Man, Psalm 1 is what we just read, and the title of my sermon is The Poetry of the Bible.
The Poetry of the Bible.
Before we get into it, let me just read a few scriptures.
Exodus 28, verse 2 says, And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother, for glory
and for beauty.
The Bible says in Psalm 27, 4, One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after,
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty
of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.
The Bible tells us in Zechariah 9, 17, For how great is his goodness, and how great is
his beauty.
Corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine the maids.
So God is a God of beauty.
The Bible talks about God specifically creating things for their beauty, ordaining things
because of their beauty.
And of course, God's word is very beautiful, and the beauty of God's word is part of its
greatness.
Now, when we talk about the poetry of the Bible, we're mainly talking about the Old
Testament.
The Old Testament contains a lot of poetry, and in fact, there are five books of the Bible
in a special section known as the Poetic Books, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song
of Solomon.
Of course, Lamentations is also poetry, and then there's a lot of other poetry just mixed
in, whether you're in the book of Genesis, Exodus.
There are poems that are inserted into Judges and other books as well.
So poetry is actually a big part of the Old Testament.
But the question is, what kind of poetry is it, or how is it poetry?
What is it that separates the Poetic Books from the books that are not the Poetic Books?
A lot of people don't understand this, and maybe they feel like in English we're missing
out on something because we're not reading it in the original, something's been lost.
That's what a lot of people think, and I'm going to actually demonstrate to you this
morning that it's quite the contrary is true.
So let me just start out, though, before I get into the sermon, because I want to get
into a lot of the poetry in the Bible and show you examples of it and how the Bible
is poetic and what the devices are.
But first, I just want to spend a few minutes just explaining what poetry is and giving
you some examples of poetry that you're familiar with.
And then if we talk about all the different kinds of poetry that are out there, then we
can explain what kind of poetry the Bible is.
So first of all, the opposite of poetry is prose.
And the word prose simply means straightforward.
So prose is when you just tell what happened in a straightforward way.
You just say what happened.
Whereas poetry is where there's some kind of an artificial system that's imposed on
the text.
Instead of just telling you what happened, there are certain rules or some kind of an
artificial system that's imposed.
So for example, in a poem, you might have rhyming poetry.
And this is almost all that we're familiar with in America in 2019.
The only poetry that a lot of people recognize is poetry that rhymes.
In fact, some people will even go so far as to say, if it doesn't rhyme, it's not a poem.
Who's ever heard somebody say something like that or you're like, yeah, I've said that.
So that's what most people think.
Now the reason why people think that is because that is the most popular kind of poetry in
English.
Also, all of the songs that we sing, all the songs that you hear out in the world or in
church pretty much rhyme.
So rhyming has just become poetry in English.
It's become such a big thing.
Most poetry in the world does not rhyme and ancient poetry virtually never rhymes.
That's kind of a thing that's unique to the English language or other Germanic languages
to make a big deal about rhyming.
So what are some examples of rhyming poetry?
Well, we start with this even when we're a little kid with nursery rhymes.
Jack Sprat could eat no fat, his wife could eat no lean, and so betwixt them both you
see they lick the platter clean.
So we grow up with hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the
moon, the little dog laughed to see such sport, and the dish ran away with the spoon.
Little Miss Muffet sat on a tuffet eating her curds and whey, then came a spider and
sat down beside her and scared Little Miss Muffet away.
So we grow up with a lot of poetry, like I said all the songs that we sing, and even
something more sophisticated than that.
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, but I have promises to keep and miles to go before
I sleep.
And then we go through even Shakespeare, right?
And there's a lot of rhyming, or these English ballads, and you probably learned about that
in school, right?
Well, in addition to rhyming poetry, another kind of poetry is poetry that's based on a
certain meter.
So it doesn't rhyme, but it has a certain rhythm to it or a cadence to it that it follows
throughout.
And again, I know this part of the sermon might be a little boring for some people,
but we're going to get to the good stuff in the Bible.
First I want to just lay a foundation, because a lot of people may not be familiar with different
types of poetry.
So poetry based on meter, now Shakespeare is often a mixture of prose and poetry.
It'll go back and forth.
And in the poetic sections, it's based on meter.
It doesn't necessarily rhyme, but it's based on meter.
So let me give an example from Romeo and Juliet, okay?
And this is where it follows a meter called iambic pentameter.
So it's five different groupings or five different feet of a little two-part thing.
So it goes like this, ten syllables in every line.
But soft what light through yonder window breaks.
It is the east and Juliet is the sun.
Arise fair sun and kill the envious moon, who is already sick and pale with grief that
thou her maid art far more fair than she.
So that doesn't rhyme at all, but it follows this little ba-bop ba-bop ba-bop ba-bop ba-bop
ba-bop ba-bop ba-bop ba-bop ba-bop ba-bop ba-bop ba-bop, right?
But soft what light through yonder window breaks.
It is the east and Juliet is the sun.
So it's all ten syllables.
It's all following that little da-da da-da da-da da-da da-da da-da.
So that's something that most people have been familiar with when you're growing up
in school, you read Shakespeare in school, and you're used to that kind of poetry that
doesn't rhyme, but it has that meter, like a strict meter imposed on it.
Now the most famous example of this would be the Iliad by Homer.
Now this is the oldest piece of European literature in existence today.
It goes back almost 3,000 years ago, and it's this type of thing where it follows a certain
rhythm, okay?
I'm not doing a good job of reciting it, but anyway.
So it follows a little ba-bop ba-bop ba-bop ba-bop ba-bop ba-bop ba-bop ba-bop ba.
So that's how most ancient poetry is, whether you're talking about Greek poetry, the epic
of Gilgamesh, or just all these ancient things.
Then there's a type of poetry called alliterative poetry.
So this is poetry where it goes by the first letter of words, and it uses the same letter
over and over again, okay?
Like it'll have a bunch of Bs in a row, or a bunch of Gs, or whatever.
So Beowulf would be an example of this, and that actually follows a strict meter, and
it also uses these letters, the same letter over and over again.
So I'll give you a sample of that.
This is Old English, this is around 1000 AD.
So listen to this, the repeating letters.
So it has these triple, ma ma ma, sha sha sha, stuff like that.
And then another kind of poetry that you've probably heard of is a haiku.
Now this is Japanese poetry, right?
So the haiku is where you have five syllables, then seven syllables, and then five syllables.
So it follows a strict pattern there.
And obviously you can get looser with the pattern.
But it starts out talking about nature, and I've composed a haiku this morning for you.
But it starts out talking about something about nature, but then in the third line it
kind of reveals that it's actually about something other than nature.
So it kind of has a little twist in it.
That's the way the haiku is.
So here is a haiku that I composed about our church.
Arizona sun, some people cannot endure the red hot preaching.
So it's not the heat of Arizona, but the preaching.
So anyway, let's get into the Bible's poetry.
So we talked about the haiku, the alliterations, the rhyming, the meter.
So what kind of poetry is the Bible?
Does the Bible rhyme in the original?
Does the Bible alliterate?
Does the Bible follow a strict meter, a certain pattern, or whatever?
Does it do any of those things?
Well, Hebrew Bible poetry is what is known as free verse poetry.
And what that means is that it does not follow a fixed metrical pattern, okay?
And it doesn't rhyme either.
So it neither rhymes in the original nor does it follow a strict meter.
So that's why it doesn't seem to us as what we would think of as poetry because it doesn't
do either of the two things that we're most familiar with, okay, which is rhyming and
meter.
It does neither.
So in what way are the poetic books of the Bible poetry then if they're not following
a strict meter and if they don't rhyme?
Okay.
Let's go to Psalm 2 and I'm going to go through some examples and show you how the Bible is
poetic.
Go to Psalm 2 and the main feature of the poetry in the Bible, there are a few different
features I'm going to show you, but the main thing that the biblical poetry does is something
called parallelism, okay?
So instead of rhyming or following a strict meter, it does this thing called parallelism
where it basically has these little couplets where it'll say something one way and then
it'll say the same thing another way, okay?
So let's look at a poem from the Bible and let's see how it does this.
Psalm 2, for example, and we could show hundreds of examples all through Psalms, Proverbs,
Ecclesiastes, but look at Psalm 2.
Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing?
So over here we have the heathen rage, the people is the same as the heathen, right?
Imagining a vain thing.
That's further explaining or expounding upon their rage.
Look at the next verse.
The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together.
Do you see how those two things are both parallel?
Against the Lord and against his anointed, right?
Because the anointed is the Lord, right?
So against the Lord, Jehovah, and against his Christ, who is the Lord, right?
Saying, let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us.
Do you see how that's two different ways of saying the same thing?
He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision.
Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure.
So do you see how this is actually following a pretty strict pattern where it says it one
way, says it another way, says it one way, says it another way.
But then what's interesting is then verse six deviates from the pattern and just makes
this statement, yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.
So the reason this is effective when you're reading it is because you're following this
strict pattern, why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing, the kings
of the earth set themselves.
And when you get to verse six, it stands out.
It emphasizes it because you break from the pattern and just make this profound statement.
Have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion?
And it comes out, even if you didn't realize this, even if you've never sat down and analyzed
Psalm two and figured out that that's what it was doing, that verse always kind of stands
out to you and it's kind of a gear change in the verse whether you knew it or not, it's
subconsciously emphasizing that verse.
And then look at what it says after this, I will declare the decree the Lord has said
unto me, you can see how those are parallel.
Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee.
Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and then look, he says
the exact same thing, the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron.
Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
Be wise now, therefore, ye kings.
Be instructed, ye judges of the earth.
So he's just, he's saying the same thing twice over and over again.
Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.
And then verse 12 is the one that again deviates from the pattern.
Kiss the son lest he be angry and you perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but
a little, blessed are all they that put their trust in him.
So you can see how this is clearly poetry because it has a system that's being imposed
on it.
It's not just straightforward prose just telling you something, but it's following this pattern
of these parallels, parallels, parallels and then breaking and just making a profound statement.
So go if you would to Proverbs, let's look at examples from Proverbs.
Because when we talk about the poetic books, we're not just talking about Psalms, but we're
also talking about Proverbs.
So look at Proverbs chapter 1 and in Proverbs chapter 1 verse 8 we can see how it is also
poetry.
Proverbs chapter 1 verse 8, my son, hear the instruction of thy father and forsake not
the law of thy mother for they shall be an ornament of grace under thy head and chains
about thy neck.
Jump down to verse 12.
Let us swallow them up alive as the grave and whole as those that go down into the pit.
We shall find all precious substance.
We shall fill our houses with spoil.
Cast in thy lot among us.
Let us all have one purse.
You can see how those are two different ways of saying the exact same thing.
Cast in thy lot among us, which means what?
Let's all have one purse.
My son, walk not thou in the way with them, refrain thy foot from their path.
For their feet run to evil and make haste to shed blood.
Look at verse 17.
Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird.
So that's one that deviates from the pattern and just makes that profound statement.
Then he comes back to the pattern and they lay wait for their own blood.
They lurk privily for their own lives.
You see that?
Jump down to verse 28.
Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer.
They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me.
For they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord.
They would none of my counsel.
They despised all my reproof.
Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way and be filled, because when you eat
you're what?
You're filled.
They'll be filled with their own devices.
For the turning away of the simple shall slay them and the prosperity of fools shall destroy
them, but who so hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely and shall be quiet from fear
of evil.
Jump down to chapter 11.
Go to chapter 11 of Proverbs.
So we see this parallelism in Psalms and Proverbs where it just has these couplets of saying
it one way, say it another way.
Say it one way, say it another way.
So this is instead of rhyming, this is instead of following a strict meter where all the
lines are the same syllables or they have the same number of accented syllables and
many scholars have spent thousands of hours trying to figure out the meter of the Hebrew
poetry and, you know, how is this poetry?
What meter is it following?
There isn't one.
Now there are some patterns that show up because obviously anything that you sing as a song
is going to have some kind of a rhythm to it or a little bit of a meter to it, but there
is no strict meter.
There are loose meters that pop up just like there are loose rhymes that pop up every once
in a while, but the main feature is not rhyming and it's not meter.
It is just these parallels, okay?
Now here's another kind of parallelism where opposites are used.
Instead of restating the same thing, instead of saying one thing and then saying it another
way, it'll say it and then it'll give you the opposite, okay?
So look at Proverbs 11.1.
A false balance is abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight.
When pride cometh, then cometh shame, but with the lowly is wisdom.
The integrity of the upright shall guide them, but the perverseness of transgressors shall
destroy them.
Rich is profit not in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivereth from death.
The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way, but the wicked shall fall by his
own wickedness.
The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them, but transgressors shall be taken in
their own naughtiness.
See how consistent this is?
When a wicked man dieth, his expectation shall perish, and the hope of unjust men perisheth.
The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his stead.
A hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbor, but through knowledge shall the
just be delivered.
When it goeth well with the righteous, the city rejoiceth, and when the wicked perish,
there is shouting.
Most of those were opposites.
Some of them were a restatement of the same thing, but most of them were opposites.
Let's go to Ecclesiastes.
Let's look at Ecclesiastes.
So we can see that this is definitely poetry.
It's just a different kind of poetry than what we're used to.
So now you understand what we mean when we talk about the poetic books.
It's not that they rhyme.
I used to think when I was a kid, oh, well, in Hebrew, this must all rhyme.
You know, this must follow a strict meter, ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba, in Hebrew, and I'm
just missing it because I'm in English.
Actually, you're not missing anything.
It doesn't rhyme in the original, and it doesn't follow a strict meter.
Look at Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verse 1, and look at these parallels.
To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to be born, and a time to die.
A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.
A time to kill, and a time to heal.
Time to break down, and a time to build up.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh.
A time to mourn, and a time to dance.
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together.
A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing.
A time to get, and a time to lose.
A time to keep, and a time to cast away.
A time to rend, and a time to sew.
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak.
A time to love, and a time to hate.
A time of war, and a time of peace.
Now you say, well, that's not poetry.
Well, there was some band from the 60s that thought it was poetry because we all probably
grown up hearing the song.
Who knows the song?
You know, a time to kill, and you know, I'd go through the whole thing.
Why?
Because it doesn't have to rhyme.
It doesn't have to follow a strict meter to be poetic.
It's just poetic because of these parallels, okay.
Now even the book of Job, go back to the book of Job, because some people don't think of
Job as being a poetic book.
They might realize, okay, Psalms is poetry, Proverbs is poetry, Ecclesiastes, I get it.
Song of Solomon, I get it.
It's a poem.
But what about Job?
Even Job is poetry.
Now Job starts out in prose, right, because the first couple chapters, obviously there
are some poetic elements, but in the first two chapters, and in chapter 42, it's more
prose, just kind of telling you the story, kind of tells you about Job, what happened
to him.
But as soon as the characters start speaking, Job and his three friends, they speak in poems,
okay.
Let me show you that.
Job 23 is a good example of this.
And again, we're just, we're barely even scratching the surface, but I'm just trying to show you
some examples from all the poetic books so that you can kind of get an understanding
of the poetry of the Bible and know what it means.
So look at Job chapter 23 as an example.
It says in verse 1, then Job answered and said, even today is my complaint bitter, my
stroke is heavier than my groaning.
Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat.
I would order my cause before him and fill my mouth with arguments.
I would know the words which he would answer me and understand what he would say unto me.
Do you see how these are all parallels?
And then in verse 6, it says, will he plead against me with his great power?
No, but he would put strength in me.
There the righteous might dispute with him, so should I be delivered forever from my judge.
Behold, I go forward, but he's not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive him.
So you see how he switched to opposites here.
On the left hand where he doth work, but I cannot behold him.
He hideth himself on the right hand that I cannot see him.
Okay, so you can see how he's speaking in these parallel couplets.
It says in verse 10, but he knoweth the way that I take.
When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept and not declined.
Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips.
I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
But he is of one mind, and who can turn him?
And what his soul desireth, even that he doeth?
For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me, and many such things are with him.
Therefore am I troubled at his presence, when I consider I am afraid of him.
For God maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me, because I was not cut off before
the darkness.
Neither hath he covered the darkness from my face.
So we can see that Job is clearly speaking in poetry.
He's not speaking in prose.
He's not just straightforward telling you how he feels, but rather he's speaking in
couplets with parallels.
Now go to Job chapter 25.
I'm going to show you even Job's friends are speaking in poetry as well.
Not just Job, but his friends are waxing eloquent with poetry as well.
Look at Job 25 verse 1.
Then answered Bildad the shoe-hide, and said.
Now that first sentence is just prose, you know, it's just kind of telling you, okay,
this is what the guy said.
And then the poem begins.
Dominion and fear are with him, he maketh peace in his high places.
Is there any number of his armies?
And upon whom doth not his light arise?
How then can man be justified with God?
Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?
Behold even to the moon and it shineth not, yea the stars are not pure in his sight.
How much less man that is a worm, and the son of man which is a worm.
So we see the parallels here even in Job's three friends.
So that's why Job is classified as one of the poetic books.
Now go if you would to Psalm 136.
So we see that the big thing that you're going to find over and over again in Job, Psalms,
Proverbs, the big thing are these pairs, these couplets where he says it one way, says it
another way.
Says it one way, says the opposite.
Says it one way, says it another way and then he'll break the pattern for a special emphasis,
you know, to kind of just drop a certain bomb on you or say something very profound or powerful
in between these couplets.
So that's the main thing but there are other features to this poetry.
Another thing that comes up in this poetry is what's called refrain.
This is where you keep repeating the same thing over and over again.
So here's the best example of that, Psalm 136.
Psalm 136 one, oh give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth forever.
Oh give thanks unto the God of gods for his mercy endureth forever.
Oh give thanks unto the Lord of lords for his mercy endureth forever.
To him who alone doeth great wonders for his mercy endureth forever.
To him that by wisdom made the heavens for his mercy endureth forever.
To him that stretched out the earth above the waters for his mercy endureth forever.
To him that made great lights for his mercy endureth forever.
The sun to rule by day for his mercy endureth forever.
The moon and stars to rule by night for his mercy endureth forever.
And on and on.
You can see that is a repetition that refrain makes it poetry.
Now another type of poetry that's in the Bible besides the couplets and besides the refrain
is what's called an acrostic, an acrostic poem.
Okay now the most famous of this is Psalm 119 if you want to turn there, Psalm 119.
And if you look at Psalm 119 in your Bible you'll see that it has the names of letters
of the alphabet above the verses.
Now rarely there will be a Bible that doesn't have this but 99% of King James Bibles should
have this.
So if you're in Psalm 119 tell me if it says Aleph there at the beginning.
Put your hand up nice and high.
Yeah virtually every Bible here has that.
So what does that mean?
Now these are the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
You say Aleph and then above verse 9 we have Bet, Gimel, Dalet, Hey, Vav, Zayin, Khet.
So it has all the different letters.
And basically in the original every verse starts with that letter.
Okay so you say well how is this a poem?
One of the great things about poetry is that poetry is easy to memorize.
It's easier to memorize than prose because either the meter or the rhyme or something
will remind you and help you memorize it.
Well an acrostic also helps you memorize things.
Whoever played the game as a kid, my grandmother had a big red truck.
One person?
What in the world?
You missed out on your whole childhood.
Sometimes it's so bizarre.
I just assume everybody had the same experiences as me and then I find out that 99.9% of people
had a totally different experience.
But there's this game called my grandmother had a big red trunk and you do this on long
drives and it's a memory game where one person says you know my grandmother had a big red
trunk and in it she had an apple.
And then the next person has to remember my grandmother had a big red trunk and in it
she had an apple and a banana.
My grandmother had a big red trunk and she had an apple, banana, and a cherry.
And it keeps getting until whoever can't remember loses.
And you can just pick any item or you can restrict it.
We're going to do all fruit or we're going to do all this or whatever.
But typically it's just any item.
And it's a memory game so by the time you get to the end of the alphabet you've memorized
this list of 26 random items that's completely useless to you for the rest of your life.
But I've done it hundreds of times, all right.
So it's just a game that you play to pass the time on long drives and it's easy to remember
because you remember the first one starts with an A, the second one starts with a B.
If you didn't have that A, B, C, D helping you, you'd never remember 26 things just on
the spot learning them fast.
But the acrostic or the fact that they start with those letters helps you remember.
So it's the same thing with the Psalms.
You have this Psalm here.
The first eight verses all start with Allah.
The next eight verses all start with Bet.
The next eight verses all start with Gemel.
But not only that, look at Psalm 34.
Go to Psalm 34.
And by the way, the book of Lamentations is like this too.
If you ever wondered why Lamentations is laid out the way it is, have you ever noticed how
the first chapter has 22 verses and the second chapter has 22 verses?
The third chapter has 66 verses.
But you'll notice that in chapters one and two, each verse has three statements.
But then when you get to chapter three, it has 66 verses but there are only one statement
each.
So it's really about the same length as the other chapters.
Then you get to chapter four and what do you find?
Twenty-two verses.
And then you get to chapter five and what do you find?
Twenty-two verses.
Why?
Because again, it's based on letters of the alphabet.
Three statements starting with Aleph.
Three statements starting with Bet.
Three statements starting with Gemel.
And it goes through it.
And then in chapter five, it's just one statement per verse.
So the whole thing is an acrostic to help you memorize it but that's only going to help
you obviously in Hebrew for the memory aspect.
Psalm 34 is the same way.
How many verses are in Psalm 34?
Twenty-two.
And there's one for each letter of the alphabet.
The first one starts with an A. The second one starts with a B, etc.
But then also if we read the Psalm, Psalm 34 verse 1, I will bless the Lord at all times.
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
My soul shall make her boast in the Lord.
The humble shall hear thereof and be glad.
O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together.
So we see the parallels are going on and there's an acrostic so there's two different things
going on there.
And then obviously when we get into the Book of Song of Solomon, it's poetic because of
the lofty, fancy, elevated language.
You know, when you have just kind of this beautiful, elevated language, you can't really
call that prose because it's not straightforward, right?
It has kind of this really fancy, descriptive language when we read the Song of Solomon.
But I don't think anyone doubted that Song of Solomon was poetic.
But some people might have doubted the poetry of Proverbs or that Job is poetic.
But now you understand in what way it's poetic.
Look at Psalm 50.
Psalm 50.
I even found a haiku in the Book of Psalms if you can believe that.
I found a haiku.
Now here's the thing.
When you make a haiku, it doesn't have to strictly follow the 5-7-5 program.
This one's pretty close.
It doesn't follow it strictly.
But you could add a few words that wouldn't change the meaning and actually make it a
strict haiku if you wanted to.
But it's better the way it is.
Look at Psalm 50, verse 2.
This is a haiku that I found in Psalms.
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.
So there you go.
Now the reason I say this to haiku is it roughly follows the syllable pattern.
Seven syllables in the second statement.
So that one nails it.
And it starts out where you're talking about a physical feature of nature, Mount Zion.
But then you end up talking about something else, you're actually talking about God.
So sorry Japanese people.
God did it first.
You guys are late.
God did it in Psalm 50, verse 2.
So if you wanted to make it a strict haiku, 5-7-5, you could say, out of Mount Zion, the
perfection of beauty, the Lord God hath shined.
But it's more effective just God hath shined.
So anyway, you can see how the Bible uses a lot of poetic devices.
And the time would fail me to go into all the poetic devices of the Bible.
But the Bible uses metaphor, simile, personification, onomatopoeia, who knows what onomatopoeia
is.
This is where a word sounds like what it means.
Like how about murmur?
Murmur, murmur, murmur, murmur.
So that's onomatopoeia.
Synecdoche.
Who knows what synecdoche is?
This is where the part is used to describe the whole.
Hey man, nice wheels.
You're not really talking about the wheels, you're talking about the whole car.
Or you could say he's chasing skirts.
He's not really chasing the skirt, right, it's the whole thing there, okay.
Or you might say, hey, nice threads.
Or I play strings.
You're not really just playing strings, right, you're using the part to describe the whole.
Well the Bible does this because it'll often call people souls, right?
Or you could talk about head of cattle, where you just, you know, you don't just mean the
head, obviously, you're talking about the whole thing.
So the Bible uses that.
The Bible will use understatement.
The Bible will use exaggeration or hyperbole.
The Bible uses repetition.
And the Bible does even do some rhyming.
There is some rhyming in the Bible.
There is some alliteration.
The Bible used puns and plays on words.
So there are a ton of poetic devices used all throughout the Bible.
And so these are just some of the examples.
So what do we learn from, what's the point?
You say, Pastor Anderson, why get up on Sunday morning and give us a lecture on poetry?
You know, why teach us about the poetry of the Bible?
Well number one, it's super interesting, but here are some practical applications from
this morning's sermon about the poetry of the Bible.
Now that we understand how the Bible's poetic and in what way it's poetry, is that number
one, and I think this is the most profound truth we can get from this, number one is
that we haven't lost the poetry in English.
We haven't lost the poetry in English.
Now think about this.
What if God would have written the book of Psalms and said, okay, here's how we're going
to do the book of Psalms.
It's all going to rhyme.
Okay?
How's that going to work when we translate it into other languages?
You just lost it.
Am I right?
Okay.
What if it was like, okay, it's going to follow a strict meter, right?
It's going to follow a strict meter.
How's that going to work when you bring it into another language?
It's gone, right?
If you read the Iliad in English, it reads like prose in many ways because of the fact
that you've completely lost the meter, you've completely lost the poetic value, right?
But here's the thing about the Bible.
You translate the Bible into all languages, it's still poetry.
So God intended the Old Testament.
You know what the profound truth is that we can learn from this is that God intended the
Old Testament, because remember the Old Testament is where we find the poetry.
Did God just intend the Old Testament for one group of people, just for the Jews?
Oh, this is just for the Jews.
It's just for the Hebrews.
It's just for Israel.
You know, he always had the Gentiles in mind.
From the beginning he said, I'm going to make you a light to the Gentiles.
Look when he first called Abraham, he said, in thee shall all nations of the earth be
blessed.
Well, look, all nations of the earth can be blessed by the poetry of the Bible because
the poetry is not lost in translation.
Do you lose the parallelism in translation?
No.
Do you lose the couplets in translation?
No.
Do you lose the refrain in translation?
No.
The only thing that you lose is the acrostic, which the acrostic doesn't do anything for
the beauty of the passage at all.
The only thing the acrostic does is help people memorize it and pass it down.
So, that's not losing any beauty or poetic nature of the actual words and the sounds
themselves.
So, isn't that a profound truth that we have not lost?
Isn't that a relief to know, hey, I don't have to learn Hebrew to get the poetry.
I can get the same thing in English.
And by the way, I remember growing up thinking to myself, oh, well, the reason why it's so
hard to set the Psalms to music is because we're doing it in English.
Well, guess what?
It's going to be the same difficulty to do it in Hebrew as it is in English.
Guess what?
Didn't rhyme in the original and didn't follow a strict meter in the original either.
So, that's actually an encouragement to say, hey, we can actually sing the Psalms in English.
We can set the Psalms to music in English and not say like, oh, well, we can't do it
because it's this darn language, English.
Guess what?
It's just as easy or just as hard, depending on how you want to look at it, to set the
Psalms to music in English as it would be in another language because they're not based
on the things that we would typically look for in poetry in 2019.
So, that's the first profound truth that we learn from this is that, number one, we haven't
lost the poetry in English.
That's great.
But number two, God's Word is made to be beautiful and that is another reason to be King James
only and to reject the modern translations.
Why?
Because the KJV preserves the poetry of the original and the new versions butcher the
poetry.
They butcher it.
They make it sound ugly.
You see, it's possible to even have another version of the Bible that's 100% accurate
in a certain verse but for it to just lose the beauty or lose the poetry.
So let's say you have two versions and they say the same thing in a verse but one of them
is beautiful and poetic and gets the exact meaning across and the other one just butchers
the poetry, then you'd say it's inferior and that the King James is better.
And you know what?
I don't even need to sit here and prove to you that the King James is superior to the
modern versions from a poetic standpoint.
Even the world will tell you that, even unsafe.
Look, I've read books about the English language that weren't written by Christians.
They're definitely not written by some King James only fundamental Baptist and they'll
tell you that the new versions are a joke.
They'll make fun of the new versions.
I was reading a book called The Mother Tongue English and how it got that way and in this
book he compared the book of Ruth to the NIV and just said, listen how stupid it sounds
in the NIV and listen how great it sounds in the King James.
The guy's clearly not a Christian.
He's not demonstrating anything about doctrine or spiritual things.
He's just saying from a literary standpoint, these new versions are garbage.
You know, I mean, he has showed thee, oh man, what is good and what does the Lord require
of thee?
The new versions.
He has showed you, oh mortal.
He has showed you, oh human one.
They literally change he has showed thee, oh man, to he has showed you, oh human one.
Some of these things sound like Google Translate.
The poetry is shot.
They sound like junk.
Now of course the Dr. Egghead, Dr. Fatbottom, they still like it in the ESV because they're
such nerds and morons they don't even know what poetry even should sound like.
They have no style.
They don't even know what beauty is.
So yeah, Dr. Egghead will read you passages of the New American Standard Psalms and you
know what, it sounds like garbage to anybody who actually loves poetry.
The King James is the poetic edition.
And you know what?
It should be possible to have it poetic from language to language since it's not based
on rhyme and meter.
And so we see that God's word was designed to be beautiful.
Just like when God made Aaron's garments, they weren't just for glory, they were also
for beauty.
God created this world as a beautiful place.
The Bible says he has made all things beautiful in his time.
And so God created this magnificent, beautiful work of art.
Isn't it amazing how the Bible, the King James Version, is not only the one that's accurate
but it's also the one that's the most beautiful?
Why?
Because those two things go hand in hand.
Because accuracy just isn't about the meaning of words.
You also want to capture the spirit of the original.
The feeling of the original.
The beauty of the original.
And that's what the King James does.
It's not just a matter of just word for word.
And that's why the dumbest translation that you'll ever read in your life is one of these
ones.
What do they call it?
No, no, the one where it's got the Greek word right under every word and the Hebrew word
right under it.
An interlinear.
Who knows what I'm talking about with the interlinear?
That is the worst translation that you will ever read.
An interlinear.
You know, Jung's literal translation.
Why?
Because a literal translation is a bogus translation.
Folks, it isn't right to translate literally.
You know what this is like?
This is like when I was in Germany and I opened up a bottle of pills and it had a little warning
in it.
It said, pregnancy forbidden, exclamation mark.
Pregnancy forbidden, exclamation mark.
Okay.
Now look, yeah, that's a literal translation from the original.
Schwangerschaft verboten, you know.
But when you put it in English, it sounds stupid.
It sounds ridiculous.
Is that the best translation?
Is that really expressing what the author is trying to express?
No, a literal translation is not the best translation.
The best translation is where you get the exact meaning and feeling of the original.
One time I was at a Chinese restaurant and I asked what this yellow stuff was that was
oozing out of a fish that I was eating.
There were all these little fish and it had this yellow stuff oozing out of it and the
waitress that was Chinese said, everybody pregnant.
Everybody pregnant.
What she meant was all these fish were pregnant when they were captured and killed and so
that's what those are.
They're eggs inside of them.
Everybody pregnant.
So, you know, pregnancy forbidden, okay, that's not good English.
What you would say is, warning, not safe for pregnant women or something like that, right?
That's actually capturing the meaning and the spirit of the original.
So this super literal, hyper literal, over literal translation, you say, oh, what's the
mood?
I've got the New American standard and it's so accurate.
It's not accurate if it sounds like crap because the Bible when it was written didn't sound
like crap.
If you make it sound like crap, that's not accurate.
If God writes a beautiful work of art and delivers it to you and then you bring it into
English and make it sound stupid, how can that be accurate?
Oh, well, these words mean the same things.
That's not accurate because to be accurate, if it's beautiful in the original, it better
be beautiful in translation.
If it's poetry in the original, it better be poetry in translation, otherwise you're
not accurate.
How is it accurate?
You say, why does that matter?
Because one of the reasons why we know that the Bible is the word of God is because it's
such an amazing book.
So when we hear the word of God, our heart is moved, right?
When we hear God's word, God speaks to us and we're moved by it.
Okay, well, what about if you hear some garbage translation that sounds like it came out of
Google Translate, the ESV, the New American Standard, you know what you're going to think
to yourself?
Like, this sounds dumb and God's not dumb, so God must not have written this.
I mean, look, here's the logic that I use, my friend.
If God created the whole world, if God is omniscient, if God is all powerful, all knowing,
if God is the most intelligent being in the universe, the most powerful being in the universe,
is he going to write bad literature?
And if I had a book with a bunch of bad literature in it, you know what I'm going to think to
myself?
The Supreme Being did not write this book.
Because logic would dictate that an amazing God is going to write an amazing book.
So when you take the Bible and butcher it and ruin it and make it sound like junk, well,
then guess what you're going to do?
You're going to make people just not even listen to it because they'll listen to a few
lines and be like, this is awkward.
This sounds weird.
This sounds goofy.
You know, like when we open the Book of Mormon and we're like, oh, you know, or we open the
Koran and we're like, God didn't write this.
How do you know?
Because it's lame.
I know God didn't write it because it's lame.
And if God's that lame, how do you create this whole world?
How do you create the universe?
How do you create all these beautiful sunsets and forests and trees if he can't even write?
Do you understand what I'm saying?
Now look, that's not how you feel when you read the King James.
When you read the King James, you're just in awe of it.
You're in awe of it.
Right?
Why?
Because of the beauty and the poetry and the majestic quality of the original.
That's what an accurate translation is, my friend.
Something that captures the spirit of the original.
Now some people will say this, they'll say, well, the only reason that the King James
sounds cool to you is because of that fancy language.
You know, it's not because God wrote it, it's just really fancy, cool sounding language.
Okay, well that's funny because the King James translators, when they translated the Bible,
they also translated the Apocrypha at the same time and put it in a special section
for historical value.
Okay, so it's the same guys using the same fancy language and you know what?
It's garbage.
Tell me, open up those books of the Apocrypha.
Open any of them.
Read any of them and tell me which one stirs your soul because you know what?
My soul is not stirred by any of them.
I could go to all 14 examples of the Apocrypha that was translated by the same people at
the same time as the King James version and I read them and it's just boring, lame, weird,
awkward.
Those are the words that I would use to describe the 14 books in there known as Apocrypha.
But when I read this, it's just like, oh man, this is so good.
You read it again and again and again and again and again and again and again.
Why?
Because it's not just the beauty of the language, it's also the content.
It's both.
So to have an accurate translation, you don't want to just create some beautiful masterpiece
in English that doesn't reflect the meaning of the original.
The right way to translate is to get the meaning and the spirit, both.
You got to bring both into English.
That's what the King James has done.
That's why it's such an amazing translation.
Now if you would, flip over to Psalm 19.
But what's interesting is that even the King James, not only does the King James preserve
the artistry and the beauty of the original, it has all the same parallelism so we don't
lose anything.
It has all the same refrains so we don't lose anything there.
But in fact, the King James actually uses a lot of elements of poetry in it.
There are some rhymes in the English King James Bible.
Now if you're reading the Bible in Hebrew, there's a little bit of rhyming but not a
lot.
A little bit of rhyming sprinkled in here and there that you can tell is on purpose.
And when you read it in Greek, there's a little bit of rhyming mixed in.
And it's kind of the same way in English where you just, it's not a major rhyming thing but
you have a little bit of rhyming kind of mixed in.
Like you could think of, for example, Revelation chapter 3 where he says, I counsel thee to
buy of me gold tried in the fire.
So you can see how it rhymes a little bit there.
And then also there are alliterations that you'll find in the Bible.
And I consider it alliteration if there are three or more of the same letter.
Like for example, how about this one?
These are spots in your feasts of charity when they feast with you, feeding themselves
without fear.
That's a great alliteration from the book of Jude.
And that's a powerful passage and those Fs really drive it in and make it more powerful.
These are spots in your feasts of charity when they feast with you, feeding themselves
without fear.
You know, I mean that'll preach, right?
Now I didn't, I didn't prepare this in advance, but let's check out the modern versions on
that.
Let's, let's see what they do to this.
Let me go to my stash of, of a wrong Bibles here.
We got the recovery version, the new American standard.
I don't know what the, if the recovery versions for drug addicts or what, but I don't know
what that is.
Here, let's, let's, let's go to the new American standard here.
I didn't plan on doing this, so this is all just kind of free verse right now, free style.
Let's see what we got here in the, uh, American standard version.
These men are those who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you
without fear, caring for themselves.
Now I'm sorry, the King James, it's a lot better.
These are spots in your feasts of charity when they feast with you, feeding themselves
without fear.
Right?
Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds, trees whose fruit withers, without
fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their
own shame, wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
That's some powerful poetry, amen?
Well, it doesn't rhyme.
Okay, well, let's listen to it in the new American standard.
These men are the, wait, hold on, I got to get my Dr. Sperger glasses for this here.
Let's get it from, you know, the, the modern day scholars.
New American standard is much more accurate.
These men are those who are hidden reefs in your love feasts.
What is this like?
Are we swimming in the ocean?
These men are those who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you
without fear, caring for themselves, clouds without water, carried along by winds, autumn
trees without fruit, autumn trees without fruit.
You know what I'm talking about out there.
Doubly dead.
Doubly dead, uprooted.
Without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots.
Autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted.
Oh yeah, man, the new American standard rules.
Filled waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam, wandering, folks, I didn't
even plan that.
You could open this book anywhere and it sounds like that.
I here's, here's another good, uh, here's another good alliteration from the Bible.
We should look this up in the new American standard too.
This is what all the Calvinists love, right?
The ESV, new American standard, this is what they're into.
The opponents of the, uh, the King James only movement.
Okay.
Here's another great one.
I'm going to look it up in the, somebody help me find it in Matthew 13 cause I don't know
the verse number, uh, where he says, gather ye together first the tares and bind them
in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.
Isn't that, that's a great alliteration, right?
Bind them in bundles to burn them.
It's verse 30.
Okay.
Let me get there.
Matt, Matthew 13 verse 30.
Let's, let's do it in the new American standard.
First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up.
Oh, it's same thing.
All right.
Well I should have quit while I was ahead with Jude, but anyway, all right, so look
at, look at Psalm 19.
So basically, you know, we see that the King James does use some good poetic elements like
alliteration, rhyming.
Um, there's all, there's another poetic device.
I forget the name of it.
This isn't in my notes, but there's a poetic device where to emphasize something, you say
the negative of its opposite, like borrow not a few instead of saying like borrow a
lot.
Borrow not a few or, or, or of the chief Greek women.
Not a few, you know, does anybody know what that's called?
Nobody knows.
All right.
I don't know either, so I can't blame you.
But the Bible says, and you're in Psalm 19, but in Psalm 119 verse 140 it says, thy word
is very pure, therefore thy servant loveth it.
So you know, why do we love the word of God?
We love it because it's very pure.
We love it because it's the truth.
We love it because it's accurate.
We love it because it has no lie in it.
Everything it says is true.
That's why we love it, right?
But another reason that we love it is because it's beautiful, right?
The poetry.
Look at Psalm 19 verse 7 and notice these parallels.
The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is clean and during forever, the judgments of the Lord are true
and righteous altogether.
Did you get that little rhyme there?
The fear of the Lord is clean and during forever, the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous
altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey
and the honeycomb.
So not only does God's word have value like gold, where man, if we can get a hold of it,
it's the truth, it's pure, it's right.
It's going to give us wisdom to guide our lives, but it's also sweeter than honey.
What is that talking about?
The beauty of it.
Just the enjoyment factor.
Just the pleasure of reading God's word.
Moreover by them is thy servant warned and in keeping of them, there is great reward.
Now who knows the song for these Psalms where it's put to music?
Who grew up singing that song, right?
Okay, so this is a really popular one that I grew up singing where it says, the law of
the Lord is perfect, converting the soul, the testimony of the Lord is sure, making
wise the simple.
And then verse 10 is the chorus, more to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much
fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
Who's heard that before now that I've sung it to you?
And it goes for all of these, the statutes of the Lord are right, you can go through
and do that.
Look, these Psalms have been sung effectively for many generations, so don't get an attitude
that says, well, you know, it's not going to work in English, it's not going to happen
in English.
Or well, you know, you put the Psalms to music in English and they're okay, I mean they're
okay but, you know, well, here's the thing, it's no different in any other language.
You know, and I mean that's a good song, it doesn't rhyme except in that one spot.
But yet you can sing songs that don't rhyme and they can still sound good.
You know, you can still make a rhythm to it and make it sound good.
So the moral of the story is that number one, the poetry has not lost its poetry in English.
We still have the poetry in our Bible.
And number two, it is intended to be beautiful.
It should be beautiful.
You know, it reminds me of when my grandma's first baby was born, she was put completely
unconscious while the baby was born.
It was kind of a strange time.
And so she gave birth and she was unconscious while the baby was born.
So she woke up and they brought her the baby and she said, this isn't my baby.
And they're like, no, this is your baby.
And she said, this is not my baby.
My baby would be beautiful.
Okay.
You know, she was emotional from everything, you know, and the drugs, the drugs hadn't
worn off folks.
Okay.
So that, you know, that's the way I feel about it.
It's like, Hey, my baby would be beautiful.
You know what I mean?
It's like, if God wrote the Bible, it better be beautiful.
And this is the most beautiful book that you'll ever read.
And you know what?
Move over Robert Frost.
Move over Homer and Shakespeare.
Move over all the other poets of this world.
Move over Schiller and Goethe, you know, move over Keats and Yates.
You know, Hey, this is the poetry.
You want to read some poetry, read Psalms, read Proverbs, read Job.
This is a beautiful book.
My friend.
Let's buy rides and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word Lord.
And we thank you that it does warn us, that it does instruct us, that it does teach us
and guide our lives.
But Lord, thank you so much that it also brings us pleasure and joy and just the sheer beauty
of it stirs our hearts Lord God.
And we just thank you so much for allowing us to be born in a country where we speak
English and we have the King James Bible, which is such a beautiful, perfect translation
Lord God.
And Lord, those that are in other lands where maybe they speak a very obscure tongue, Lord,
I pray that they would get the word of God translated into their language, the entire
Bible.
I know there are some people groups, all they have is a new Testament or all they have is
just John and Romans.
Lord, I just pray that every nation would hear of your word Lord, and that they would
be able to get access to your word.
Help us to preach the gospel to every creature and help us to read the Bible every day and
to love it, memorize it, enjoy it, and to worship you in the spirit of holiness and
help us to worship you for your greatness and for your beauty.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.