Terms of Heart

Reflections on the Psalms and the Great Psalmist,

Shepherd of Israel and Poet King David,
the man after God's own heart.

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June 7, 2015

Learning by Heart

Learning by Heart

When we examined Psalm 34 a couple of weeks ago I noted that the Hebrew word lev is rendered in English sometimes as heart and other times as mind. To do justice to the original meaning in translation the English word would need to embody both heart and mind, just as the Hebrew does. The inability to do so points to something much more profound than a simple linguistic shortcoming. It relates instead to the fundamental understanding of the nature of man. To the ancient Hebrew, human beings were indivisibly body, heart, mind, soul and spirit. There simply was no separating one aspect from the others. Some who live in post-Enlightenment times might find that concept difficult. But it is important to recognize this Hebrew perspective, which David embraced and the Hebrew Bible assumes, before we go forward to the next paragraph. And the next paragraph is not so much about language as it is about experience and life, although words absolutely play an important part in it. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Terms of Heart, Voice

May 31, 2015

The Heart of Confidence

The Heart of Confidence

My May 25 post ended by suggesting we should regard the psalms as a worship (and prayer and praise) guide. So let’s return to Psalm 27 for direction. We looked briefly at that psalm in Knowing God by Heart as we examined the significance of David’s use of the name Lord when he addresses Him. We also considered some of the metaphors, each using the first person possessive pronoun – like my light — by which the psalmist describes the Lord and his relationship to Him. Then in The Sorrowing Heart we touched briefly on the question of when and how lament can be praise. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Terms of Heart, Vision

May 25, 2015

The Heart of Worship

The Heart of Worship

Insight and inspiration often come to me from the most unlikely sources and when I least expect them. Such was the case recently as I drove winding back roads of tidewater Virginia. The landscape is stunningly beautiful in an understated way, even as the vistas are quite predictable: stands of old trees frame fields of waving grasses, rolled bales of hay punctuate the harvested parcels like ellipses and prompt me to wonder what is missing or coming next. And then there are the many dozens of small churches that have stood along those roads for at least decades and more likely a century or two. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Terms of Heart

May 17, 2015

The Sorrowing Heart

The Sorrowing Heart

At dinner with a friend earlier in the week I surprised myself when I said that one of the challenges of growing older is adjusting to the increased frequency with which we encounter endings. Whether or not my observation is objectively true is open for debate. These facts are not: endings are inevitable, and we respond to them differently as we mature. Both endings themselves and our reaction to them are important in life generally and critically important in what we might term our spiritual lives or journeys. The great psalmist understood these things. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Terms of Heart

May 10, 2015

The Heart of the Image

The Heart of the Image

Last week’s post ended with my encouraging you to record the images, or metaphors, that David uses to describe his God. Good poets carefully choose their images to be more than what they are– that is, to transport the reader or listener beyond the “thing” itself to a deeper level of understanding. Poetic images generally call out to us to respond not only with our minds but also our senses – and when the images are in the psalms, we can add our hearts and our spirits – as well as with our own experiences to uncover their meaning. Yes, understanding poetry and the images on which it turns is, in part, experiential. Therein lies a conundrum. On whose experiences should we rely and on whose does and should meaning rest? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Terms of Heart

May 3, 2015

Knowing God by Heart

Knowing God by Heart

In my last post I promised we would turn attention to the psalms next. As we do so, we move away from examining what others, including God, have said about David to listening to what David has to say about himself– in relation to and in relationship with the Lord. The last point is important because that relationship is central to the vast majority of the psalms of David. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Terms of Heart

April 24, 2015

A Listening Heart

A Listening Heart

Last Saturday I spent the morning in a workshop on the ancient prayer tradition known as Lectio Divina. This centuries-old form of meditation has been engaged by Christians since at least the 4th century and it is actually much older than that. In fact the practice is rooted in the ancient Hebrew tradition of haggadah, with which Jews in Jesus’ time would have been familiar. Both Lectio and hagaddah center on studying the scriptures deliberately and interactively in what might be best described as a listening way. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Terms of Heart

April 7, 2015

The Character of David: Heart and Vision

The Character of David: Heart and Vision

God’s selection of the shepherd boy David to replace Saul and to become King of Israel seems to have surprised his father Jesse. He had, after all, neglected to consider David initially as he paraded his other sons before Samuel. Even after the prophet had determined “The Lord has not chosen these,” Jesse apparently gave no thought to David. Samuel had to ask, “Are all your sons here?”

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Terms of Heart, Vision

April 6, 2015

Did David Write the Psalms?

Did David Write the Psalms?

Let me begin by saying that I see the answer so clearly that I don’t understand the need for this question. But others do, so I will pose it so I can respond.

Did David write the psalms attributed to him? Yes, I think he did and I believe the question of authorship can be settled most convincingly by examining voice.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Terms of Heart, Voice

April 3, 2015

Still

Still

Early one morning in February 2005 I sat alone in a one-room building that had once been a corncrib atop a hill called Mt. San Angelo nestled in the Shenandoah. The quiet and isolation of that tiny space conspired with the sheer beauty of the surrounding Blue Ridge mountains to make it a place of inspiration. I was there to be still, to practice my art of poetry. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Terms of Heart

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