Bible Question: With ref to ps 82 (and some others). How can I distinguish when God is speaking to man and when man is speaking to God? For example: read vs 1of ps 82. Then in vs 2 is it God who goes on to judge man or is it the psalmist asking God to defend the poor and fatherless? How can I know when reading other psalms? |
Bible Answer: Hi, Asken... Watch the pronouns. One of the nice things about the NASB is that they retained the traditional capitalization of pronouns that refer to the Divine. Always remember that context is king in interpretation. Of course, keep in mind, that the Psalms are poetry. The ancients generally were not as sticky about antecedents as are we. There are numerous examples where the Psalmist is speaking to God and shifts to God speaking to the Psalmist, without any indication of change of speaker that we might recognize. You might also want to pick up a good commentary. Preferably one that has stood the test of time, recognized by believers of varying denominations through several centuries. John Gill and Matthew Henry strike me as fitting that description. For the Psalms, I find Spurgeon's "A Treasury of David" to be very valuable. I believe that all three of these are freely available online. In Him, Doc |
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Questions and/or Subjects for Psalm | Author | ||
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FrankS | ||
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asken | ||
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DocTrinsograce |