{"id":2571,"date":"2023-10-19T01:40:10","date_gmt":"2023-10-19T01:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/?p=2571"},"modified":"2023-10-19T01:46:31","modified_gmt":"2023-10-19T01:46:31","slug":"evensong-34","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/?p=2571","title":{"rendered":"EVENSONG 34"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1025\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/PSX_20231018_153257-1025x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2570\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/PSX_20231018_153257-1025x1024.jpg 1025w, https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/PSX_20231018_153257-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/PSX_20231018_153257-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/PSX_20231018_153257-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/PSX_20231018_153257-1536x1536.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/PSX_20231018_153257-2048x2048.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1025px) 100vw, 1025px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This is another \u201cPsalm of David\u201d that says all good people are protected and all bad people are punished. There are no exceptions (except for Dave himself, apparently \u2014 but, hey, whatever).<br><br>As far as bad people go, the psalm specifically mentions lying and being deceitful. Its advice to children: \u201cKeep your tongue from evil, \/ And your lips from speaking deceit,\u201d and other such tips.<br><br>Again, this psalm doesn\u2019t guarantee us a reward in a cloudless heaven or punishment in a fiery hell; its promises and threats are in present tense, not in some rapturous, judgment-filled future.<br><br>I still want to know, then, why so many of the self-described righteous folks among us continue to worship \u2014 yes, worship \u2014 a lying, deceitful, immoral man. And why isn\u2019t he being punished?<br><br>Likewise, are psalms like this one \u2014 and there are many \u2014 the literal, inerrant, divinely-inspired \u201cWord of God\u201d? Or not? Hmm. Maybe the self-righteous are just fresh out of give-a-damns now.<br><br>One more thing about punishment: This psalmist claims, \u201cThe face of the Lord is against those who do evil, \/ To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.\u201d Preach it, brother. Let it be so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is another \u201cPsalm of David\u201d that says all good people are protected and all bad people are punished. There are no exceptions (except for Dave himself, apparently \u2014 but, hey, whatever). As far as bad people go, the psalm specifically mentions lying and being deceitful. Its advice to children: \u201cKeep your tongue from evil, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/?p=2571\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">EVENSONG 34<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2571"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2573,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2571\/revisions\/2573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}