Reading Hebrew Poetry (with J. Richard Middleton)

Disciple Dojo

Biblical Poetry is….well…pretty hard to understand sometimes! And when you compare translations, they don’t always say the same thing! What is going on?? I invited my good friend J. Richard Middleton back into the Dojo for a discussion of Hebrew poetry, and the hauntingly beautiful Psalm 77 in particular. Sit back and enjoy the discussion, friends! Dr. Middleton's Books and Resources can be found at: Articles and blog - https://www.jrichardmiddleton.com Abraham's Silence - https://tinyurl.com/3x94apv6 A New Heaven and New Earth - https://tinyurl.com/zjn74thh The Liberating Image: The Imago Dei in Genesis 1 - https://tinyurl.com/249zfsm6 Seminary Now - https://seminarynow.com/ Related Dojo resources: “To Know and Be Known: Forming a Thoughtful Christian Sexual Ethic” - https://www.discipledojo.org/to-know “Bible for the Rest of us” - https://www.discipledojo.org/bible Ancient Near East Bible Backgrounds playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4bbdsVUgfc5TnFfdyxI0ZELx0JVjLgbA 00:00:00 - Intro 00:03:49 - What has Dr. Middleton been up to lately? 00:06:13 - How to present an academic paper without being boring! 00:10:13 - Is academia an “ivory tower’? 00:12:30 - How do you speak on biblical faith in a scholarly setting among non-believing colleagues? 00:14:14 - The importance of reading Scripture out loud in corporate worship…and why it’s usually done poorly! 00:24:20 - How do we safeguard against reading our own ideas into the text? 00:30:24 - The problem with theological “deconstruction” 00:36:50 - Is Richard a heretic?? 00:38:34 - Let’s look at Psalm 77 in Hebrew… 00:41:15 - Opening observations on “crying out” and “meditating” 00:43:25 - Hebrew tenses…and why Biblical poetry is so hard 00:47:56 - What if you can’t read Hebrew? 00:49:57 - Why the A.C.T.S. model of prayer is actually kinda backwards! 00:52:54 - Psalm 77:4, Insomnia, A Clockwork Orange, and Bird Box 00:56:53 - Hebrew poetic imagery and Israel’s geography 00:59:12 - ‘Olam: “forever” or “a long duration”? 01:00:40 - Rhetorical questions and the effectiveness of ending an if/then statement with “…” 01:04:57 - The difference knowing Hebrew makes in our depth of understanding 01:07:30 - Does God “change”?? 01:15:16 - When theology and experience don’t match…you get Lament! 01:17:37 - God’s mighty deeds and echoes of Exodus 15’s triumph hymn 01:24:25 - Singing the “big picture” and why we should do WAYYYY more of it in church worship! 01:28:12 - Ancient Near East stock imagery: Deep/Waters/Thunder/Lightning 01:36:04 - Seeing Israel’s story as OUR story too, and why that matters so much! 01:38:13 - God’s “footprints are not known”? 01:39:26 - Why does Psalm 77 seem to end unfinished? 01:45:00 - The danger of prooftexting from Hebrew poetry 01:46:43 - Final recap of Psalm 77 and what it means to us today 01:49:40 - Closing remarks and how to access Richard’s work online 01:50:45 - Richard’s upcoming books! ------ Go deeper at www.discipledojo.org Subscribe to the Disciple Dojo podcast for more in-depth teaching and discussions: SoundCloud - https://soundcloud.com/discipledojo Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/26BDZz70HmnT5eoD9BEKQ7 iTunes - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/disciple-dojo/id1002934837 Stitcher - http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=181458&refid=stpr Amazon - https://tinyurl.com/uz8dbfet Disciple Dojo is a 501c3 Nonprofit organization. As such we rely on donor support to make this teaching available freely online. Please consider supporting this ministry if you benefit from the videos or podcast at http://www.discipledojo.org/donate