The Old Testament is full of examples of God or Yahweh having personal relationships with his people. There are countless instances that he visibly or audibly provides proof that he is in control and works in the lives of those who follow after him. David, who was know as a man after God’s own heart, found himself being constantly pursued by King Saul but always rescued by God from certain death. In Psalm 18, David praises the Lord in what has now become canonized in the Bible and is known as a Psalm of Praise. The psalm opens with the powerful sentence: “I love you, O Lord, my strength,” which immediately demonstrates David‘s devotion to the Lord along with the recognition that he provides something that David does not have: strength (New International Version, Ps. 18.1). Throughout the psalm, a personal relationship between God and David is exemplified. David is a warrior, and he sees God as the ultimate warrior, teaching him how to fight. The extended metaphor of the preparation for war and the act of war is followed throughout Psalm 18. Although David recognizes that it was the Lord who ultimately defeated the enemy, David explains that his God taught him how to stand against the enemy. The heavy imagery along with other figures of speech allow the psalm to move fluidly from one idea to the next. Synthetic, antithetic, and synonymous parallelism, as seen in most biblical poetry, is used to emphasize important ideas. This repetition of phrasing and ideas adds to the movement of the poem while the extended use of personal pronouns makes the poem an intimate experience between David and the Lord.
This song of praise exemplifies God’s personal intervention in the lives of his people, rather it be personal or community oriented, ...
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... how big God is and how mighty he is to save. Ryken says “In all these cases , hyperbole is a literal “lie” used for the sake of emotional effect” (Words 177).
As Ryken points out in Words of Delight, “In Psalm 18:31-42...the conventional arming of he warrior and the warrior’s boast treat God as the one who arms the hero and is worthy of honor” (116).
The lone simile in Psalm 18 provides the entry way to a significant portion of the psalm. When David said, “He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights,” the image of David climbing to the heights of God is clearly seen (Ps 18.33). Know longer is David a clumsy human but an elegant deer who scales mountains. (reverse personification?) But even with this added height achieved by being made like a deer, the Lord still had to “stoop down to make me [David] great” (Ps. 18.35).
In the poem “David” by Earle Birney there are a few themes. The major theme in the poem is life and death. For starters, the tone in the poem is a very bitter one, especially when David asks Bob to push him off the cliff. Furthermore, the poem is written in free verse style and often uses imagery in its description. The poems use of figurative language and poetic devices are used to create tension, complication and emotion. What makes this poem serious is the fact the verses in this poem do not follow the same rhyming scheme. The poem uses imagery with symbolism to help paint a better picture. For example, in contemplating killing the bird that has a broken wing, Birney shows that everyone is capable of getting hurt. Plus when David kills the
St. Albans Psalter Psalm 68 is not long, but it does have lots of detailed material to study the author’s choice of language, and the power of the images that are being conveyed to the readers through an emotional and sentimental way. The simplicity of this psalm’s gives it power, since it expresses an emotional despair in a careful shaped prayer, which comes from a human being in what seems to be a life-threatening situation. In the image and the content, the psalmist’s travels an arc of desperation to salvation, in a vivid personal plea to Christ to save him from what seems to be a swirling vortex of hopelessness that threatens to pull him under forever.
When speaking about God, we naturally tend to give God characteristics or attributes that otherwise would be considered un proper. Two approaches that we use when speaking about God are Analogical and Metaphorical. Analogical and Metaphorical approaches are all about giving attribution to thing, in this case God. There are three predications, univocal, equivocal, and analogy. The univocal approach talks about the same term for different subjects that have the same exact meaning. The equivocal approach takes the same term, but it has a different subject and meaning. An analogy is a comparison of two things, in this case God is going to be compared to different things. The analogical approach is also called proper proportionality. When speaking about God in the analogical (proper proportionality) approach, we use the same term, but a different subject. For the metaphorical approach when speaking about God, we compare God to something and give him characteristics that he would not normally have. For example, when talking about proper proportionality, I may say that God is heroic. Now God is heroic may seem simple, but if I replace God with the word George Washington, now I have George Washington is heroic. While George Washington may have been heroic, comparing him to God using the same term gives me a different proportion. Now when I talk about the Metaphorical approach of God, I am ...
After reading Courageous Faith: Life Lessons from Old Testament Heroes, the biblical hero I most relate to is Joshua. Joshua succeeded Moses as the leader to lead the Israelites into the promise land. The promise land was prosperous but filled with many strong cities and armies. Joshua had to place his faith in God and His promise that the Israelites will conquer the land. Joshua and the new generation of Israelites had faith in God and they went into the promise land even without a battle plan. They placed faith in God before their fears and concerns. “God was telling Joshua to put Him first, and then he would be prosperous and successful” (Hindson, 77). Joshua obeyed God’s battle plan instead of being afraid and make his own battle plan. The
...hasizing God played an essential role in his battle with Goliath. The artist wanted to show that in spite of his fragility David managed to defeat someone who was far superior to him when considering each individual’s physical abilities (Adams).
Psalm 89 of the Book of Psalms, advocates the message of consequentialism, foreground by man’s relationship with God, with direct lin...
Psalm 113 reads like a 1st century pep talk for those with spiritual burnout. The writer makes his case for the Lord by pointing to the many ways that God earns our praise. These nine verses of scripture are saturated with three specific reasons to praise the Lord – He is Su...
The goal of this book review on Engaging God’s World written by Cornelius Plantinga Jr. is to examine his ideas on redemption, vocation in the Kingdom of God, and to explore his thoughts on Christian education as described in the book’s epilogue. Cornelius Plantinga Jr. discusses several key notes regarding redemption, such as salvation. Vocation in the Kingdom of God is another subject he touches on in relation to the way God works within His Kingdom connecting us to the ‘King of Kings’ as his ambassadors on earth. Lastly, Plantinga explains his view on how Christian education is important to sustain ourselves, earth now, and the New Earth.
The theological themes that stood out in this narrative are God’s willingness to forgive after David’s repentance, and his need for punishment. If David had not repented, God would have no reason to forgive him, but he did repent, and God forgave him. If God had not forgiven David for his wrongdoings, David would have strayed from him. At the same time, if God had not punished David, David would have taken everything into his own hands and taken God for granted. The cycle of punishment, repentance and forgiveness is something seen very often in this section of the Bible, as well as in other parts. Without that cycle, God would not be same God we know today.
Plantinga’s (2002) book Engaging God’s World consists of five parts: “Longing and Hope,” “Creation,” “The Fall,” “Redemption,” and “Vocation in the Kingdom of God.” Throughout the work, Plantinga references public speakers and activists, lyricists, philosophers, saints, and authors to help his audience connect to his perspective.
"Hymn: Safe in the Arms of Jesus." Hymnalnet RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Nov. 2014.
The second stanza starts off saying much the same thing. It expands upon the idea of wanting the Lord to mold his heart an...
A key theme found throughout the Bible is that of God being glorified through the actions of people who are full of imperfections. One such example is King David, the greatest of the Israelite kings. He sinned against God in sleeping with Bathsheeba and then having her husband killed on the battlefield. (II Samuel 11) Yet he is still commonly seen as a champion of the Jewish faith. George Herbert took this theme of God glorifying Himself through human frailty and incorporated it into his poem, "The Windows." As a metaphysical poet, Herbert puts most of the meaning of the poem into a deeper level. Herbert does this by choosing words that contain several different meanings, all of which serve to further exemplify the theme, in such areas as human imperfection, God’s love and finally, the effect upon people of God showing Himself to them through the lives of others.
The writing style of an author plays a giant role in expressing certain details and letting the reader become more drawn into the piece of literature. In the story summary David and Goliath, which we get from the first book of Samuel chapter seventeen verses one through fifty eight. This popular bible story expresses how a young and weak teenage boy named David can take down a giant with name of Goliath with faith in God. The use of different elements used throughout the summary such as diction, imagery, and language gives off hopeful feel because the main point of the story is for the reader to understand that anything is possible with God.
xxx Macalintal, Diana. "Worship is Not enough." Pastoral Music 36, no. 2 (01, 2012): 33-4, accessed April 22, 2014. http://search.proquest.com/docview/927876701?accountid=120.