Psalm 62

Not only do we not need anything besides God, we shouldn't even want anything else. God is the end-all and be-all, and any need we have that can't be satisfied by him is one we shouldn't have anyway.

God +  nothing = everything.

Review: TITUS GROAN by Mervyn Peake

In many ways Peake was the anti-Tolkein. Where The Lord of the Rings tends to sprawl, Peake's Gormenghast Trilogy (he died a few paragraphs into the fourth and final book) is insular and claustrophobic. While Tolkein's work is full of beautiful people doing noble things, Peake's is full of ugly people doing questionable things. Tolkein built a monument to a better time that existed only in his own mind. Peake held up a baroque mirror to his own.

While both men had wordy styles but Peake turns his to humor in this book, making it more enjoyable to read. Given its overall bleak outlook, though, I don't recommend it.

Psalm 61

Protect me, God.

Once again the psalmist tells of his dependence upon God for defense. He might have been a mighty warrior, but he knew his life was in God's hands, as are all of ours.

Take a load off, man

The fact that one of the Ten Commandments is about rest tells me two important things. First, it tells me that God takes rest very seriously. It also tells me that people have always been so focused on getting stuff that they have to be told to take a day off. 

The fourth commandment says to honor God one day in every seven. And what does he demand of his people on that day? Not some special ritual. Not that we gather together to worship him. Not that we do anything at all, but that we rest. That we "do no work". This isn't something new that came in with the Law of Moses; it was based in the creation itself, on God's rest on the seventh day. Now, God didn't need to rest any more than he needed six days to create the universe. It was an illustration for his people, be they Hebrews in 1000BC or us.

People always want more, whether it's more money, more power, or more security. And they're willing to work for them. It turns into a deadly trap when we come to depend more on what we can get than on God. We get to the point that we're willing to disobey him to get a little more of whatever we're after. This temptation is so strong that a prohibition against it had to be included in the Decalogue. People weren't meant to work all the time. We're made to need rest, and because we won't take care of ourselves, God has to make us.

An announcement

I have a new post up at The Bible Exchange, "You knew I'd write about evolution sometime". www.biblexchange.com

Psalm 60

Nothing else matters if God isn't for you.

You might achieve worldly success. You might be acclaimed by everyone. You might even defeat all your enemies. But you'll have to do it on your own, and in the end it won't mean anything anyway.

Review: THE FIRST ALGERNON BLACKWOOD MEGAPACK by Algernon Blackwood

Some of these are ghost stories, and some aren't, but they're all built somehow on the supernatural. They are perhaps best described as "spooky"; Blackwood was very good at creating forbidding and moody atmospheres.

Unfortunately, he was less good at pacing. There's a fine line between drawing things out to create tension and just letting them drag on too long. Too often Blackwood falls on the wrong side of that line.

It may just be the difference between readers in the 19th century and the 21st, but I found much of Blackwood's work boring. I don't recommend it.

Psalm 59

When nothing else can be relied upon, God can. A fortress of stone may crumble, but when you make God your refuge he will never fall. No one can stand against him, and no one can wear him down.

A mighty fortress is our God.

Review THE NET BIBLE (NOTELESS) by Biblical Studies Prress

NET stands for New English Translation, but it also refers to the fact that this was the first translation of the Bible done completely openly on the internet, incorporating suggestions from the public into the text itself. In its print form the vast majority of most pages is taken up with translators' notes, and the whole thing is available free online. There are two Kindle versions, with notes and without. I'm reviewing the one without notes.

I chose this one for a few reasons. First, it's free, which probably had a bigger effect on my decision than I like to admit. Second, I wanted to read the translation without being influenced by the notes. Third, if I got the one with the notes it would take about 14 years to read.

The translation is fine, though it hasn't become my favorite or anything, and I found it easy to read and understand. I don't read Greek or Hebrew, but people much smarter than I have said that it is roughly equivalent to the NIV as a thought-for-thought translation.

I still prefer the ESV, but this is a solid English Bible at an unbeatable price. I recommend it.

Psalm 58

Human judges may be wicked and corrupt, but God can never be.

Judges may wield godlike power over their fellow men, but that's no guarantee they'll be just or fair. But God is always just and fair. Justice and fairness are part of his nature.

Give us each day our daily bread

God doesn't need to be reminded that that we need provision. We need to be reminded, though, that everything is ultimately comes from God. The present is where we all live and all that really exists for us. That's why we don't have a month's worth of food in our houses; we have a month of chances to ask God to provide for us.

Psalm 57

Even though we like to think it is it's not really about us. In this psalm David asks for God's help not only for his own sake but for God's as well. When God saves him, he promises, he'll give thanks and praise for it.

God doesn't need the praises of his people, but he sure does like them.

Review: A DREAMER'S TALES by Lord Dunsany

These are more weird and beautiful stories by Lord Dunsany. If you've read The Gods of Pegana, Time and the Gods, or Fifty-One Tales, you know what to expect, though they tend to be longer and more complex.

It's important to remember that fantasy as a genre didn't exist at the turn of the 20th century, when these stories were being written. Today, he would be pigeonholed as a fantasy writer, but back then he was just an author who started his career with some odd stories. I like them, so I recommend this 

Psalm 56

"If God is for us, then who can be against us?"

Paul said that in his letter to the Romans, but it's the message of this psalm as well. David didn't like being taken by his enemies, but he expected God to give him the victory, like he always had.

Eternal insecurity?

I spent years -- most of my Christian life -- as a Baptist, though I was never entirely comfortable as one, even when I was ordained as a Southern Baptist pastor. For one thing, Calvinism was resurgent in those years, so I constantly felt like I was defending myself from that. For another, I've always struggled with the doctrine of eternal security.

Also (and unfortunately) called "once saved always saved", it basically says that once you make a profession of faith, you'll go to Heaven no matter what. The trouble was that I couldn't find anyone in the New Testament who talked that way. If you can't apostasize, or leave the faith, then you have to wonder why there are so many warnings against it.

Not believing in eternal security doesn't mean I'm always insecure about the state of my soul. Why would I be? That would be like an obedient son being afraid of being disowned for no reason.

An announcement

I have a new post up at The Bible Exchange, "The difference between nihil obstat and imprimatur". www.bibleexchange.com

Psalm 55

The psalmist asks for God's help because every other hand is against him and God has never let him down.

When there is no one else, there is God. When there is nothing but hate around you, there is the love of God. When everyone is against you, God will be for you.

Review: HOLY BIBLE, KING JAMES VERSION read by Max McLean

I wouldn't dare review the content, so I'll just stick to the translation and the performance.

I firmly believe that reading the KJV -- and learning to understand the KJV -- makes you smarter. Unfortunately, that's because it's almost in a foreign language. It was old-fashioned (by design) when it first appeared in 1611, and it's nearly incomprehensible now.

There aren't a lot of Bible versions Max McLean hasn't recorded.  As always, he gives a confident, professional performance, made even more commanding by the translation.

Despite the claims made by its most ardent supporters and its historical importance, the KJV is no longer the best translation available. Despite the great performance, I don't recommend this.

Psalm 54

David could trust God to protect him because God had always done so in the past. David trusted God, because he had never been given a reason not to. And he never would be.

God never breaks his word, and never lets his people down.

Review: A TALE OF TWO CITIES by Charles Dickens

Dickens is another of those Great Authors I've never enjoyed, a fact which I blame entirely on our public education system. Being made to read Great Expectations when I was 13 only taught me to hate Dickens. I still haven't finished that book.

In fact, this is only the second Dickens book I've finished, and it was ... okay. The device of using one family to explore and compare London and Paris during the French Revolution is a good one, and both it and the rest of the book are done well. As with Shakespeare, though, I can't see why he's so highly thought of. I don't recommend it, but that's probably my fault.