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I thought I would create a space to share some of my life thoughts as well as some my life's adventures and misadventures. I am not sure what is in store for this Blog. I love God, I love my wife, I enjoy reading, kayaking, cooking, thinking about ways to sustainably help the world's poor, and leaving a smaller carbon footprint on this planet—Steve G’s Eclectic World. As life is both an experiment and a journey so is this blog. I hope that you will take what you like and leave the rest.



Thursday, June 23, 2016

STRUGGLING THROUGH DAVID'S PSALMS



Does anybody else struggle with reading David's Psalms? I recently decided to read through Psalms after reading an article where Bono, the lead singer of U2, was being critical of Christian music for being perpetually happy and that this was a mask for not looking at the realities in our world.  Moreover, he talked about the Psalms and observed that the spectrum of emotions there is broad and included much darker emotions than what we hear in our Christian music today.

For me however, when I read the Psalms I often find myself offended and aghast.  Many of David’s Psalms are written from an exclusive, imperialistic perspective and I cannot help but think that is why David is held with such high esteem in our Western evangelistic world—David protected empire so we protect Empire--being able to point to David gives us justification.

I have often heard Jesus called the new Adam, but I don’t think I have ever heard Jesus called the new David.  David was the king of an kingdom and Jesus talked often of his kingdom and when you juxtapose the two I do not see where they have anything in common other than being able to refer to them both as a “kingdom.”  Perhaps it is time that we start looking at David and his kingdom through the lens of Jesus and his kingdom.

For an example contrast Psalm 18:36 with Matthew 5:44.

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