Monday, July 18, 2011

Psalms

Finished the Book of Psalms today. There are 150 of them. They are songs written (I think by David and some other people) to praise God. They're what you usually hear read at funerals, and in Hollywood movies. Some of them are very famous:

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." -- Psalm 23

I really enjoyed this book. It's full of hope and direction to God's people to do good and trust in Him. I love the poetry:

"I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning." -- Psalm 130:5-6

Interesting that the Book of Psalms contains the shortest and the longest chapters in the Bible. The shortest is Psalm 117, the longest is Psalm 119. According to Wikipedia, Psalm 119 is "one of about a dozen alphabetic acrostic poems in the Bible. Its 176 verses are divided into 22 stanzas, one stanza for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet; within each stanza, each of the eight verses begins (in Hebrew) with that letter. The name of God (Yahweh/Jehovah) appears 24 times."

**NEXT: Proverbs

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