Optometry 101 – Part 1
I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; from where shall my help come? My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth [Psalm 121:1-2].
This quotation is beautiful Hebrew poetry. To understand it we need to understand how Biblical Hebrew poetry works. Let’s take a crash course in it, shall we?
Today we tend to rhyme words at the end of lines and call that “poetry”. And so it is…at least for us today. To each his own. I am not criticizing this approach, just noting that other approaches are out there. Some of our poetic content often leaves a lot to be desired in contemporary rhymes. I mean, “I think you’re groovy. Let’s go to a movie.” Really? That has been weighed on the scales and found deficient, much like King Belshazzar of Babylon (cf., Daniel 5:26-27).
But enough of the aside. Let’s mosey on back to Biblical Hebrew poetry. Rather than rhyme words at the end of lines, the Hebrews of the Bible “rhymed” ideas within the lines. Sometimes those ideas presented the same concept—in which case they were synonymous and bore the appellation synonymous parallelism. At other times the ideas portrayed opposite concepts—in which case they wore the mantle antonymous parallelism.
Let’s put Psalm 121:1-2 to work in illustrating this for us. Here is how the two verses are diagrammed:
A. I will lift up my eyes to the mountains;
B. from where shall my help come?
B. My help comes from the Lord,
A. Who made heaven and earth.
Take note, please, of the letters “A” and “B” which identify each line. Do you see how the two “A” lines run parallel in thought to each other, and the same for the two “B” lines? The concepts of the two “A” lines are similar: they are “synonymous” as far as concepts go. So too with the two “B” lines: they express similar or synonymous concepts. They run parallel to each other.
The Psalmist began by throwing out an observation, I will lift up my eyes to the mountains. He then followed this up with a question, from where shall my help come? The thought in this sentence is that the Psalmist looked around at all the pagans peoples and the apostate Israelites of his time. What he saw was the heathen worship of idols on every high hill and mountain, commonly known as the “high places” back in the day (cf., Psalm 78:58).
We will continue this exposition in our next post. For now let’s pull aside to this nearby arbor and rest our weary bones, as we meet with the Lord Jesus for a space.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Numbers: Volume 4 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
This quotation is beautiful Hebrew poetry. To understand it we need to understand how Biblical Hebrew poetry works. Let’s take a crash course in it, shall we?
Today we tend to rhyme words at the end of lines and call that “poetry”. And so it is…at least for us today. To each his own. I am not criticizing this approach, just noting that other approaches are out there. Some of our poetic content often leaves a lot to be desired in contemporary rhymes. I mean, “I think you’re groovy. Let’s go to a movie.” Really? That has been weighed on the scales and found deficient, much like King Belshazzar of Babylon (cf., Daniel 5:26-27).
But enough of the aside. Let’s mosey on back to Biblical Hebrew poetry. Rather than rhyme words at the end of lines, the Hebrews of the Bible “rhymed” ideas within the lines. Sometimes those ideas presented the same concept—in which case they were synonymous and bore the appellation synonymous parallelism. At other times the ideas portrayed opposite concepts—in which case they wore the mantle antonymous parallelism.
Let’s put Psalm 121:1-2 to work in illustrating this for us. Here is how the two verses are diagrammed:
A. I will lift up my eyes to the mountains;
B. from where shall my help come?
B. My help comes from the Lord,
A. Who made heaven and earth.
Take note, please, of the letters “A” and “B” which identify each line. Do you see how the two “A” lines run parallel in thought to each other, and the same for the two “B” lines? The concepts of the two “A” lines are similar: they are “synonymous” as far as concepts go. So too with the two “B” lines: they express similar or synonymous concepts. They run parallel to each other.
The Psalmist began by throwing out an observation, I will lift up my eyes to the mountains. He then followed this up with a question, from where shall my help come? The thought in this sentence is that the Psalmist looked around at all the pagans peoples and the apostate Israelites of his time. What he saw was the heathen worship of idols on every high hill and mountain, commonly known as the “high places” back in the day (cf., Psalm 78:58).
We will continue this exposition in our next post. For now let’s pull aside to this nearby arbor and rest our weary bones, as we meet with the Lord Jesus for a space.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Numbers: Volume 4 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/Randy-Green/e/B...
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