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Psalms 88-89

 —  James Oakley

Psalm 88 has been a huge comfort to me over the years, as I know it has to many other Christians. There is something paradoxically comforting in the presence of such a black Psalm in the Psalter. A Psalm that truly records life as we feel and experience it, without embarrasment, without contradition to the other Psalms that step back to see life from God’s perspective.

There is, of course, much debate over the title.

“A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. To the Choirmaster: According to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.”

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Footnote: Some Bible Statistics

 —  James Oakley

Following on from my posts on reading and learning the Bible, by way of a footnote I offer some statistics.

Let’s suppose you want to set out to read / learn a book / some books of the Bible. How big an undertaking are you taking on?

Here are the books of the Bible, together with how long they are:

Book Verses Words Percentage
Genesis 1533 36277 4.80%
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Did Matthew know how to read the Old Testament?

 —  James Oakley

Doing some work on the birth narrative in Matthew at the moment, and enjoying the recently published commentary on Matthew by R T France.

He has a brilliant (if long) paragraph arguing that Matthew was not a poor Old Testament handler at all, but knew exactly what he was doing. So brilliant, it’s worth quoting in full (from page 45)

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Greater works than these

 —  James Oakley

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:12)

If, like me, you’ve ever read that verse and puzzled slightly over what those “greater works” are, then it’s time to visit Doug Wilson’s blog over at Blog and Mablog.

Yesterday he posted an entry entitled Greater Works which sheds a lot of light on that verse.

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Today. With me. In paradise

 —  James Oakley

“I tell you the truth, today you wll be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43)

So said Jesus, on the cross, to “the other criminal”. A saying that has been precious to me for some time, not least because of the implications for the way in which God saves by grace not works. The model sinner, whose saving faith could not be accompanied by any good works. Such a verse makes very clear that God does not save us because of our works (as instrumental cause), but by faith. James 2 makes clear that genuine faith will be accompanied by good works, but Luke 23 makes clear that such good works are the outworking of faith in space and time not an essential component of it.

But I want to reflect on this verse from another angle today. What we can learn from this verse about what awaits the believer after they die.

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Leviticus in a nutshell to the glory of God

 —  James Oakley

Baffled by Leviticus? Struggle to see how it is a part of the Christian Scriptures?

David Field has posted a blogpost entitled Leviticus – an eight para intro which introduces, summarises and gives to us the book of Leviticus in just 8 paragraphs.

The last paragraph of David’s 8 shows us how the book points us to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, and ends in praise to that God.

Enjoy David’s summary. So enjoy the book of Leviticus. So enjoy the God of whom it speaks.

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