2011-07-17 Psalms 22, prophecy

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

So I said to myself, "How hard could it be to write lyrics for a song based on Psalm 22?"

But different versions translated the words differently, and the rhythm was not consistent. I needed to go back and look at the words in the raw; to look at the meaning of each word in the Hebrew in order to know what possible words would be best to use. So I opened up an interlinear Hebrew-English translation, and began to look at the definitions of the words.

In a crudely literal translation from the Hebrew, it says:
6-8
I, the crimson grub, not man;
a disgrace of a man, despised by the people.
All that see me, mock me and laugh.
they stick out their tongue, and shake their head.
He trusted the LORD would deliver him;
Let's see him escape if He's so pleased with him.
14-18
like water or piss, gushed out.
All bones, stretched apart.
Heart is wax; melted to liquid, in center of belly.
Strength, shriveled in shame.
A piece of pottery, tongue, sticks to jaws.
To the dust and ashes of death, I am reduced.
Hands, feet, pierced.
Like tally marks, all my bones.
They look and stare at me.
They divide my clothes between them,
And onto my cloak, throw down the dice.

And all I could think was TMI — Too Much Information.
Jesus, having been flogged by the Romans, would have been covered in blood — the crimson grub.
They stuck out their tongue and blew raspberries at him.
Hanging on a cross in the hot sun for six hours to several days, excretions, like peeing, would happen; sunburn and dehydration would happen. Crucifixion was not just a death by torture, it was a method of humiliation.

Think about it. David wrote this over 1,000 years before Jesus died, maybe 900 years before the Romans "invented" crucifixion as their preferred method of execution. I think it is only by the inspiration of God that David could write these specific details about crucifixion: piercing the hands and feet, the water settling around the heart, the bones stretched apart, the sunburn showing the ribs like tally marks, the dehydration causing the tongue to stick to the mouth. And only by the inspiration of God could he have included details about Jesus's specific crucifixion: The Romans scourged him, The crowd mocked him and said "He trusted in God, Let God deliver him," they divided his clothes and threw dice on his cloak. This is not what you would call an abstract, or vague, prophecy. This is almost as specific as God calling Cyrus by name in the book of Isaiah, 400 years before Cyrus was born.

2011-07-09 Late October vocabulary

I would like to say a special thank you to Vern Meaders' 6th grade class, including Calvin, Levi, Riley, Cameron B., Simon, Alexandria, Paris, Jamron, Christopher, Audri, Jason, Abigail, Chauncey, Natalie, Ashley, Dusty, Sasha and Cameron W. These young men and women went to the trouble of writing down every word that they did not understand from the book "Late October." The results, in order of how many students did not know the words, are listed here.

18 - petit fours, pinafores, troubadour; 17 - sundered; 16 - 'fraidies, foreboded, pirouettes; 14 - Dover, lumbered, spectres; 13 - converged; 12 - hordes, latching; 11 - blundered.

8 - implore; 7 - crazing, pealing; 6 - faintest, pelted, fitter, raving, reeling; 5 - corridor, receded; 4 - scurvy, Necco Wafers, eerie; 3 - befriended, ambassadors, kibbled.

2 - Hades, décor, sugar shakers, pendulum, pinging; 1 - predator, never more, gradually, belted, Ellenore, critter, cider, proceeded, blazing, tinkles, galore.

What this tells me, is that this book is more on a level for an adult to read to a child. It is not a book that most children can pick up and read by themselves without having to look up some of the words in a dictionary. There are fourteen words that were not understood by a majority of this group of students. I really like the poem for its rhythm and rhyme, but sometimes the meaning may be left behind for young readers.