Immerse: Poets Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 12
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IMMERSE
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POETS
Israel’s regular worship calendar—from weekly Sabbath observances
to annual festival celebrations—formed a vital part of the nation’s ongoing covenant relationship with God. Many of the songs Israel used in
worship are preserved in the great collection of lyric poems known as
Psalms. And through these songs, we also can learn to find our own voice
for talking to God about the heights and depths in our own life journey.
These Hebrew songs are primarily expressed through parallel lines
of Hebrew poetry. Most Hebrew poetry is written in groupings of parallel lines (usually two lines, though sometimes three). These lines work
together in various ways, often using rich metaphors and other poetic
features, to state and then revisit their points. Second and third lines can
reinforce, extend, deepen, or even talk back to the opening statements.
The final books in this collection (Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job) come
from Israel’s wisdom tradition. These books share customary features
found in the wisdom writing of other ancient Near Eastern cultures,
but they have the invaluable advantage of seeing life from within the
context of a covenant relationship with God. They proclaim that “fear
of the Lord”—Yahweh, Israel’s covenant God—“is the foundation of
true knowledge.”
These wisdom books explore the workings of life in God’s good but
fractured world. Their core premise is that the Creator has embedded
his wisdom into his creation, and they invite people to find and then
follow that good way of life. Wisdom books commend the path of “wisdom” or “righteousness,” asserting that the God who created the world
is the one who can best instruct us on how to live and flourish within it.
The wisdom books are also written mostly in poetry, though in a
greater variety of forms than the lyric poetry of Israel’s songs. Proverbs
consists almost entirely of couplets (two lines of verse), while Job mostly
contains much longer poetic speeches. Ecclesiastes is a mixture of poetry and prose, though the prose receives its shape more from recurring
words and imagery (as in a poem) than from the linear progression of a
plot line (as in a story).
It is a tremendous gift to us that the Bible is not just a collection of
lectures about God. These books of songs and wisdom literature add
depth, color, and texture to the biblical narrative. Through the use of
beautiful lyric poetry and striking imagery, they help us fully realize that
God’s truth is truth for us in our lives today. They invite us to see all
the struggles, triumphs, and complications of our own lives within the
bigger story of God’s ongoing work to bring flourishing life and peace
to the world he created.
