Quote:
Originally Posted by Drake
Awareness,
You are going too far in the other direction. All Scripture is God breathed including the Psalms and profitable for correction, reproof, and instruction in righteousness. Every Psalm is there in the Holy Writ by design and for our benefit.
No one will correct you but I will ... because I care about you.
Drake
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Awareness,
Elaboration on this might be instructive.
I do not believe a wholesale read back of the NT into the OT, such as the Psalms, is supported by the Bible itself for the reasons already stated. It is evident that human concepts, flawed human ideas, cultural influence, lies and deceptions and influences of spiritual forces , quotes of philosophers and works not accepted as part of the canon of Holy Writ, ideas derived from the period between the testaments, expressions of our physical world based on scientific knowledge of the time and not as we understand science today ....all are in the Bible. Yet, it is there without error. Can we now with the benefit of hindsight see in the OT Christ in places the Jews with the OT in their hands could not? Certainly. Is Christ portrayed in every verse of the OT or specially the Psalms as some have argued in this thread? Certainly not. Christ and Gods plan was hidden in the OT for a reason, so that the evil spiritual forces would not understand that crucifixion was the path of God’s plan for had they known they would not have participated in crucifying Him. In the OT Christ is revealed in a mosaic and that is one reason He was not recognized though they had the OT in their very hands. Even the disciples who were with Him, even those closest to Him, could not understand what He was about to accomplish even though they too were familiar with the OT. It was not until after His resurrection that He opened their eyes to what the OT said about Him ( Luke 24).
Nevertheless, the Bible inspires with the Spirit’s striking our spirit and a Christian may thereby see something of Christ in a verse from an instant speaking from the Lord. For example, if you go to Brother Steve’s (Miller) site you will see many such examples of this from the Psalms. Are these Hermeneutically correct read backs from the NT into the Psalms? Mostly not. Are they beneficial or edifying? I think so in this sense.... as you were strolling this morning enjoying the Lord, having a conversation with Him you may have seen a worm crawling across the path, and it may have struck you that Christ left His glorious estate to become a worm among men. The verse “I am a worm and no man” may come to mind and you might appreciate Him all the more because in so doing He saved you. Technically, Christ was not a worm and He was a man but nevertheless the inspiration leads you to some genuine spiritual experience and appreciation of Christ.
So when I say you go to far in one direction in rejecting the Psalms wholesale because they were penned by fallen men or over hundreds of years I mean you miss that all Scripture is profitable including the Psalms. So then, for you I would encourage you to go the Brother Millers site and read his explanations on the Psalms to appreciate them the way he does. Although to Brother Miller I would say that reading the NT back into the Psalms is not good hermeneutics, nevertheless, reading and listening to his enjoyment of Christ is enjoyable... like someone who saw Christ in the worm.
In my view Brother Lee struck, or attempted to, the right balance with the OT and the Psalms as Evangelical summarized a few posts back. Brother Lee didn’t do a wholesale read back of the NT into the OT and yet he and Brother Nee before him offered many spiritual insights about Christ, God’s plan and Gods purpose in the OT that were not obvious. Some may consider those insights as analogous to seeing Christ in worms, and some of it might be, but I personally have benefitted through them with what I believe to be the best balance between good solid interpretation of using the Bible to explain and interpret the Bible and becoming sensitive to the Spirit’s leading and instant speaking in the Word.
Thanks
Drake