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Show God's Map for Me Lesson for August 28, 1949 HOW did the writers of the Bible think about the Bible? We can get part of the answer by looking at our Psalms for this week. These poets already possessed a part of our-Bible: the Law, some historical books, perhaps some of the Prophets. Proph-ets. It was an incomplete Bible they had but they loved it. They did not think of it or use it in some of the mistaken ways you may find some people thinking of the Bible today. They did not think it was enough to read a line or two before going to bed every night. They did not think that having a copy of it around would bring good luck, or scare off demons. They said nothing about the Bible's being great literature. Dr. Foreman They were not at all bothered by miracle stories in Scripture; they believed them, and took them as evidences of the mighty power of God (see Psalm 105). They did not look on the Bible as chiefly a dictionary of Don'ts. They did not think of it as a Sabbath Sab-bath book, but rather as an everyday every-day one. It did not strike them as a book of mystery. The Psalmists' Bible IN reading Psalm 19:7-14, it is interesting in-teresting to see how many different differ-ent things the Psalmist says about the Word of God. He calls it by various names, but that is only because, be-cause, being a poet, he likes to use several words for the same thing. As for Psalm 105, where else but in his Bible would the poet have learned that story of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and the deliverance de-liverance from Egypt? The reader of this Psalm will observe that the subject of most of the sentences is GOD. As the poet reviews his people's history, he shows that it Is not simply the doings of the Israelites, Israel-ites, but it is God who brings things to pass. "Man proposes but God disposes" is a proverb which the writer of Psalm 105 would approve. Psalm 119 is known as an "alphabetic" or "acrostic" poem. It is divided into 22 sections, each one exactly eight verses long. There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, and in the Hebrew original of this Psalm each verse of the first section begins with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Aleph; in the next section, sec-tion, Beth, and so on down to the last letter,- Tau. m The Book of God WHAT the writers of these Psalms said about the partly-done Bible of their times is of course even more true of the completed Bible which is our heritage as Christians. One thing they make clear is that this is first of all God's book. They knew as well as we do that different human minds had a part of it, but for all that it is always God whose message comes through what they wrote. The Bible, properly understood, reveals the mind of God and the will of God. The Bible reveals also the doings of God. His story is the weaving of God's eternal decrees on the looms of time. Again, these poets see that the Bible is for man and about man. None of them thought of it as a guide to heaven, but rather a9 a road map or to guide us through the mazes of this world. Psalm 119 stresses this world, and no other, as the world on which God's light shines. The commandments of God art so many lengths of barbed wire tc fence us in, rather road-signs t guide us on life's open highway The Bible presents the "How" oi living. It is God's map for me. The Bible in The Heart THE SENTENCE: "Thy wore have I hid in my heart' (Psalm 119:11) is the clue to th( right use of the Bible. When b Hebrew writer says "heart" hf means something, more than mere emotion. The word means char acter, what a man really is. A young Korean was learning th Sermon on the Mount, but makinf slow work of it. When a missionary asked him about it, the boy said, "I have to be slow. First I learn a verse, then I go out and live it. I can learn the words in a few minutes; but it takes longer than that to live it." That is the right idea. One verse, translated into living, is worth more than a chapter that never gets deeper in than the edge of the j brain. j tCopvrlcht by the International Coun-.il Coun-.il of HeljRioue Education on behalf of 10 Protestant denominations. Released by WNTJ Features |