Sunday 25 May 2014

How do Christians articulate anguish?

Peter Leithart is always good at looking at Scripture in ways that upend our breezy and trite interpretations, or that shake us out of our unspoken but practical belief that much of the Old Testament is just not relevant for us any longer.  He has done it here in his brief but profound observations on Psalm 38, where he reminds us that often the Psalms don't assuage our grief or alleviate our sense of being under the heavy hand of God, but they do give such feelings voice in a biblical way that is both authentic and obedient.  Leithart helps us to see that what we might call the Psalms of lament are both pastoral in their effects as well as Christological as they remind all who suffer under the heavy hand of God that Jesus knows that suffering in full and has given ultimate meaning and assured (if yet future) relief to all such others who suffer in faith. 

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