{"id":2582,"date":"2023-10-24T00:33:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-24T00:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/?p=2582"},"modified":"2023-10-24T00:33:06","modified_gmt":"2023-10-24T00:33:06","slug":"evensong-37","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/?p=2582","title":{"rendered":"EVENSONG 37"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This is another long, repetitious psalm that keeps saying bad people will be punished and good people will be protected here on earth. We\u2019re supposed to be patient, though, if \u201cthe man who brings wicked schemes to pass\u201d appears to be getting ahead. Don\u2019t get mad, the psalmist says; don\u2019t be bad; and don\u2019t worry about the evil schemer. Why not? Because \u201cit only causes harm.\u201d

Now, I did learn one other thing from reading this psalm. I\u2019ve noticed familiar references in other psalms, but when I read the line, \u201cthe meek shall inherit the earth,\u201d in this 37th iteration, I said to myself, \u201cAha! I\u2019ve seen that line somewhere else!\u201d That phrase \u2014 repeated ten verses later \u2014 is the most famous blessing in the most famous sermon by the most famous preacher in the world.

Before some apologist says, \u201cAh, but this reference is merely prophetic,\u201d just like all those other things that appear in the Old Testament hundreds of years before Jesus of Nazareth says them or does them in the Gospels of the New Testament, I submit that a defender of the faith like that isn\u2019t giving smart little Yeshua ben Yosef credit for being the A+ student of Hebrew that he was.

What\u2019s that saying about the simplest explanation usually being the correct one? Occum\u2019s razor, it\u2019s called, or the principle of parsimony \u2014 in other words, the best explanation is usually the one requiring the fewest assumptions. So, don\u2019t ask me to assume that the supernatural explanation involving prophecy is better than the natural one involving a well-read guy with a good memory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is another long, repetitious psalm that keeps saying bad people will be punished and good people will be protected here on earth. We\u2019re supposed to be patient, though, if \u201cthe man who brings wicked schemes to pass\u201d appears to be getting ahead. Don\u2019t get mad, the psalmist says; don\u2019t be bad; and don\u2019t worry … Continue reading EVENSONG 37<\/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-2582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2582","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=2582"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2583,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2582\/revisions\/2583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaillardiapress.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}