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.
No comments:
Post a Comment