses--and by 'natural', of course, I mean the sexual ones. So... Yeah, just thought I'd bring that up.
"Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses" Proverbs 10:12. / "Love means never having to say you're sorry"--Love Story (A movie from the seventies, though Kurt Vonnegut puts his own spin on this in I believe Galapagos).
"Do not desire a ruler's delicacies, for they are deceptive food" Proverbs 23:3.
"Do not speak in the hearing of the fool, who will only despise the wisdom of your words" Proverbs 23:9. Being a nasty stubborn fool myself, I can say for sure that yes they will.
"Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring" Proverbs 27:1. This is one I need to keep in mind constantly from now on.
Like I said, I didn't mark many of the Proverbs. It'd be like taking my book of Aesop's fables and giving you every moral twice (at least the bread wasn't mentioned!). So here we are in Ecclesiastes. This one is about, well, essentially, whistling while you work. Your life may be spent working, but you have to work to live and because your life is so short, you may as well enjoy your work. That's tough to swallow, but it's a good point, there. Realistically, though, I'm not sure how many can follow it adequately, much less completely subscribe themselves to it.
"All human toil is for the mouth, yet the appetite is not satisfied. For what advantage have the wise over fools?" Ecclesiastes 6:7. The main purpose of work is, at its core, for sustenance, but everybody is equally bound by the pains of hunger and thus the need for work. Brain power doesn't mean a thing if you can't get food and survive... And, sort of in the same vein, "...the same fate comes to all, to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to those who sacrifice and those who do not sacrifice" Ecclesiastes 9:2. (Might I add that this section is entitled 'Take Life as it Comes'.)
"Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of countenance the heart is made glad" Ecclesiastes 2:3. / "Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward"--Kurt Vonnegut
"The living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no more reward, and even the memory of them is lost. Their love and their envy have already perished; never again will they have any share in all that happens under the sun" Ecclesiastes 9:5-6.
"You do not know the work of God" Ecclesiastes 11:5.
Alright, here we are. Next post will be Song of Solomon-Jeremiah, so... Try not to fall off the edge of your seats...? Of these three, I kind of dug Ecclesiastes, though you probably cannot tell... Hm. Well, not much of a general reaction this time, I guess. All I will say is that from now the old testament appears to be 90% in verse, which means my posts will either get meatier by tenfold, or will start to look a little small.
MLA citation information: Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Edition. American Bible Society: New York, 1989.
Yeah, nothing really new in my life other than that Book Worm is making my blood pressure go places where it has never gone before.
Answer to last post's cryptic song lyrics: First it Giveth by Queens of the Stone Age
This post's cryptic song lyrics: Life it rents us, and yeah I hope it put plenty on you--Well, I hope mine did too
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