Category: Old Testament – Psalms and Wisdom

A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23

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Shepherds have uniquely valuable insights into this most beloved of Bible passages.

By Mark D. Harris

t was almost Christmas as my young family and I left for church from our town house in Bad Kissingen, Germany, a few miles north of Schweinfurt. A middle-aged German couple lived next door, and one day I asked the wife if they attend church, and what were their holiday plans. She replied that she and her family had attended services occasionally long ago, and were planning a quiet Christmas. Hoping to encourage her to go back to church, at least for Christmas, I mentioned that the Bible has some wonderful passages and asked her if she had ever heard of the 23rd Psalm. “Der Herr ist mein hirte!” she shot back, “Of course! Germans learn that as children. Do you think we know nothing?” I apologized for my inadvertent insult, but couldn’t help thinking about Psalm 23 as cultural classic versus Psalm 23 as living truth. My neighbor memorized Psalm 23, but showed no sign of living it. Followers of Christ must know it, and live it.

God uses the research, experiences, and insights of other Christians to help us see into the Scriptures. Much of the Bible is written in the language of farmers and herders. The 23rd Psalm is a beautiful, symbolic description of our Father’s care for His people through a shepherd’s eyes. As a professional shepherd and the author of A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, Philip Keller shares some valuable insights, which I have included.

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Song of Songs – The Mystery and Majesty of Human Love

~ MD Harris Institute ~ 1 Comment

Nestled between Ecclesiastes and Isaiah, the Song of Songs (or Song of Solomon) is a rarely studied or discussed book. Too bad, because the Song of Songs is the best book about godly and vibrant romantic relationships in the world. And it is not only about lovers, but about friends and family relationships as well. We all need to read it, know it, and live it.

By Mark Harris

Background

The Song of Songs, or Song of Solomon (SOS), has been interpreted in three basic ways:

  1. An allegory about the love between and His people Israel.
  2. An allegory about the love between Christ and the Church.
  3. A real-life love story between a young man and a young woman.

Of course, none of these are exclusive. While the Church fathers (such as Origen) saw SOS as allegory, modern commentators hold that it is a real love story.  Jewish and Church tradition, and internal evidence such as SOS 1:1, holds the author to be King Solomon, son of David. He probably wrote this paean to Abishag the Shunamite (1 Kings 1:3-4). However, there is some evidence in the book that Solomon is not the groom and Abishag not the bride. For example, Solomon is clearly not the protagonist in chapter 8:11-12, and while Abishag came from Shunem southwest of the Sea of Galilee (1 Samuel 28:4), this woman may have come from Lebanon in the north (SOS 3:9, 4:8, 11, 15, 5:15, 7:4). Mentions of En Gedi, Tirzah, and Jerusalem confirm the book’s Jewish nature.

Three factors suggest that SOS is not an allegory, or at least not only an allegory.[1]

  1. SOS does not read like a story. It has no beginning, problem, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement (end).
  2. There is nothing in the text that suggests that the author intended to write an allegory.
  3. The experiences seem real rather than being literary devices.

God’s presence permeates the book, and the name יָהּ Yâhh, yaw, a contraction for the word Jehovah, is found in chapter 8, verse 6. There is widespread mention of the wonders of His creation as well as the constant restraining (and liberating) presence of His moral code. Notably, in the Song of Songs the woman did most of the speaking. It is magnificent poetry with extensive use of olfactory imagery.  Remarkably, it never mentioned having children as the purpose for marriage. Romantic love was beautiful and desirable for its own sake.

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Proverbs 31

Proverbs 31 woman
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The ultimate passage for Christian women and their families, Proverbs 31 is not a call for despair, but for delight. 

By Mark D. Harris

Mother’s Day is an ideal time to consider the importance of mothers. The classic passage in the Bible on this topic is Proverbs 31. This scripture is beautiful and appropriate, focusing first on the excellent mother (vv1-9) and then on the excellent wife (vv10-31). The first woman described was the mother of a king and she gave him wonderful words of wisdom. The second woman described had children, but it was in her role as a wife, more so than in her role as a mother, that she was praised.

My daughter attended a college conference last week which featured a special workshop for girls entitled “Am I Enough?” This is a question that everyone asks, but the pressures on women, especially in the Church, are intense. Even a study of Proverbs 31 can make women feel inadequate as no woman can hope to be as perfect as the model portrayed in these verses. However, the theme of Proverbs 31 is not that there are perfect women but those who embrace their relationships, to their children, to their husband, and ultimately to their God, are to be praised. They will succeed as fully as the women portrayed in these verses.

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Work in Proverbs

~ MD Harris Institute ~ 3 Comments

Work is a gift from God to give meaning to our lives. Pity the man or woman who doesn’t do any, regardless of how rich or poor. 

Our family was at the marina yesterday morning getting our sailboat ready to go into the water for the sailing season. Decks needed to be scrubbed, the cabin needed to be cleaned, rigging needed to be checked, and the tires on the trailer, having gone flat during our unusually cold winter, needed to be repaired and changed. It was a family affair, with everyone pitching in to do what they could even when they didn’t want to; like when two of my daughters cleaned the anchor locker. Enjoying the cool breeze and warm sunshine while we worked, another boater walked over and asked how I got my whole family to help with the boat; he had to do all of his boat work alone. It is a common sentiment; we often see whole families enjoying their boats but generally see only adults, usually men, working on them.

In 1978 the movie “Thank God it’s Friday” lauded the last day of the work week and in 1981 the band Loverboy sang “Everybody’s working for the weekend”. More recent and more sinister, nearly 150 police officers and firefighters in New York City were arrested for faking post-traumatic stress disorder related to the 9/11/2001 terrorist attack so that they could get government benefits and get out of work. Thus some of the most admired people in the country used one of the most horrific events in our history to cheat taxpayers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars each. God made man to work, and yet so many want to avoid it.

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