Read the Bible with Me!

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: 

Everlasting Father,

All time belongs to you, and all the ages. In signs, in songs, in words of promise, you reassured your chosen ones, “I am with you; fear not.” You taught them through the prophets to trust that your saving deeds were not limited to the past.

When Jesus came, he fulfilled “all that was written in the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms.”

The Church has found him everywhere in these same holy books.

Help me to find Jesus in my reading today, to listen to him, and to follow him with all my heart.

Amen.

Today's chapters are Micah 4-6 and (because it is Sunday) Psalms 124 and 125. 

The timeframe of Micah's prophetic ministry roughly corresponded to that of Isaiah and our reading today starts with a passage that just about duplicates Isaiah 2:2-5, including an image that is is often quoted in prayers for peace: swords beaten into plowshares. When "the Word of the Lord" has truly gone forth from Jerusalem, wars will end. 

Wow.  

In the midst of the prophecies of siege and disaster, Chapter 5 gives a sign of hope in the most-often quoted lines from Micah: the indication of where the Messiah was to be born. This was so well-established that when "wise men came from the East asking, 'Where is the newborn King of the Jews?'" Herod's counselors knew just what little town of Judah was their likely destination. They knew the prophecy of Micah, but they didn't bother to go to Bethlehem-Ephrathah.

Psalm 124 tells a story of rescue from an impossible situation. In fact, it starts with the rescue, and only after acknowledging God's amazing intervention in an otherwise hopeless predicament, describes the scene in vivid imagery, closing with the memorable words "Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth."

Psalm 125 is another psalm of trust in the God who saves. Here, he is described in geological terms! 

Start reading Micah here and the Psalms here.

If you are looking for a solid but approachable companion to the Bible, I can wholeheartedly recommend A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament by John Bergsma and Brant Pitre. Although the authors are top-level Scripture scholars, they write for "real" readers. Notes include recent findings from archaeology and ancient manuscripts, and how each book of the Bible has been understood by the Church Fathers and used in Liturgy.