I am set apart with the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more, who are cut off from your care. – Psalm 88:5

Today's Scripture Reading (August 5, 2022): Psalms 87 & 88

The Bible is filled with multiple genres of writing. Some books are intended to be primarily prophecy or a view of what is coming in the future, but some books chiefly aim to tell us the nation's history. And there is a difference between the two types of writing. Prophecy is often general, and the truth with prophecy is that it often uses vague language and language that can also have multiple meanings. Consider this prophecy from Daniel.

In my vision I saw myself in the citadel of Susa in the province of Elam; in the vision I was beside the Ulai Canal. I looked up, and there before me was a ram with two horns, standing beside the canal, and the horns were long. One of the horns was longer than the other but grew up later. I watched the ram as it charged toward the west and the north and the south. No animal could stand against it, and none could rescue from its power. It did as it pleased and became great (Daniel 8:2-4).

What did Daniel mean? There are many interpretations, but the truth is that we don't really know. But it is always a danger to take prophecy literally.

History is more specific because we know what has happened. David's fight with Goliath is very specific. We know the names of those involved in the battle, that David tried on armor that didn't fit him, that he went into the fight with a sling and five smooth stones, and that his brothers criticized him for his presence at the battlefront in the first place. But it had already happened by the time the words were written down, so the details are less mysterious, and we are intended to take the description of the events literally.

And then there is poetry. Poetry deals with the symbolic. Poetry is often used to describe the way that we feel. Elizabeth Barrett Browning may have written one of the most famous lines in all of love poetry; "How do I love Thee? Let me count the ways." But consider the end of her famous poem.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death (Elizabeth Barrett Browning).

What exactly does it mean to love "with a love I seemed to lose?" Or say, "I shall but love thee better after death." The truth is that neither of these phrases is intended to be understood intellectually; Browning wants us to "feel" her words rather than "understand them.

We need to recognize that the Psalms are poetry and, therefore, contain words meant to be felt. The Psalms were never supposed to supply us with a theology. And so, it is dangerous to think that we can find a basis for theology when we read Psalms or other sections based on poetry.

Caution is needed here. If we were to take the words of the "Sons of Korah" as if they were theology, it would seem that there is no life after death. The poet's comments argue that after you die, God both remembers you no more and you are cut off from his care. But that doesn't sound like any conception of heaven of which I am aware. Compare the Psalmist's words here with those in the Book of Job.

I know that my redeemer lives,
    and that in the end he will stand on the earth.
And after my skin has been destroyed,
    yet in my flesh I will see God;
I myself will see him
    with my own eyes—I, and not another.
    How my heart yearns within me (Job 19:25-27)!

Actually, both the words of the Psalmist and Job are written in poetry. But they don't contradict each other. Rather they are intended to make us feel very different things. And sometimes we feel confident like Job, but other times we feel lost and alone like the Psalmist. Both feelings are very real and true, and both reflect our experiences of what it is like to be human.

Today's Scripture Reading: Psalm 50