Would You Pray This?

Psalms 7:8 ESV
(8) The LORD judges the peoples; judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and according to the integrity that is in me.

On a surface level, I don't think I would dare pray this. I know my own sinful heart too well. I certainly would not want to be judged on that.

However, the good news is that I am judged by the righteousness of Christ. That of course is not a "get out of hell free" card, but it is great news that I can pray this with confidence. God will judge me based on the righteousness imputed upon me. At least that's my understanding of the atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

Almost There...

It's been a busy weekend. I have my project for hermeneutics due on Friday. The bad news is that I really need to have it done by Wednesday evening since we are driving to Cleveland on Thursday. The good news is that I think I have gathered enough source material. It's just a matter of synthesizing it.

I remember a former coworker who was taking a Perl programming class. He felt like he had all the work done except for "the syntax and stuff." Well, that's what programming is. In the same way, this little detail of synthesizing data is what this class is all about.

I do think I am more or less equipped to handle various texts. There is just a certain amount of sweat equity required to do this.

Song of Songs

What do you make of this book? I have heard a variety of interpretations for it and just had to write a short paper on it. I think that this book can be read at three levels, in progressing levels of obscurity:

1. A love poem
2. An allegory for Christ's love for the church
3. A metaphor for how much we should pursue wisdom

The love poem is pretty obvious. I think that it clearly speaks to the passion that a husband and wife should have for each other. In Christian circles it is sometimes mentioned that wives should take care of themselves for their husbands. I agree with this and I winced at all the flak Mark Driscoll once took for making this point. However, I think we also need to remember that husbands should take care of themselves too. Men, we need to bathe and shower. We also need to do the little things that make our wives happy. We're so easy to stimulate as it usually just takes a suggestive look or a glimpse of flesh. Women are more relational. Work on it. Talk to your wife about it.

The allegorical interpretation is the historic one of the church. The problem is that the book lacks any clear references to Christ and the church. Sos 1:4 is perhaps a reference to Joh 6:44, but that's kind of subtle. I think that Epheisans 5:25-33 makes it more clear. That passage shows that the marriage relationship is a metaphor for Christ's love for the church. Therefore, as this book shows the passionate pursuit of a married couple for each other it would seem to make it clear that Christ pursues us passionately and we should pursue Him with vigor as well.

The wisdom metaphor is a bit strained, but I can see it. Proverbs 1-9 makes it clear that there are two women -- folly and wisdom. The whole passage is an apologetic for pursuing woman wisdom. Perhaps Song of Songs is telling us how we should pursue woman wisdom.

Either way, it's a fun book if you're not too prudish about winds in gardens and hands on bolts.

Testing

For those who are interested, I'm pretty sure I did well on my first Old Testament II test. Fortunately I memorized all the lists in the notes and those came into play as I responded to the questions on the test.

I am really enjoying this class. I need to get more gumption going for the hermeneutics project I need to get done.

Using Time Wisely

Check out this post from the great blog titled "Blog and Mablog." I'm not entirely certain who the author is, but I'm pretty sure her is a PCA pastor. I believe he lives in Idaho as well. He is a prolific reader and writer. The way he uses his time reminds me a bit of how I try to use mine. I particularly like the bit about getting up at 5:00. That's what it takes for me.