Page 30 - Psalms Ebook

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