The Heart of Biblical Faith

So I kind of painted myself into a corner in the last entry, one that I couldn't seem to find my way out of.  I had promised to write about "learning praise from the psalms," but then the engine stalled, and I couldn't figure out how to get it going again.  Today, I think I found the missing link -- and there you have 3 disconnected metaphors in as many sentences, part of the problem with the way I think. 

It is true that we can learn to praise God from reading and studying the Psalms, but unlike the Israelites who knew why they were praising God, our own motivations may be somewhat more abstract and undefined.  We more easily turn to prayer of petition, or even thanksgiving, than to prayer of praise.  Once we have tapped into the heart of biblical faith, our own reasons for praise may connect us more closely to the Psalms themselves.  

The Bible is not a book of systematic theology or of Greek philosophy.  In fact, the biblical writers seem completely uninterested in this type of discussion.  Rather, the Bible is a recital of the acts of God, together with unending reflection century after century on them.  If we take the year 2000 BCE as a round number for the beginning of biblical history, we find biblical writers 2000 years later (around 300 BCE, just before the period of the New Testament) still reflecting on the Acts of God from the beginning of Israelite history.   The praise we find in the Psalms (c. 1000 BCE) is all based on what God has done for individuals and for the corporate history of the Jews from 2000 to 1000 BCE.

If we want to find a pattern of Biblical theology, we would have to call it a theology of recital or proclamation of the acts of God in human history, together with the inferences drawn from them. The recounting of this history is the central religious act of the worshipping community.  In biblical thought, history is the chief medium of revelation:  the experience, the acts, and the words of individuals are the media of God's revelation of who He is and what He thinks about us as human beings.

The Psalms might be called poetic reflections on the Acts of God -- in creation, in history, in the human heart.  In other words, while it may be difficult for us to praise God for who He is because it is hard for most of us to really penetrate the divine heart and mind, praise comes more easily and naturally to us when we begin to reflect on what God has done for us.  

When I was in charge of faculty development at the college, we hired a researcher on the topic of what makes a teacher "good."  The answer was not what we expected  it to be-- experience.  Some teachers, just as in other professions, simply repeat "experience" over and over, for better or for worse.  Rather, what made the best teachers was the practice of reflection on their experience as their guide to future practice.

And reflection is not a practice encouraged by modern society.  We fail to reflect on the lessons of the past in our own history and in our corporate history.  So on we go, somewhat aimlessly, hoping for a better tomorrow.  In our churches, we dwell on biblical/Hebrew history and draw inferences about how the God who was "there" will be in the same way "here" for us too.  But rarely are we encouraged to seriously reflect on where God has been in our personal lives.  And even when we do remember, most of the time, there is no opportunity for "recital" or "proclamation" of what God has done for us, of where we are in our own salvation history.  And therefore, no real opening for praise and thanksgiving.  

The Bible is a book of stories; our culture does not value our stories.  We tend to be more Greek-minded, in terms of organized thought and presentation.  Yet, we will never "think" our way to God, any more than we can think our way into love or relationship.  We can only experience the Other and reflect upon that experience.  So then, what has been our experience of God?  Who has He been for us?  Where has He been in our lives?  

And that brings us back to church.  As we recite our own histories and experiences, we begin to discern a corporate history: how have we come to this point, this moment?  What is our basis for worship, for praise, for thanksgiving, yes, even for petition?  Perhaps our churches need to become centers where our stories can be told to one another, and in the stories we will find a reason to praise!