Pslam 100 & Psalm 81 praise

 

Recall, I read the Bible to pursue 2 principles. First, Genesis 1 reflects Sumer political philosophy. Second, only human-being can& may pursue safety& security to the earth and its content. I call that way of living “responsible-human-independence” (RHI).

Psalm 100

A psalm. For giving grateful praise.

¹ Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
²     Worship the Lord with gladness;
    come before him with joyful songs.
³ Know that the Lord is God.
    It is he who made us, and we are his;
    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving
    and his courts with praise;
    give thanks to him and praise his name.
⁵ For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
    his faithfulness continues through all generations. [I perceive the above Psalmist pretends enough awareness to decide “the Lord” is “God”. I have no objection to Psalmists practice for them but do not intend to mimic them.

Once, a Sunday-school-teacher concluded, “Surely this Psalmist was a Christian.” I said, “He lived before Jesus was born: How do you define ‘Christian’?.” The teacher responded, “Anyone who truly seeks God.”

I don’t accept that opinion/choice, and left the class. Today, I want to do the work to lessen chaos (e.g., 45,000 Protestant sects in the world according to Andy Hale).

I choose the phrase “the-High-God” to express whatever constrains the consequences of human-being-choices and would not attempt to define/characterize that power. Such a phrase empowers believers to share opinion without arrogating the-High-God, whereas “God” hides personal opinion from speaker-awareness& acceptance.

If pressed for my opinion, I speculate the power is the-laws-of-physics. I share this thinking not to discourage believers but to open the recent edge of theological discussions to every human being, including so-called atheists& agnostics, which does not include me: I am a human being who trusts-in and commits-to the-ineluctable-truth. “Ineluctable” means “not to be avoided, changed, or resisted”.]

 

Psalm 81

For the director of music. According to gittith. Of Asaph.

¹ Sing for joy to God our strength;
    shout aloud to the God of Jacob! [Jacob was one of 12 sons of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, who left Ur, taking his entire family to escape human sacrifice, later establishing animal sacrifice. Jacob had 12 sons and his-name changed to “Israel”. One son was Judah, the ancestor of Jesus.]
² Begin the music, strike the timbrel,
    play the melodious harp and lyre.

³ Sound the ram’s horn at the New Moon,
    and when the moon is full, on the day of our festival;
⁴ this is a decree for Israel,
    an ordinance of the God of Jacob [Did brother Esau have a different God?].
⁵ When God went out against Egypt [Is this God a military God?] ,
    he established it as a statute for Joseph [Joseph, son of Jacob& Leah was half-brother to Jacob& Rachel’s son Judah, whose distant descendants included Jesus. Does this statue to Joseph impact Jesus’s family?].

I heard an unknown voice say:

⁶ “I removed the burden from their shoulders;
    their hands were set free from the basket.
⁷ In your distress you called and I rescued you,
    I answered you out of a thundercloud;
    I tested you at the waters of Meribah.
⁸ Hear me, my people, and I will warn you—
    if you would only listen to me, Israel!
⁹ You shall have no foreign god among you;
    you shall not worship any god other than me.
¹⁰ I am the Lord your God, [Why further bemuse “God” with “the Lord” and “your God”?]
    who brought you up out of Egypt.
Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.

¹¹ “But my people would not listen to me;
    Israel would not submit to me.
¹² So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts
    to follow their own devices.

¹³ “If my people would only listen to me,
    if Israel would only follow my ways,
¹⁴ how quickly I would subdue their enemies
    and turn my hand against their foes!
¹⁵ Those who hate the Lord [Does that include those who appreciate the-High-God?] would cringe before him,
    and their punishment would last forever [Really? Can the errant hearer hope for forgiveness?] .
¹⁶ But you would be fed with the finest of wheat;
    with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.” [Would this come from the God of Jacob, God, an unknown voice, the Lord, or all of them?]