continuing with the psalms ...

The psalms are extremely difficult for me to understand. Never have read them before makes this week of class very confusing but interesting. I’ve learned so much that I didn’t know before, such as Monday’s class when we learned the time line of the old testament; I knew all of the people, I just had never known the order of them (Plus the entire class I had tons of old high school choir songs jumping into my head about each person).

I did really enjoy talking about psalm 37 though. I liked when people read parts out loud because it seemed easier to understand than when I just read them to myself. It took me a couple of times through to understand this psalm but the overall statement that was decided was that God rewards those who do good and punishes those who do evil. I found myself thinking like Woody Allen in this because he would be considered “outside the religion lines” while I see Billy Joel (I’m guessing from the Youtube video) as being a very strict believed in the psalms and in staying within the religious boundaries.

To me, this psalm seems kind of harsh… I like the whole ‘God rewards all that do good’ but the psalm also seems to describe a lot of people who need to be cut off. It’s like the psalm is saying don’t help those who are poor for they have obviously done something evil to get there. It a huge misfortune to be brought down to that level and be told it was because that person did something against God’s will. It also seems like this psalm is describing a lot of “wicked” people that should be “cut off” and that seems a little weird to me; in my opinion, everyone makes mistakes… a couple of mistakes shouldn’t determine your status as evil over good. I do like the line “Do not envy those who do wrong (37:1).” I find this to speak very true because karma always seems to find those people no matter how they try to hide it.

[I’m sorry if my interpretation of this psalm is totally off from its meaning … this is very new to me and this is just how I read it]