looking................

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us."
Helen Keller

starry starry night...........


"When I look up at the sky and see the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars you set in place - what are people that you should think about them - mere mortals that you should care about them?" Psalm 8:3-4

I love cold, crisp, starry nights. I'm fortunate to live in a place without too much light pollution, and very often the night sky takes my breath away. Only recently I was so captured by seeing Mars in the sky that my socks froze to the ground - but that's a whole other story..........

Beautiful night skies sing of their creator - the God who mapped out the galaxies, who is responsible for creating matter out of dust. As we gaze at the sky our hearts are moved in awe - but how much greater the awe that the God who created the heavens remembers me - every minute of every day, I am on his mind.

But what should this knowledge bring? More than a fuzzy feeling or a warm glow.... God is so mindful of me - too often God and I are actually mindful of the same thing - me!

How often am I too mindful of me and my cares, and too careless of him and his.............

six............

"Heal me Lord, for my bones are in agony" Psalm 6:2

Sometimes sadness can make us physically ache all over - and it's an ache that only God can deal with. Tears come uninvited and unexplained because life is painful.

But we are not without hope.

In the same way that the writer of this Psalm moves from being "worn out with sobbing" to being sure and certain that "God will answer my prayer", so we can be sure that although life is sometimes very, very sad - our beds are awash with tears and we are worn out - we are never without hope.


We are never without hope because God will answer our prayers.

The Voice of Psalms......


'The Voice of Psalms' is part of a project by Chris Seay and the Ecclesia Bible Society that attempts to 'engage with the Psalms as never before' by producing work that "involves translation and elaboration, but mostly entering into the story of scripture and recreating the event for our culture and time. It doesn't ignore the role of scholar but also values the roles of writers, poets, songwriters and artists".

There is no doubt that this is a beautiful book - both in the interpretative way the Psalms are treated, and in the crafting and style in which the contents are presented. The attractive & high quality internal appearance inside draws the eye, and the reflections are insightful and thoughtfully written - it would make a beautiful gift.

It is important to understand the highly interpretive nature of the book though - which the author makes no attempt to hide - but which may not be understood by a reader new to, or unfamiliar with the Bible. Whilst the lyrical treatment of the individual Psalms is fresh and inspiring, in some places the breadth of interpretation can be challenging: for example the opening verse of Psalm 11 "I trust in the Lord for protection" becomes "I am already in the soft embrace of the Eternal One" - which left me uncomfortable.....

Having said that - if understood as a lyrical reflection 'inspired by scripture' rather than as it claims, 'a bold new translation and format' this is a beautiful book that I suspect I shall find myself returning to more than once to discover more about 'the Eternal One' - although I will still be more comfortable with him as 'the Lord'!

NB: I received a free review copy of this book from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their book review blog programme. I received this copy for the purpose of writing a blog review and I was not required to write a positive review - all opinions are my own!