Sunday's Hymn

How Gentle God’s Commands

How gentle God’s commands,
How kind His precepts are!
Come, cast your burdens on the Lord,
And trust His constant care.

Beneath His watchful eye
His saints securely dwell;
That hand which bears all nature up
Shall guide His children well.

Why should this anxious load
Press down your weary mind?
Haste to your Heavenly Father’s throne,
And sweet refreshment find.

His goodness stands approved,
Down to the present day;
I’ll drop my burden at His feet,
And bear a song away.

—Philip Doddridge

Other hymns, worship songs, sermons etc. posted today:

• Through All the Changing Scenes of Life at Whatever Things
• Cast Thy Bread Upon the Waters and more at Wordwise Hymns
• Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise at threegirldad
• The Marines’ Hymn at The Happy Wonderer
• So Let Our Lips and Lives Profess at Rosemary at Home
• Blessed Lord, In Thee Is Refuge at Field Stone Cottage
• Ah, Holy Jesus at Hiraeth
• When I Can Read My Title Clear at Conjubilant With Song
• Lord’s Day 39, 2010 at The Thirsty Theologian
• Update: A Prayer, on the Morning of the Lord’s Day at Daily on My Way to Heaven

Have you posted a hymn (or sermon, sermon notes, prayer, etc.) today and I missed it? Let me know by leaving a link in the comments or by contacting me using the contact form linked above, and I’ll add your post to the list.

Not Necessarily Normative

From 40 Questions about Interpreting the Bible by Robert L. Plummer on interpreting the historical narratives in scripture:

Historical narratives also present some unique interpretive challenges. The biblical writer’s purposes are usually undercurrents of the text rather than floating unmistakably on the surface. Because of this, unskilled interpreters are prone to missteps, leading both themselves and their listeners astray from the real meaning of the text. For example many details in stories are not presented as normative. That is, the author is not intending to present all persons or actions as moral lessons. For example, my wife and I were once listening to some audio messages for new parents. The speaker exhorted parent to put their babies in cribs (as opposed to having them in the parents’ bed) because Mary put Jesus in the manger (Luke 2:7). The key interpretive question of course is: why does Luke tell us that Jesus was placed in a manger? Was it to teach us how to put our children to bed, or was it to emphasize the Saviour’s humble origins? I’ve always wanted to point out to the speaker advocating cribs that Jesus told a parable in which a man’s children are described as being in bed with him (Luke 11:7), probably the more normal sleeping convention of that day, yet still only a colorful detail in a memorable story—not a normative principle.

I’ve heard Jephthah held up as an example of someone who behaved honourably for keeping his vow to the Lord even though it meant sacrificing his daughter. This is a case, I think, where the writer  of scripture is reporting what actually happened, but not holding up Jephthah as an example to be followed. One point of the book of Judges (maybe the main one) is that when everyone does what is right in their own eyes, things go from bad to worse, and knowing that helps us interpret the story of Jephthah’s foolish vow.

Do you have other examples where details or people in a historical narrative are held up as examples of what we ought to do when the biblical author may not have intended his narrative to be used that way?

My Place 14

September 23, 2010

This particular snow all melted yesterday. Today we’re getting more—5-8 centimeters, so they say, and it looks like they are right. Today’s snow is not, I’m sure, destined to stay, either. Still, it’s a depressing sign of what will come sooner rather than later.

Update on Friday, September 24, 2010 at 7:08PM by rebecca

September 24, 2010

I won’t be barbecuing tonight.