Psalm 6

What I find most interesting about this psalm is the reason given for God's help. It wasn't ultimately for David's sake, or even the nation's. It was for God's,since dead men can't praise him.

People were made for God, not God for people.

Something else you should never do with Scripture

You are not in the Bible. At least it's very unlikely you are.

Then why do you pretend that everyone in it shares your opinions? Especially God?

When the higher criticism really took off, it was led by 19th century German seminary professors. Not surprisingly, when this group of people began to look for "the historical Jesus", they found one that thought and acted just like a 19th century German seminary professor. Everyone from the Church of Rome to American fundamentalists have found that the "real" Jesus perfectly agrees with them. The only way that's possible is that people are reading their own beliefs into Scripture, rather than getting them from it.

And it's not like I'm innocent. I'm a 21st century white male American, and that's how I read the Bible. Being born in a particular time and place means that I think a particular way. The best I or anyone else can hope for is to read in as little as possible.

Good thing we have God to help us.

Psalm 5

We're told that God hates bloodthirsty men, and it's hard to think of anyone who lived more by the sword than David.

How do we reconcile these two? First we need to realize that it wasn't his nature to kill people. He did what he did because he had to. Second, we have to understand that David was only carrying out the decrees of God, who had called for the destruction of the Canaanites hundreds of years before.

Review: FABLES VOL. 1 by Bill Willingham and Lan Medina

This is a "graphic novel" as the term is commonly used, a collection of several issues of a comic book that comprise a single story. In this case the first five issues are collected, and the story is a murder mystery.

Bill Willingham, the series' creator and writer, has built a sprawling world that amazingly feels complete in the first few pages. The chief advantage of a mystery is that it allows for the introduction of many characters and personalities, and Willingham uses it to great advantage. Throughout the investigation and various related scenes he introduces numerous characters and subplots that often don't come to fruition for several years. It's a very well-written book.

Lan Medina's art leaves me a little more conflicted. Taken alone, it's very good, but it suffers in comparison to the art of Mark Buckinghham,who became the series' regular artist with issue six. Medina's realistic, almost journalistic style is very different from Buckinghham's and from the future look of the book, but if the worst thing that can be said about the art is that it gets even better, then that's some pretty good art.

So if the story's good and the art's good, then I must recommend it, right? There are a few reasons why I don't. The first is the foul language. To go with that "adult language" are some "adult situations" involving both sex and violence. It never feels pornographic, but it does feel gratuitous. That's too bad, because other than that it's possibly the best-written comic book being published. As it stands, though, I can't recommend it, nor do I plan to read more.

Psalm 4

Anger is not a sin. Even God gets angry sometimes. It's the normal reaction to having one's will thwarted or opposed. Of course everyone should be angry sometimes. It's how we're designed.

That's why David could say, "Be angry, and do not sin."

Review: RELATIVITY: THE SPECIAL AND GENERAL THEORIES by Albert Einstein

Just a mention of the Theory of Relativity or of Albert Einstein is enough to scare most people. It scared me for a long time. When I finally read it, though, I found out it wasn't that scary at all. 

This is a short book, and entirely lacking in math until the end. That was my biggest fear; math has never come easily to me, and I just never learned to do anything beyond basic algebra. It turns out, though, that most of the book is a word picture, and is not that hard to follow.

I'm not saying that I'm as smart as Einstein. I'm saying that he communicated his ideas very clearly, which is also a sign of genius, since it doesn't matter what you think if you can't tell people. This is an idea that, like evolution, has been taken out of its context and applied where it was never meant to be. It's a foundational idea of Western culture, though, and as such needs to be understood. I recommend it.

Psalm 3

God doesn't just fight for his people. Sometimes he hides them.

In Exodus 15 Moses declared, "The LORD is a warrior." While he's not less than that, he's definitely more. He's also a refuge, a tower, and a loving father. He defends his people, but he also cares for them.

The fifth commandment

12 "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

-- Exodus 20.12, ESV

As with most things, it's easier to say what this commandment doesn't mean than what it does. The most important thing it doesn't mean, and the biggest misconception, involves obedience. Neither here nor anywhere else in Scripture are we told to obey our parents blindly. When you're young you should of course obey them, but when you're grown you're supposed to stand on your own two feet.

Psalm 2

Rant and rave all you want, but God'll do what he wants anyway.

God's not in the business of keeping people happy. As I've said many times, he's not running for God. He's already omni-everything, so unless you are too there's no point in arguing with him.

Review: DESIRING GOD by John Piper

This is the linchpin of Piper's ministry, and apparently the key to his whole way of thinking.  It lays out what he means by Christian hedonism, which is simply enjoying God. Unfortunately, his belief in finding one's joy in God (very good) is tied up with his Calvinism (not as good).

This is a difficult book to recommend. On one hand, it's very well-written and interesting, and I always learn something from Piper's books and sermons. On the other, I can only do that by ignoring a lot of what he says. Calvinism is simply repugnant to me. In the end, I can only recommend it very cautiously, asking the reader to take the time to separate Piper's message from his presuppositions.

Psalm 1

God will reward the good, and punish the evil.

Really, there isn't much to this psalm beyond that. In some ways it acts as an introduction to the book,showing us God and what he does. It also lets us know that though the wicked seem to do alright in this world, they still have to face the judgment of God.

Something you should never do with Scripture

Never just assume things have always meant what they do now.

The Bible's apparent endorsement of slavery is a good example. When most of us think of slavery, we naturally think of the system that prevailed in America until the Civil War, in which Africans were kidnapped and forced to work for white people. If the Bible defends that, then it deserves to be rejected.

But it doesn't. It's true that Scripture doesn't speak out against slavery, but slavery among the ancient Hebrews and Romans was very different from that practiced in 19th century America. Besides that, kidnapping and forced labor are condemned.

There are plenty of other examples; I chose that one because it's a popular reason for rejecting Christ, and frankly because it's easy to refute. It still takes a little work, but God has never rewarded laziness.

Review: OISHINBO A LA CARTE VOL. 1: JAPANESE CUISINE

Oishinbo is a long-running manga (Japanese comic) about Japanese food. Though I have no desire to eat it -- most of it sounds pretty disgusting to me -- I like the manga. In recent years it's been repackaged for Americans by not only translating it, but by collecting stories with similar themes into volumes.

The story centers around Yamaoka, a newspaper reporter and gourmet who's been assigned the task of putting together an "Ultimate Menu". As far as I know it was never completed, so it's hard to believe he'd be employed there very long, but the menu project is just an excuse to tell stories about cuisine.

The art is reminiscent of many manga from the 70s and 80s, in that the characters are simple and cartoonish, and the backgrounds more detailed. The food in particular is carefully rendered,which makes sense given that it's the real star of the book.

Overall, I found the book very interesting and entertaining, and I recommend it.

I AM AMERICA (AND SO CAN YOU!) by Stephen Colbert

When I was younger I thought humor excused everything. I believed anything could be forgiven as long as it was funny, an attitude I kept well into my 30s. I was wrong, of course. I have no doubt that many very funny people will be in Hell after Judgment Day. And that's a fact that makes me profoundly sad.

Stephen Colbert is a genuinely funny man, and his alter ego, a parody of right-wing talk show hosts who is also named Stephen Colbert, is even funnier. Unfortunately, both sometimes resort to foul language and gutter humor to make their points.

This is Colbert's first book, and in many ways it's his best. I would have loved it when I was 30, but now I don't recommend it.

The fourth commandment

8 "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work,  10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.  11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

-- Exodus 20.8-11

One day a week. That's what God wants. And it's not as if it's some grievous tax on our time. God didn't tell his people to spend the day crawling through frozen mud under barbed wire. He said to take a day off. It wasn't a day people couldn't work; it was a day they got to relax.

Job 42

Job is justified, but not mollified. God apparently takes his side against his friends, but upon seeing God Job can only repent. Job is declared righteous, and has the opportunity to question God, but never gets his answer.

Remember the theme of the book: God is God, and Job is not.

Psalms starts on Monday.

Review: THE FIVE LAWS OF THE KINGDOM by David Bercot

By now I've read a lot of books by Bercot, and I've liked them all. This one is no exception, and I recommend it.

Job 41

Leviathan is described to illustrate the power of God.

It's described as terrible beyond imagining, but completely under the control of God. Whoever could tame such a beast must have been extremely powerful, and that's who Job wanted to challenge.

Hallelujah is not a magic word

We tend to throw biblical words into everything in an almost superstitious way. If we hear or see an ancient Hebrew or Koine Greek, we hold it in reverential awe.

Guess what? There's nothing magic about ancient Hebrew. "Hallelujah" or however you spell it just means "Praise God". The best explanation of "Amen" I've ever heard is that it means "I wish I'd said that." There's certainly nothing wrong with using words like that, but let's stop pretending that Hebrew is some kind of special, secret language.

I've heard ad nauseam that biblical Greek is a richer language than English, as evidenced by the fact that it has four words for "love" while English has only one. This is simply not true. Even if there were only one, our language has hundreds of thousands of adjectives to modify it.

Though there is no doubt something special about these languages, if only because God chose to reveal himself in them. That's no reason to fetishize them, though.

Job 40

The second verse of this chapter answers the problem of evil.

If you don't know what I mean by the problem of evil, it's best summed up by the question,"Why do bad things happen?" If God is all-powerful and all-good, how is there evil? This isn't the best answer, but it's an answer.