Wisdom

Michael Calhoun
May 3
3 min read

I’m falling in love with Psalms. Those unfamiliar with Divine intervention would call it a coincidence that the majority of my readings and devotionals (if you receive the LHM devotions, you know) have included specific readings from this book. They have all coincided with the assigned readings in 1 Samuel and Luke. If I’ve learned nothing else from this particular course (I have), I have learned that every line of Scripture has a reference, a context, or a fulfillment somewhere else. I’ve always “known” it, but never really “learned” it until now.

I think what I love the most is that we truly get to know David in a way we could not in the books of history. As Lessing so wonderfully puts it: “The book never gives up on David as a sign of divine presence and justice.”[1] David’s royalty is never forgotten and neither is his humanity. We read the history in 1 & 2 Samuel and Kings, and we see his bravery, glory, piety, and sin. All of the things we see in rulers and leaders today, but the Psalter gives us some insight into his heart. I learned that as great as David was, as a human, he was no better or worse than I. He felt the same things I do when I am afraid, when I am guilty, when I am happy. The primary difference being that I am just now, late in my life learning to give glory to God for everything good in it, while David always did. It (Psalms) is a book of hope for all of us in the form of heartfelt poetry and musing.

And again, a new lesson – the entirety of the Psalter points to the Messiah: the prophecies, the teaching by parable, sin and confession, and grace. I spent the first part of Lent meditating on Psalm 51, and am into the Easter season in Psalm 8, 100, 103, and 142 (among others). It is amazing to me that I knew so little about such beauty.

Mark 15:34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

John 19:23 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, 24 so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says, “They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” So the soldiers did these things,

To finish this week’s post without mentioning the other books of wisdom assigned would be incomplete. The wisdom of Solomon, et al in Proverbs gives us so much of what we base our societal civility on, as well of much of our sense of fairness, and even affects modern psychology in the way we view the projections or fronts people show versus what is in the heart. Then moving from the relatively bleak, but also heartening text of Ecclesiastes to the beauty, intimacy, and allegory of the Song of Songs gives me an understanding, however small, of the marriage relationship Israel had with God. Lessing again hits the nail on the head in his conclusion[2] in that we as Christians are reminded of the longing we have to celebrate the marriage feast of the Lamb.