Episode 151: With sword in hand

Drawing upon the apostle Paul, Christians believe that the Bible is the inspired and authoritative word of God. That kind of inspired revelation necessarily includes prophetic wake-up calls for God’s people to take sin seriously. Still, how do we reconcile the vengeful words of Psalm 149 with the teaching of Jesus, or for that matter, of Paul? Here, I’ll use the concept of progressive revelation to suggest how the New Testament reinterprets the militarism of the psalms, calling believers today to a different kind of warfare.

What is Chunks: The Book of Psalms?

If the Bible had a hymnal, it would be the book of Psalms. This diverse collection of 150 poems and prayers runs the gamut of emotion and experience, from songs of highest praise to the deepest depths of lament, from prayers for help and salvation to vehement curses against the psalmist's enemies. We will not cover all the psalms in this podcast, nor take them in order. But my hope is that each episode will help you connect more personally with the riches of the Psalms. All biblical passages will be read from the New International Version, unless otherwise noted.