Serve the LORD with fear; with trembling bow down in homage, Lest God be angry and you perish from the way in a sudden blaze of anger
... The God of this psalm is more like a bully than a loving father, and seems underserving of respect or love, though he may indeed evoke fear.
Happy are all who take refuge in God!
... I think not - you'd always have the worry you might anger God and be turned into a pillar of salt.
I find it hard to reconcile the OT God and the NT God - they seem pretty different to me.
There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love. - 1 John 4:18
7 comments:
I must admit -- one of my inclinations for working with a few psalms is they can be so ornery. Deep spirituality mixed with calls for violence and vengeance. And so what do we do with them?
Well John Wesley said that some of the psalms are not fit SS class subjects for children.
My inclination is first to pass over the sordid parts of the O.T. and second, as a fellow theologue at school suggested, to treat it like the 'funny paper'. Above all don't get emotionally involved.
I believe some parts of the Bible are more sacred than others.
Don't get involved
... I think that ship has sailed - being involved is the only reason I'm doing this in the first place :-)
What do we do with them?
... good question.
It might be good to take another look at that line:
Happy are all who take refuge in God!
What is it to take refuge? To rest, to harbor, to retreat, a place of protection, asylum, shelter... Perhaps it is even a place "to come home to."
And to be happy? ...Content, pleased, glad, joyful, blissful...
How wonderful, how utterly wonderful, to find our home in God!
For me, it raises more questions than answers
--how does one "serve the Lord"? by living peaceably with all his creation, by loving our neighbors as ourselves or by evangelizing with the sword?
-- how does one "take refuge in God"? seek peace, seek to be peace or try to follow the Bible as others tell say you should or somewhere in the middle? who is to find the middle? who is to know what it means?
Marjorie,
Perhaps the questions you ask are rhetorical, and you are not really expecting an answer. But oh, well, here are where my thoughts settled as I read your questions about taking refuge in God. For me taking refuge is nothing about following the Bible as others tell/say I should. It is not even in the middle between this and seeking/being Peace. Taking refuge for me has meant to drop away from my thinking mind, to let all the calculations, the rhetoric, the rationalizations, the history and politics go, let all of it go – it is all extraneous to taking refuge in God. It even means letting most of the questions go. Indeed, the answer here destroys the question.
As one settles into silence, you will be able to watch these questions and thoughts, your fears, sorrows, memories, all the plans you make and the fiction you create all rise and fall away. What is left? What is left in the silence, below these thoughts? What stays steady under this persistent flow of thoughts? This deep and utter silence is like an empty seed casing where peace and loving energy dwell. You are this seed, you are this energy. It is your fundamental nature. This is your refuge, your home.
I think I get what it means to take refuge, but when this line comes after the ones before it that speak of violence, fear and derision ... well, "refuge" seems turned inside out.
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