THEOparadox - The Biblical Paradox Blog: Psalm 32

Saturday, January 03, 2009

Psalm 32 - The Final Word

At last, we've reached the final post in the series on Repentance and Amazing Grace in Psalm 32. As a closing meditation, I'd like to offer the words of a song written by one my favorite singer/songwriters. This interpretation by Steve Bell captures the essence quite well:

Psalm 32
By Steve Bell

How blessed are those whose sins are fully forgiven
How blessed are those to whom Yahweh harbors no ill
To whom His Spirit is known

I said not a word
While my bones wasted away
From groaning all day and night
Your hand lay heavy upon me
My heart grew thirsty so I ...

Made myself known to You, I did not hide
My shameful soul, my darkest side
And You loved me, and held me
And you forgave my sin

That is why each one of Your faithful ones prays to You
In times of distress, though dark rivers overflow
You'll never loosen Your hold
For I know it's true
You are a refuge always for me
You guard me with hope
With songs of deliverance surrounding me, so I ...

Make myself known to You, I will not hide
My shameful soul, my darkest side
For You love me, and hold me
And You forgive my sin

3 comments:

agonizomaiJanuary 3, 2009 at 10:49 PM
Derek,

I'm a remedial instruction follower, but I couldn't find the song at the link given. Am I missing something?

Blessings,

Tony
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THEOparadoxJanuary 4, 2009 at 3:44 PM
Tony,

I am also a remedial instruction follower, in fact I'm especially apt at misinterpreting very simple commands. I could illustrate with stories, but I won't bore you.

The link in the post goes to the artist's site. The link below will take you to a page where you can listen to a partial clip of the song.

http://www.signpostvillage.com/catalogue/product_info.php?products_id=45
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Replies
agonizomaiJanuary 4, 2009 at 4:35 PM
Derek,

Got It! Thanks.

Tony
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Please be charitable. If you disagree, do so with grace. Keep your words positive, focused, and on-topic. We don't expect everyone to agree, but we do expect everyone to treat everyone else with respect and grace, speaking the truth in love.

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THEOparadox MISSION Statement:

~To honor God by upholding the authority, inerrancy and sufficiency of His Word, the Bible.
~To help students of the Word to interpret Biblical paradoxes in a way that faithfully reflects God's heart.
~To ignite a devotional flame that will help believers to warm up their theology and burn up their pride.
~To encourage Christian faith by resolving or explaining apparent contradictions in the Scriptures.
~To explore the nature and extent of paradoxes in historically orthodox, Reformed, Biblical theology.

~To provide Biblical resources for those who desire to know God and His Word better.

~To glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, the Friend of sinners and the Savior of the lost.

What is a PARADOX?

A tenet or proposition contrary to received opinion, or seemingly absurd, yet true in fact.

Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828 Edition

"... it is synonymous with apparent contradiction. A 'paradox' thus amounts to a set of claims which taken in conjunction appear to be logically inconsistent. Note that according to this definition, paradoxicality does not entail logical inconsistency per se, but merely the appearance of logical inconsistency."

James Anderson, Paradox in Christian Theology

Wise Words . . .

"By advocating paradox I don't want to give the impression that I'm giving a carte blanche to not think philosophically, to not think deeply, about these doctrines. Quite the opposite. . . . My position is that with each of these doctrines we reflect on them as hard as we can, we penetrate them as best we can based on the Scriptural data that we do have, but we also recognize that there are going to be limits, and that those limits are actually a positive thing and not a reflection of some inherent problem in the doctrines or in the process of theological reflection. . . . I think we can make progress, we can make

considerable progress, in understanding these doctrines and resolving some of the . . . initial difficulties that we have with them, but at the same time recognizing that we're always only going to get so far and when we bump up against the limits of our capacity to formulate them in certain ways or to resolve certain difficulties in them, we

shouldn't be too concerned about that. We certainly shouldn't say, 'Okay, we need to admit that Christians are ultimately irrationalists.' No. We don't need to say that at all. . . . It's a Biblically constrained rationality. It's a middle way between rationalism, of which I think [Gordon H.] Clark was a representative, and irrationalism, of which, to take an example I think the Neo-Orthodox - Karl Barth - would be an example, where you're saying that there are actual contradictions in there. So I think it's navigating a Biblical middle way between these two extremes: having too high a view of the human intellect, and perhaps too low a view of the intellect, of our ability to know the things

of God."

~Dr. James Anderson

Theological Paradoxes

Below I have listed some of the classic theological paradoxes (and a few interesting ironies, too) . . .

~The Trinity - God is One being revealed in three distinct persons (Father, Son, Holy Spirit)
~God is transcendent (separate from His creation) yet immanent (in His creation)
~Omnipresence - God is always present everywhere, yet He sometimes speaks of Himself as "present" in a special way
~The Incarnation - God became a man
~The Virgin Birth - A Jewish virgin gave birth to the Son of God
~The Two Natures of Christ - Jesus is fully (100%) God and fully (100%) man

~The Atonement is sufficient to save every person, but efficient only for those who believe
~God is completely sovereign (in control of everything, everywhere, all the time) yet He is not the author of sin and he uses human choice to accomplish His purposes
~Inspiration of Scripture - The Bible was written by sinful human beings yet it is the inerrant and flawless Word of God
~Divine Revelation - Sinful man cannot comprehend God, yet God reveals Himself to sinful man
~Sanctification - Christians are sinners by nature, but saints by grace
~Suffering - God brings His joy and comfort into our lives through our experiences of pain, disappointment and suffering

There are many others. Paradox is everywhere when we attempt to understand God's ways in a genuinely Biblical way.

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Saturday, January 03, 2009

Psalm 32 - The Final Word

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