Page 30 - Psalms Ebook
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And quite apart from the main point He was making I believe He is also
        saying S-L-O-W D-O-W-N and consider.  We just fly by and miss it, and
        He says,   “S-T-O-P!  Look at that bird.  S-TO-P!  Look at that lily.  It is
        a beautiful thing.  Consider the lily.”      I think we miss so much.

        Our little Bible study group happens to have several photographers and
        artists that seem to have an advantage over the rest of us.  God has given
        them an inner eye by which they see things that pass most of us right by.
        So if you have an artistic spirit you may find it a little easier to practice
        meditating on these word pictures. The rest of us are going to have to
        trust God to work a miracle in our heart so we do not by-pass the flowers
        and the birds and the trees.  We need to pause and  consider  how God
        has made everything beautiful for our eyes.

        Now  before  illustrating  some  of  these  figures,  let  me  give  you  four
        general impressions about the figures of speech as they are used in the
        book of Psalms.  The first general impression is that God uses everyday
        common figures of speech.  The Psalms are full of them.  We are going
        to read about the hills and about the valleys and about the hail and about
        the wind and about thunder.  We will see fruitful fields and we will see
        overflowing rivers.  We will see the moths and the insects and the ants
        and the birds and the valleys and the sheep and the cows.

        One thing God does is He uses the familiar.  You know, that’s a great
        way to teach.  Start with the familiar and take them to the unfamiliar.
        God  has  filled  the  book  of  Psalms  with  everyday  common  figures  of
        speech to help us come to know Him. We cannot make it too simple.  It
        is amazingly simple to know the Lord, and He could not have made it
        any simpler than He did in the book of Psalms.

        My second general impression about the figures is that He uses a great
        variety  of  them.  He  searches  the  whole  creation:  The  inanimate
        creation  –  the  rocks  and  the  stars  and  the  moon  and  the  sun  –  The
        animate creation –  animals and fish and birds and man.  Nothing seems
        to be off limits to Him who desires to reveal Himself to His beloved.

        Sometimes He puts a variety of pictures in the same verse.  Psalm 18:2,

        “The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, and my
        God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of
        my salvation, my stronghold.”

        That is one verse, and it contains seven figures.  Consider each one of
        them.  It is just amazing how much He has stuffed into that verse.  You
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