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29 March 2017

How Normal Christianity Found In The Psalms Work

By Mark Reed


Poetry had an important role in communication for ancient human societies, acting as a mnemonic device with meter and rhyme. History used to be oral or spoken, and it was vital for a mnemonic system to be in place, while beauty entered as a later standard. Fortunately, the techniques for poetry also allowed for beauty to come into the picture for expressing abstruse concepts.

From the earliest groups, Christianity was bequeathed the hearth laws, which were reasonable and also connected to universal laws. Many if not all of these in original verse would have a familial quality with normal Christianity found in the Psalms. It is not surprising to find how the concepts found there are a vital base for evolved laws and precepts found in New Testament.

Modern, in this sense, was probably Iudea, a Palestinian kingdom that worked under the Roman proconsul. The ancient laws were revamped and made more applicable to the present tense. And beauty came with it, with all that the roseate human brain could think of in those terms, in the sense of heaven and the highest order of civilized life deserved by a faithful and law abiding people.

The concepts being discussed probably needed two Christian millennia to be accepted as a normal way of seeing for all humans. However wars had to be fought, generations wasted and misfits born, evil taking over kings and emperors and their retinues before people realized what was wrong. The correct concepts could have been hardwired on the racial consciousness by mountains of dead bodies and rivers of blood running from them, and many wastelands.

Normal Christianity is the total celebration of life, love and laughter. These values are primary ones in Psalms and the Songs of Solomon, no matter how the times called for David to gird his loins and be prepared to do battle to preserve the human paradise that he first conceptualized. The final redaction of his words was probably done during the ministry of Jesus.

The one thing that normal Christianity may have done is keep believers firmly connected to the fundamentals of peaceful and harmonious living even in times of great stress, a mission it has accomplished well. But then, more things need to done along these lines today. That makes Psalms and its lessons a still very important book for living the true Christian life.

The book can be studied with excellent scholarship and commentaries. The possible redaction has also made it worldly, and people will compare it as a wiser, more mature book when put beside other OT books and their histories, most of which are versified. To make a related point, modern poetics made a vital turn here, dividing works into poetry and verse, of which the old histories became, because they lacked the beautiful letters of Psalms.

Literature took off in many different directions from there, but many of these were often tied to the history of Christians. The faithful need to continuously study the part of the Bible discussed here. And the opportunity to be able to have a broader understanding of these is its own reward.

Some of the most relevant Bibles to use in these times are the NRSV and NASB, with perhaps some passages taken from the King James Version. Most Bibles being distributed today are considered standard for all Christians. Copies can be gotten for free from mission groups.




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