Examining The Scripture LXXXIV: Psalm 51 - Forgive Me (Beauty In The Broken)

My favorite Psalm is Psalms 51. It is a prayer or psalm asking for forgiveness of sins and a psalm of restoration. David wrote the Psalm after or during the sin of adultery with Bathsheba. We as believers know that David was forgiven and eventually restored to some extent so it is consolation for other sinners. If David did what he did and could be forgiven we too can be forgiven for our sins also.

David’s spiritual relationship with God based solely on his actions was either distant or backslidden. A man adhering to the precepts and commandments of the Lord that was capable of adultery, deception and murder clearly did not have God is mind. Being this way, there is no way that we can even remotely say that David was trying to be holy. If David wasn’t attempting to be holy then he was going the opposite way in relation to God. God cannot look upon sin without judging it at some point. God is a holy God. David was at odds with God and this cannot stand. David either needed to repent or he would be judged. Judged then or judged when he died. David having a heart for the Lord repented “then” because he wanted an intimate and close relationship restored with God in this life AND the next. The only way that was possible was via the route just mentioned: repentance.

Psalm 51 is a "Lament Psalm". The function of a Lament or Psalm of Petitionary Praise (Westermann), is to provide a structure for crisis, hurt, grief, or despair; to move a worshipper from hurt to joy, from darkness to light, from desperation to hope. This movement from hurt to joy is not a psychological or liturgical experience only, although it includes those. And it is not a physical deliverance from the crisis, although that is often anticipated. The movement "out of the depths" from hurt to joy is a profoundly spiritual one. They are often the most emotionally charged Psalms also.

Psalms 51 is the ultimate sinner’s prayer seeking forgiveness and repentance to help restore a relationship with the one true Almighty God. I have written private piece on this Psalm before and it warrants typing in here from my journal. It is and outline or breakdown of this Psalm into its constituent parts and how they fit together as a whole for he believer who is truly aware of his sin. This Psalm is written by and for a sinner who truly knows his place in relation to the Lord and their need to seek His forgiveness. These people also have a very good understanding of how holy God is and how unholy man is, how wretched man is. Psalm 51 is the prayer and worship of a broken man.


It should be stated that Psalms 51 is an answer of reply to Psalms 38 which is an individual lament in which David is being chastened by the Lord for sins, transgressions and guilt. God’s wrath towards the sinner (David) in 38 becomes so ferocious David describes terms of personal attack. The discipline for sin is harsh signifying God’s severe displeasure with David. David bemoans the severity of his afflictions all throughout Psalms 38. Nothing can seem to quiet His heart. He is guilt ridden. David realizes that the only way to quiet a discordant heart is obedience and reconciliation with God. This can only come through His mercy. God is called on to remove the sense of guilt too heavy to bear. David’s suffering becomes a typology of Christ although Christ wasn’t suffering under His own sin but other’s sin.

We now know how to approach Psalms 51. David is pained and remorseful for his sins and backward spiritual state after his incident with Bathsheba. David systematically breaks down his condition and his sin and goes after it in prayer to the Lord in a manner that is reminiscent of a warrior systematically dismantling an enemy.

This will be a long post due to the entirety of Psalm 51 being in here but it is worth it to break down this Psalm to understand it fully and totally.

(v. 1-2) A Prayer for Individual Restoration

(1) Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
(2) Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.

(v. 3-6) Confession and Remorse (Lamentation for Sins)

(3) For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
(4) Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are proved right when you speak
and justified when you judge.
(5) Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
(6) Surely you desire truth in the inner parts;
you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

(v. 7-12) A Prayer For Restoration.

David pleads to God for a pardon and that this incident may promote the glory of God and the conversion of sinners.

(7) Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
(8) Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
(9) Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.
(10) Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
(11) Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
(12) Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

(v. 13-17) Thanksgiving

A sinner who has experienced a deep sense of sinfulness and forgiveness then does what is proper for God and to God. Worship and thank Him.

(13) Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will turn back to you.
(14) Save me from bloodguilt, O God,
the God who saves me,
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
(15) O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
(16) You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
(17) The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise.

(v. 18-19) A Prayer of National Restoration

God is pleased with a contrite heart and prayer for prosperity of Zion.

(18) In your good pleasure make Zion prosper;
build up the walls of Jerusalem.
(19) Then there will be righteous sacrifices,
whole burnt offerings to delight you;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.

David had such a deep and abiding love for God that he was always thinking about Him. Conversely, when David backslid and drifted away from God he had an acute awareness of sin that he was always thinking about. Sin and God cannot coexist. Not in reality, nor in our heads. One pushes the other out. It is why we are to dwell on God and His statutes always. When we think on God there is no other room for sin.“No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 1 John 3:9. In this way I am like David and this was his best Psalm. I relate to it the most because…I am a sinner like David. Hopefully I have the same heart for God that David did also. Ultimately God was merciful with David, I pray He is merciful with me.

These principles that David used are a perfect example of a prayer of repentance and forgiveness. We would be well served to think about these steps in our prayers to our Father when approaching His throne to seek His pardon for our transgressions.

Claus Westermann, Praise and Lament in the Psalms, John Knox, 1981.
Claus Westermann, The Psalms: Structure, Content, and Message, Augsburg, 1980.

Examining The Scripture LXXXII: Psalm 110 - Kingdom of The Lord

Psalm 110 is a "Messianic Psalm" or “Prophetic Psalm” or it can also be known to a lesser extent as a Royal Psalm, they are both used as Liturgical Psalms for public worship. This is to say it has prophetic or eschatological implications as believers look forward in the future to some tremendous victory over God’s enemies and evil. Statements alluding to battle and “You will rule in the midst of your enemies” and “The Lord will extend you mighty scepter from Zion” are clear indicators of rule and some form of combat over and adversary. David hears a conversation between the Lord (Yahweh) and the Lord (Adonay) or between God the Father and the Messiah (Son). The Messiah is sitting on the right hand which is the place of authority until the end of the age. At that Father will send the Son to make His enemies His footstool or to completely subjugate them (Ross 873)

Overall Psalm speaks to the promise of God pertaining to David, the Davidic lineage and the covenant. It is a praise of things to come. The power of the Davidic line comes from God and God alone. Here we have a dualistic intent referring to both David and Jesus which are more or less that same. Verse 4 clearly shows the immutability and steadfastness of His promise(s). Referring to His covenant with David it says He will not change His mind. We also learn in this verse that not only will God’s promise come to pass but the “king” will also be a priest in the order of Melchizedek.

Unless people completely miss the point of the Bible or are unconscious it is hard to miss the meaning in this psalm or why it is the most often quoted. It refers to Jesus Christ and His coming kingdom which at the time of His life becomes the “Now and Not Yet”. Considering the centrality of the Bible and the Christian faith is Jesus this shouldn’t be surprising.

Longman, Tremper, David Garland, and Willem Vangemeren. "Book V: Psalms 107-150." Psalms (The Expositor's Bible Commentary). Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2008. 590-605. Print

Ross, Allen , John Walvoord. "Psalm 110." Bible Knowledge Commentary Old Testament: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Bible Knowledge). Acambaro: Victor, 1985. 873-874. Print.

Examining The Scripture LXXXIII: Psalm 136 - Good God!

Psalm 136 is a song/psalm of praise. It is praise to the Lord who performs great wonders. One of the main undergirding themes is the Lord’s enduring loyal love.

Again, like Psalm 8, this is a this is a Psalm of Thanksgiving or a Todah Psalm. The function of a Thanksgiving or Todah Psalm, or Psalm of Declarative Praise (Westermann) is to praise God for something He has done for the Psalmist, to offer thanksgiving in the form of worship. Todah is really a kind of praise offered to God that arises out of personal or communal experience yet in the context of overall commitment to God. The experiential dimension of todah psalms is easily seen in the middle section of the psalm as the worshipper recounts or gives testimony of his experience. In the case of Psalm 8 it is a highly specialized form of Todah/Thanksgiving Psalm sub-catagorized as a Salvation History Psalm that recounts in some way the story of God’s creation of the people of Israel and concluding with praise to God for his deliverance, or calling the people to respond in praise and faithfulness to God’s grace. These tend to be more theologically reflective than other psalms, since they move to exhortation based on Israel’s experience of God in her history (Bratcher).

In addition to Psalm 8 this is also a Salvation History psalm recount in some way the story of God’s creation of the people of Israel. Most often, this includes an abbreviated version of the exodus story, concluding with praise to God for his deliverance, or calling the people to respond in praise and faithfulness to God’s grace. These tend to be more theologically reflective than other psalms, since they move to exhortation based on Israel’s experience of God in her history. However, they can also call for praise that comes very close to hymn. The unique attribute abou this Psalm is how it is sung or used...as an antiphon (see below).

•(v. 1-3) Intro: A call to thank God who is “Lord of Lords” because “His love endures forever (refrain after every statement of thanks).

•(v. 4-9) Creation Hymn: Gives a summary of the Lord’s “wonders” and “His love endures forever (refrain after every wonder)”.

•(v. 10-22) Redemption Hymn: An excursus of the Exodus and God’s redeeming actions in it “His love endures forever (refrain after every statement of God’s redemption.

To him that smote Egypt in their firstborn: for his mercy endureth for ever:
...And brought out Israel from among them: for his mercy endureth for ever:
...With a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm: for his mercy endureth for ever.
...To him which divided the Red sea into parts: for his mercy endureth for ever:
...And made Israel to pass through the midst of it: for his mercy endureth for ever:
...But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea: for his mercy endureth for ever.
...To him which led his people through the wilderness: for his mercy endureth for ever.

•(v. 23 & 24) Redemption Hymn (summary): These two verse are also redemption hymn but they are more of a “summary redemption hymn” or a last quick reminder that whenever Israel suffered, Israel’s history of redemption continued, Egypt, the wilderness, etc.

According to my research it is referred to as a “antiphon” or a song that was intended to be sung “antiphonally” by two distinct groups in worship. One portion of the congregation would make one of the statements or phrases and the other part would respond with a refrain. I’m guessing it sounded something similar to A cappella refrain in Bohemian Rhapsody (sorry, couldn’t think of a better example)

Ross, Allen , John Walvoord. "Psalm 136." Bible Knowledge Commentary Old Testament: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Bible Knowledge). Acambaro: Victor, 1985. 889. Print.

Examining The Scripture LXXXI: Psalm 78 - Lessons From History

Psalmist Asaph is exhorting his generation to keep the Law and not to forget God’s work and rebel against Him. This is a Covenant Song in the form of a Todah or Thanksgiving Pslam. It can also be used as a liturgical psalm for public worship. Asaph like us today, is struggling to respond to the evil and injustice I his world. This Psalm alternates between Israel’s rebellion and God’s faithfulness to His people. They word “they” meaning Israel is used 30 times, God is mentioned in a myriad of forms all throughout also but usually as a counterpoint to “they”. This tells me a few things: This is about a opposing relationship with God and it is to either, correct, teach or advise on teaching or correcting that relationship. The Historical events that it refers to are (as I could find them) the following (Ross 850):

(1) The disobedience of Ephraim (v. 9-11) or failure in battle in general when disobedient to God.

(2) Amazing deeds of the Lord (v. 12-72)
(2a) Wonders in the fields of Zoan (v. 12)
(2b) Parting of the Red Sea (v. 13)
(2c) The Pillar of Fire and Smoke in the wilderness (v. 14)
(2d) Water from a Rock (v. 15-16)
(2e) Etc, etc, etc……

(3) Rebellion in the wilderness: Yet they sinned against God, doubting Him and rebelling, testing God, demanding the food craved.

(4) Even after his wrath and anger had been kindled he rained down on them manna (the bread of angels) to eat and gave them the grain of heaven. He rained meat on them like dust, winged birds like the sand of the seas
(4a) But before they had satisfied their craving while the food was still in their mouths the anger of God rose against them and he killed the strongest of them and laid low the young men of Israel.


Above I have outlined some of the historical events as they are described in Chapter 78. What is important in this Psalm isn’t every single minutiae and event in microcosm but rather the principles behind the falling way of God’s people from God. This Psalm is a didactic or a psalm that instructs. In the case of Psalms 78 it is based off the errors of the past or Israel’s historical events. What they show is a repeated pattern that we have always seen with Israel. (1) Blessings from God, (2) Israel taking them for granted, (3) God punishing them for disobedience, (4) Israel’s repentance. Asaph in this Psalm is trying to avoid primarily steps (2) & (3) by educating and instructing them on their past. Everyone knows the old adage: Those that forget the past are doomed to repeat it. We see in then and we can see it today. It only takes a single generation or about 40 years for people to completely return as a whole to totally sinful ways. Step (4) or seeking repentance isn’t totally avoidable in man’s case because man will always be a sinner thus needing this step. To overtly take God for granted , overtly disobey and be punished by Him is, in many cases avoidable by following the instructions of the Lord passed down from generation to generation which is what this Psalm is basing its premise on generational passing on of the Law.

Longman, Tremper, David Garland, and Willem Vangemeren. "Book III: Psalms 73-89." Psalms (The Expositor's Bible Commentary). Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2008. 590-605. Print.

Ross, Allen , John Walvoord. "Psalm 78." Bible Knowledge Commentary Old Testament: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Bible Knowledge). Acambaro: Victor, 1985. 850-852. Print.

Examining The Scripture LXXX: Psalm 19 - Revelation of Creation

Psalm 19 divides into two major themes. They show the two forms of God’s revelation. It is a Psalm written by David. It is a Psalm about the Revelation of Creation. The Psalmist belief in the Creator God was not set over against the theory of evolution or the problems that "science" has with the Bible. For David the creation reveals something magnificant and amazing about God. His transcendental nature that is beyond human and almost beyond even grasping...but not quite. For God has reveal pieces of Himself to humans so that He is knowable in this life, on this planet, at this time. His revelation of Himself is awe inspiring and therefore worthy of any praise we can give Him. The hymn of creation is comprised of two parts: Revelation of the Skies and Revelation of the Law. In the order that they are given in the Bible they reveal things about God. First the orderliness and obvious structure and design points to God in the creation in a generalized way. The second portion of this Psalm is specific and a more detailed revelation of God's specific attributes through the Law.

I. The Natural Revelation of God (v. 1-6)

a. David announces that the heavens declare the glory
b. God and the sky proclaims His handiwork
c. [The Heavens] Day to day pour out “speech”, night to night reveals knowledge [of god]
d. The”words” of the creation go through all the earth and to the ends of the world.
e. God controls things in the heavens also and basically maps the course of the sun.

Although the creation doesn’t speak like a human its signs and and wonders “speak volumes” without articulating one human word. It is called natural revelation.

II. Specific Revelation of God (v. 7-11)

a. David speaks of the dominance the Law or its meticulousness and exactness just as the natural revelation revealed the exactness and deliberateness of the creation.
i. The Law is perfect and is the dominant specific revelation of the Old Testament

b. The precepts of the Lord [the Law] are right. A joy to the heart.
i. They enlighten the eyes (guide) of those who obey them
ii. Righteous altogether.

III. David Reacts to The Law of God

a. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold
b. Sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb
c. Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.

Note: The image used for this post is from the Hubble Space Telescope. The image is of M16 Eagle Nebula NGC 6611 also known as "Pillars of Creation" so named by scientists.

Examining The Scripture LXXIX: Psalm 8: Bookends

We see something unique in Psalms 8. A Divine set of bookends (figuratively speaking) to hold man and give him importance the way only God can. This is a Psalm of thanksgiving or a Todah Psalm. The function of a Thanksgiving or Todah Psalm, or Psalm of Declarative Praise (Westermann) is to praise God for something He has done for the Psalmist, to offer thanksgiving in the form of worship.

There are three main aspects to Todah Psalms: 1) praise for a deed God has done or an experience of God by the Psalmist; 2) it is an immediate response evoked by God’s action; 3) the tone is one of joy. Todah is really a kind of praise offered to God that arises out of personal or communal experience yet in the context of overall commitment to God. The experiential dimension of todah psalms is easily seen in the middle section of the psalm as the worshipper recounts or gives testimony of his experience. In the case of Psalm 8 it is a highly specialized form of Todah/Thanksgiving Psalm sub-catagorized as a Salvation History Psalm that recounts in some way the story of God’s creation of the people of Israel and concluding with praise to God for his deliverance, or calling the people to respond in praise and faithfulness to God’s grace. These tend to be more theologically reflective than other psalms, since they move to exhortation based on Israel’s experience of God in her history (Bratcher).

God is clearly being viewed in verse 1 & 2 as majestic and thereby He is being praised.

O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
above the heavens.
From the lips of children and infants
you have ordained praise
because of your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger. ~Psalms 8:1-2

As we know from the second part of verse 1 God’s creation (the heavens) is also glorious. Although not has majestic and amazing as God Himself His creation is none the less impressive in its own right. The grandeur of celestial objects like the moon and stars are admired for their beauty.

When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place... ~Psalm 8:3

The Hubble Space Telescope over the last 15 years has produced some of the most beautiful images of space ever seen. Images that were always there but invisible until now. Just because you can't see things doesn't mean they aren't beautiful or don't exist ;). God here is being given a rightful position above the heavens.

Man is being given a dignified position as God’s creation, not necessarily because of something man has done to warrant it. The truth is that man is rightfully deserving of punishment and ultimately death because of his sins. This is what verse 4 & 5 dwell on. Why would the Lord take any concern for such a lowly singular creature as opposed to other aspects of creation. The concept of why is easy to tell but impossible for a human to explain. It is by God’s grace or unmerited favor that man is looked upon as having value. It is God who has given us our value...because He chose too, just as God chose Israel to be his chosen people. It wasn’t because they were the largest among people, the most deserving or the most righteous.

What is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor. ~Psalms 8:4-5

We then see an indirect reference to Adam and man in general in verse 6, 7 & 8 and his dominion over creation.

You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
you put everything under his feet
all flocks and herds,
and the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air,
and the fish of the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas. ~Psalms 8:6-8

God is again in clear view in verse 9 as majestic as he was in verse 1 & 2, again He is being praised.

O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth! ~Psalms 8:9

Another way of viewing this chapter is :

• The Lords Majesty (v. 1) His name and the revealed character of God. Praise to the Lord.

• The Lord’s Strength(v. 2) Strength in humbleness of children’s praise stills the enemies of God.
-i.e.: Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.

• The Lord’s Creation(v. 3-8) Man’s glory is indicative of how God made him and how he positioned him.

• The Lord’s Majesty(v. 9) The praise ends were it rightfully began, we go full circle back to God

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End ~Revelation 22:13

God is completely surrounding man here in love. Not only that, even where man is being mentioned in this Psalm, God is working through man with sovereignty and providentially. Giving man his self-worth, giving him his purpose. God crowned man with glory and honor. Please note it says God crowned man, not man crowned man. This becomes important when thinking about the fact many people find their self-worth in other people. It's a shame. God granted man the dominion over creation. God had and still has expectations of us. Are you living up to His expectations? When was the last time you lived up to other peoples expectation? When was the last time you lived up to God's expectations?

He is divine and we are not. He is perfect and we are not. He is our creator and we should praise Him because of this. Not only for our own existence but also for his other works of creations such as heaven, heavenly objects and even each generation of children that comes. God is everything and without him nothing exists. All believers know this and to some extent so do non-believers whether they chose to acknowledge it or not. If they do not acknowledge it.

”His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” Romans 1:20

Bratcher, Dennis., Patterns for Life: Structure, Genre, and Theology in Psalms [online] http://www.crivoice.org/psalmgenre.html#Thanksgiving

Westermann, Claus., Praise and Lament in the Psalms, John Knox, 1981.

Westermann, Claus., The Psalms: Structure, Content, and Message, Augsburg, 1980.

Examining The Scripture LXXVIII: Mismor Aleph & A Little Bit of Mismor Bet

Translation of Title: [Psalm 1 & A Little Bit of Psalm 2] *I tried a little Hebrew and English interchangable wordplay. The singular form of Psalm is translated Mismor.

Psalm 1 opens with a beatitude “blessed is the man who does not walk in the ways of the wicked”. It opens with a blessing on all those who respond with faithfulness to the God. The placement of the Psalm at the beginning to the Psalter is significant because it invites anyone to delight themselves in the Lord and His revelation(s). Thereby it sets the tone for the 149 Psalms that follow (Longman et al 76-77). Psalm 1 really needs to be read in conjunction with Psalm 2 to understand its full scope. Not only does Chapter 1 open with a blessing, Chapter 2 closes with one also.

The two contrasted groups of people are the righteous and the unrighteous. One group that pursues godliness and its rewards as opposed to those that pursue things of the world and the wrath and punishment that gets stored up because of these types of wicked behaviors. We know this because the first two verses refer to those that are wicked and those who are not. The opposite of wickedness is righteousness. The righteous Godly people are to be discriminating of what is wicked and to avoid it. This is also a wisdom Psalm. The wicked will not be blessed, they will be judged. The righteous will be watched over by the Lord and the wicked will perish.

I. The righteous wise and discerning believer have adjectives applied to them such as:
a. Poor, needy, weak, oppressed
b. Wise, faithful, upright, righteous, who understand, blameless; perfect

II. The wicked are differentiated by particular terms including:
a. Sinner, wicked, mocker, arrogant, fool, who do wrong, enemy.

Psalm 1 seems to be a suitable introduction to Psalms. Since Psalms is a window into Israel’s faith at the time of their writing. They capture a thought process of a people along with an emotive sense of a nation. A nation of humans that are flawed but have God in their hearts. Psalm 1 establishes the bedrock of what a discerning righteous believer is in its first two chapters . Once we can understand what type of people used these songs of praise we can better understand some of the theological, social and spiritual issues they contain. Psalms contains just about everything and runs the gamut in terms of human life: remorse, happiness, joy, disappointment, fear, etc.

Longman, Tremper, David Garland, and Willem Vangemeren. "Book I: Psalms 1-41." Psalms (The Expositor's Bible Commentary). Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2008. 76--89. Print.

Examining The Scripture LXXVII: Wisdom From The Whirlwind

We now enter the final phase of the Book of Job. It is the "answer" phase of Job in Chapter 38 to 42 and God is clearly not humored by the actions and assumptions of men. So he enters the time and space in a whirlwind to set the record straight once and for all. He offers His "answer" which isn't so much an answer as it is a The Statement. Its effect on Job is like drinking a great big glass of "SHUT UP AND DEAL WITH IT" It coulda been worse. In short God tells Job and his friends that He is God, He created all, knows all, sees all, etc. When they meet these qualifications they will be of firm enough footing to question Him or His motives. Otherwise they are better off keeping their mouth shut and realize who Thee Boss is. He is Thee Boss for a reason.

The worst thing to do when approaching the question of why God does something is to presume that we know the mind of God. In this story we are given a Theophany in Chapter 38. God condescends to set people straight, not necessarily defend Himself. The whole idea of God needing to defend Himself against man is ludicrous but in an effort to save THEM he does so. Words that stick out in the Lord’s discourse are words like “Surely you know” and “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?” God through rhetorical questions positions the questioners of Him in their proper perspective.

He handles Job with mercy considering all men sin and fall short of the glory of God. We need to realize as readers that God owes us nothing but punishment because we know that because men sin…the wages of sin is death. That is not the approach God takes with Job. Humans are lower than God, limited in their understanding and ability to grasp God’s thoughts, and finite. They are ignorant of the ways of God and not capable of fully understanding His ways. Once they understand their place relative to God they are much better position to understand why God does things they way He does. He tells Job to brace himself and unleashes a barrage of questions at Job that are unanswerable from a human perspective. He does this to indirectly make Job realize just how different and mortal/finite he is to an infinite and unfathomable God. This produces a humbling affect on him. As we know in our own lives, when we are humbled we are in a perfect position to learn in those “teachable moments”. God is smart.

The Almighty answers stated and unstated questions from men with questions of His own. The irony with Job and God is that Job’s perception of what and who God is was largely formulated by his own imagination and his imagination formulated questions in his little human brain. God understanding His integrity is being questioned cleverly uses the exact rhetorical device used to demean Him, to put Job and others who would dare to question Him, right back into their proper place by cross-examination of them! It’s is as if God is saying, “not only will I soundly rebuke you, I will use your own words and ideas to do it”.

God proceeds based on His own cognizance and authority to define the issue at the heart of the matter with all of the humans involved (and probably Satan too). They have a complete misunderstanding of God’s attitude towards wickedness and sin. Here God addresses the moral/ethical question. It is God himself and God alone that has the power, authority and ability to combat evil and turn it to good. God places the focal point on salvation not the evil. This is especially true and important after Christ’s sacrifice. The battle has already been won by Christ. We shouldn’t focus on evil we should focus on Him. The more we fill our souls with Him, the less there is a chance of contamination from evil and sin. Humans are such frail, fallen and fallible creatures but God understands this and has gone out of His way to redeem them from their own sin and stupidity. He did this in the case of Job and He did it for every believer that accepts Christ as the Savior.

Job answers the Lord humbled and contrite. He is unworthy and takes a posture of “no defense” for his presumptuousness. Job I believe realizes he could’ve been destroyed by God here but wasn’t, he was spared to live as an example to others and to himself. God’s literal intervention into this problem removes Job from his immediate problems. It isn’t our temporary problems here on earth that we should fear but it is God Himself that we need to fear. Everything on earth kills the body which is temporary but it is God that can annihilate the soul which is eternal. God’s presence put Job’s fear where it rightfully belonged. Just as it would do to people like “I am ruined” Isaiah. By just presenting Himself to Job the realization that God was “bigger than all of it” strikes Job.

There is much more going on here especially in light of the poetry but I believe I have gotten a portion of it encapsulated in the answer to this question. When dealing with such a theologically deep book with so much metaphor and figurative language I could easily get bogged down in it. There obviously have been books written on God’s response alone.