Welcome to the Pauline Family's "Year of the Bible"! I'm reading the Bible clear through this year, and I invite you to read along with me. But first, let us pray:
God of my fathers, Lord of mercy,
who have made all things by your word
and in your wisdom have created people
to rule this world that you have made,
and to render judgment in integrity of heart:
Give me Wisdom, the attendant at your throne,
and reject me not from among your children;
for I am your servant, the child of your handmaid,
a weak human being,
and lacking in comprehension of your Word and your will.
Send your Wisdom from the holy heavens,
from your glorious throne,
to be with me, to guide me,
to enlighten me, to lead me to you.
(Based on Wis 9)
Today's chapters are Job 13-15 and (because it is Sunday) Psalms 89 and 90.
Eliphaz will react strongly to Job's self-defense before God, pronouncing him not only guilty of unnamable sins, but arrogant and blasphemous.
Although Psalm 89 is written in praise of God's covenant with David, it is one of the Psalms that has an author attribution: it was composed by "Ethan the Ezrahite," considered to be the wisest man in the ancient world after King Solomon himself. Psalm 89 is an important Christological Psalm, and is used quite frequently in the liturgy, especially in the Christmas season.
Psalm 90, a lament, begs God's mercy in view of the brevity of human life: "seventy years, or at the most eighty, for the heartiest." This is what Dante is referring to at the beginning of his masterpiece, The Divine Comedy: “In the middle of the journey of our life I found myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost.” In other words, Dante's mystical experience took place when he was 35: in the middle of a biblical lifespan of 70 years, according to Psalm 90.
Start reading Job here and the Psalms here.
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