Inscription II: Experiencing the Psalms
" ...happy is he who repays you [O' Babylon] for what you have done to us – he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks." (Psalm 137:8-9 NIV)
Okay, what is up with that? Is that really in the Bible?
This week Pastor Josh looks at how the Psalms aren't so much about knowing who God is but experiencing him, and even difficult psalms like this one can help us.
Click here for a printable version of the sermon
This sermon was given on 12/6/09 by Josh Kelley.
Okay, what is up with that? Is that really in the Bible?
This week Pastor Josh looks at how the Psalms aren't so much about knowing who God is but experiencing him, and even difficult psalms like this one can help us.
Click here for a printable version of the sermon
This sermon was given on 12/6/09 by Josh Kelley.
Played: 144 | Download | Duration: 00:35:54
Posted by The Gathering Christian Church at 12/4/2009 3:40 PM 
Categories: Sermons, Bible, Inscription
Categories: Sermons, Bible, Inscription
When listening to a sermon sometimes we would like to make it a conversation because something said resonates with us. We understand a point made, or illustration, and we just wish we could share our experience, and insight with others.
I had that experience when listening to this sermon, and Josh you really helped me understand.
Josh referred to "Shindler's List", I only saw it once. But as I just finished reading "War and Remembrance" and viewing the miniseries of this great historical fiction, my heart is very sensitive to the horrors and the specific tragedies of millions of individuals who were caught up in Hitler's "Final Solution".
Corrie Ten Boon who with her sister Betsy was sent to a concentration camp by the Nazi (for the crime of hiding Jews) struggled with the same emotions as the psalm writers who watched their children murdered by the Babylonians.
But her sister Betsy viewed the soldiers who were performing the atrocities as victims as well. She pitied them as she and others were degraded and beaten.
When I was reading "War and Remembrance" I often wanted to skip over the parts written about the Holocaust, it was just to hard...still out of respect for those who suffered I continued to read. But watching the same things on the T.V. was different. For a moment perhaps I wondered at how people could perform such acts, could be so calculating as they planned the murder of millions.
As you watch it on the screen, the children, the families, and know that it really happened...only one thought...God don't forget!
I would like to have God's point of view, and at moments we get glimpses. We might see the deception, perhaps a historical philosophy that allowed a nation to be led by a mad man and act mindlessly without question. If we had the mind of God perhaps we would feel compassion, but we would crumple under vision of each little broken heart, each pitiful scene.
But we are human. I strive to be like Betsy...but I am more like Corrie...God, don't forget.
But one more thing. The story of Corrie Ten Boon doesn't end there. Before she could heal, God required, and enabled her to forgive...and to care and provide healing for those who were victims of Hitler's deceptions.
And Psalms doesn't end there. David who wrote so much of Psalms raped a man's wife then had that man killed...and yet he found himself broken before God, and found forgiveness.
So the doctrines of the Bible can be found in Psalms? Interesting....looking forward to seeing that.
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