Psalms: Unlocking Your Inner Poet

The Old Testament is about one third poetry, though none of it looks like  traditional western poetry, with our familiar stanzas and rhyming. When is scripture poetry, and why? Why so many symbols and allegories and metaphors? Why not just tell us what we need to do and get on with it?

Poets themselves find it a challenge to define poetry. William Wordsworth said, "Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: emotion recollected in tranquility." John Keats maintained that "poetry should… strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance."  Emily Dickinsen watched for a physical response: "If I feel physically like the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry." Dylan Thomas felt it in the other extremity, defining poetry as "what makes my toenails twinkle." Geraldine Brooks summed it up in four words: "Poetry is life distilled."

   

Sometimes ordinary prose doesn't quite capture our emotional and spiritual response. When Jesus knelt and prayed among the Nephites they couldn’t find words to describe it. “No tongue can speak," they said, "neither can there be written by any man, neither can the hearts of men conceive so great and marvelous things as we both saw and heard Jesus speak; and no one can conceive of the joy which filled our souls at the time we heard him pray for us unto the Father.” (3 Nephi 17:17)

Faced with the challenge of expressing the inexpressible - our deepest love, gratitude,         sorrow, grief or faith - we turn to poetic language.   This overflow of feeling (and twinkling of toes) resulted in the Psalms. Though many of the psalms were probably used in temple       worship and for other ritual purposes, many of them seem to be a simple overflowing of the heart toward God. We might try writing a psalm that expresses our own personal love for     the Lord. Doing so will be meaningful for those we love, as we dig into the details of our daily walk with the Lord.

Here is a modern psalm from a Korean Christian writer named Ku Sang: 

Mysterious Wealth

Feeling today like the Prodigal Son

just arrived back in his father’s arms,

I observe the world and all it contains.

June’s milky sky glimpsed through a window,

the sunlight dancing over fresh green leaves,

clusters of sparrows that scatter, chirping,

full-blown petunias in pots on verandas,

all strike me as infinitely new,

astonishing and miraculous.

My grandson, too, rushing round the living-room

and chattering away for all he’s worth,

my wife, with her glasses on,

embroidering a pillow-case,

and the neighbours, each with their particularities,

coming and going in the lane below,

all are extremely lovable,

most trustworthy, significant.

Oh, mysterious, immeasurable wealth!

Not to be compared with storeroom riches!

Truly, all that belongs to my Father in Heaven,

All, all is mine!

Weakness Is Not a Sin, So Give Yourself a Break!

Erma Bombeck described guilt as "the gift that keeps on giving,” and most of us know just what she meant. If you tend to be too hard on yourself about your mistakes and failings (and who isn't?) join me this week for an hour that will help you look at life in a new way. Our guest teacher was Wendy Ulrich, PhD, therapist, motivational speaker and author of several wonderful books, including her latest, "Weakness is Not a Sin."

Through her books and seminars Wendy has helped thousands of people let go of unnecessary guilt and open themselves up to the love that God is anxious to have them feel. We are very fortunate that she is in the area for a few weeks, and has agreed to be our guest teacher at SIS this Wednesday. I love Wendy's books - she has taught me a lot about how the atonement can be a part of my daily life in an enabling and positive way - and this lesson inspired us all. 

Revelation 201: Hearing the Voice of God, Part 2

The subject of revelation seems central to the book of Samuel, and it is such an important topic that I feel it deserves two sessions. Samuel’s story begins with a remarkable manifestation from God to a little boy, and throughout his life Samuel as known as one who receives communications from God. The scriptures say of this great man: "The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground.” 1 Samuel 3:19

 Do you feel like most of your words fall to the ground? I certainly do! How do we become people who know how to receive and follow the voice of the Lord?As Samuel’s story progresses we learn more about the principle of revelation. Joseph Smith describe this process as a set of skills that can be cultivated with practice:

“A person may profit by noticing the first intimation of the spirit of revelation; for instance, when you feel pure intelligence flowing into you, it may give you sudden strokes of ideas, so that by noticing it, you may find it fulfilled the same day or soon; (i.e.) those things that were presented unto your minds by the Spirit of God, will come to pass; and thus by learning the Spirit of God and understanding it, you may grow into the principle of revelation, until you become perfect in Christ Jesus.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith)

Join some of our most inspired class members for insights on how they have learned to hear the voice of the Lord.

Should You Listen To That Voice in Your Head?

Hushed was the evening hymn,

The temple courts were dark,

The lamp was burning dim,

Before the sacred ark:

When suddenly a voice divine

Rang through the silence of the shrine 

The story of the boy Samuel, awakened in the night by the voice of God, is one of the sweetest and most moving tales in the Old Testament. It also introduces one of the most interesting topics in theology, namely, how do we discern the voice of God from the other other voices that clamor for our attention?

We did a close reading of the first few chapters of 1st Samuel, and examined the (sometimes subtle) differences between inspiration, hallucination, divination, and revelation. 

As a special treat, we were privileged to have Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, PhD, professor of history at Harvard and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, as a part of this lesson. Dr. Ulrich’s latest book, A House Full of Females, is a study of polygamy in the early church, and I asked Dr. Ulrich to share some experiences from the lives of these early pioneer sisters, many of whom testified that they were guided by the voice of God.

What Does a Prophet Do?

Each week we film our lesson and it appears on my YouTube channel, Marilyn Green Faulkner.

Elijah: What Does a Prophet Do? 

This lesson looks at several stories in 1 and 2 Kings. Elijah and his protege  Elisha have some remarkable experiences that have much to teach us about how the Lord works through his servants on the earth. From causing a drought to raising the dead, they have a tremendous impact.  (I’m still not quite sure what to think about the thing with the bears. Apparently you don’t want to get them mad at you…) 

What does it profit us to have a prophet in our midst? In addition to our Old Testament favorites, I studied the lives of our modern-day prophets in preparation for this lesson, and I have a new appreciation of the benefits of prophetic power in our lives. 

The subject of revelation seems central to the book of Samuel, and it is such an important topic that I feel it deserves two sessions. Samuel’s story begins with a remarkable manifestation from God to a little boy, and throughout his life Samuel as known as one who receives communications from God. The scriptures say of this great man: "The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground.” 1 Samuel 3:19

 Do you feel like most of your words fall to the ground? I certainly do! How do we become people who know how to receive and follow the voice of the Lord?As Samuel’s story progresses we learn more about the principle of revelation. Joseph Smith describe this process as a set of skills that can be cultivated with practice:

“A person may profit by noticing the first intimation of the spirit of revelation; for instance, when you feel pure intelligence flowing into you, it may give you sudden strokes of ideas, so that by noticing it, you may find it fulfilled the same day or soon; (i.e.) those things that were presented unto your minds by the Spirit of God, will come to pass; and thus by learning the Spirit of God and understanding it, you may grow into the principle of revelation, until you become perfect in Christ Jesus.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith)

Join some of our most inspired class members for insights on how they have learned to hear the voice of the Lord.

The Reading Schedule

Sisters in Scriptures Reading Schedule: April/May 2017

Here is the schedule through the end of the course:

March 29 ~ Esther: Queen for a Day

April 5 ~ Job: When Bad Things Happen to Good People

April 12 ~  Finding Christ in the Psalms (Easter)

April 19 ~ Real Life Lessons from Proverbs and Ecclesiastes 

April 26 ~ Isaiah: An Old Book for a New Day

May 3 ~ The Power of One: Daniel/Jonah

May 10 ~ Turning Our Hearts to the Fathers: Malachi

Genesis: Forgiveness 101

For some reason this time around the theme of Genesis seems to be forgiveness. Adam and Eve find that, as soon as they leave the garden, opposition enters the world in a variety of forms (including noxious weeds, menstrual periods and disputations about how to follow the rules) and as children arrive, the tension grows. My husband used to remind our teenage boys every time they went out in the car, "Remember, basically everybody's mad." Given the nature of the world we live in, it's safe to say that at any given moment, each of us is battling some kind of nagging irritation, and it may not take much to push one or two of us over the edge.

 Adam was made from the earth, adama in Hebrew, so his name literally means earthling. (Apparently Hebrews loved those kinds of puns, and we just miss them in the translation.) He and Eve were created to be in complete harmony with their environment. But that harmony begins to crumble as their sons square off over their respective sacrifice offerings. Cain's jealousy over God's preference for Abel's offering is a sad foreshadowing of the endless debates about how to properly worship God, that have been the cause of so much strife and bloodshed. The irony of that would be comical if it were not so heartbreaking. 

If Cain could have simply forgiven Abel, or at least agreed to disagree over the proper form of sacrifice, how would the history of the earth be different? Because he could not, sin entered the world. The conflict goes on as we enter the saga of Abraham, in the rivalry between Sarah and Hagar. We don't know if Isaac and Ishmael got along, because their parents separated them before they could really have a shared story, but the enmity of their mothers nearly cost Ishmael his life. Jacob and Esau are our next example of brothers who rival for God's favor (as they suppose) and again history is shaped by that family feud.

Are our family relationships enriching, or ruining our lives? How many of us have hesitated to attend a family event because we will meet someone there with whom we are in conflict? How many of us have harbored grudges for years? Jacob had to live far from his home because of his actions and the anger they caused in his family. How often, like Cain, do we exile ourselves from the garden of familial love because we can't get along with the other people who live there?

Getting Back to the Garden

Given the fact that disharmony causes all the trouble on earth, we ought to think a little more about how to get over the hurt and anger that drive us away from those we love. Here is where Genesis has a lot to teach us, and it begins with an unlikely hero, Esau. His remarkable response to Jacob's return signals an amazing turn in the narrative of Genesis. Jacob's journey toward reconciliation with his brother has taken twenty years, years during which he has been deceived as thoroughly as he once deceived his father, and in which he has lived with a father-in-law who wished to exploit him as much as he wished to exploit his brother. The man he is now, returning to his homeland with his wives and children, still retains elements of his former self (he sends the wives and kids ahead of himself as human shields, putting the least favorite in front, and keeping Rachel and Joseph close) but he is also sincerely penitent.

As the dreaded moment of meeting arrives, Jacob does as the vassal traditionally did to the suzerain, or lord, and bows to the earth seven times before Esau. It is clear that Esau has also grown more world-wise, as he comes to meet his brother flanked by 400 men. But he shows no desire to punish Jacob. Instead, he runs to meet him and embraces him, and is gracious to his wives and children. His behavior and his comments offer us a few hints into the mysterious process of forgiveness. 

The power to forgive has two halves: it requires an act of will on our part and an outpouring of grace on God's part. Both parts are essential. In a moving scene that will later be repeated in Jesus's parable of the prodigal son, Esau runs to meet and embrace his brother, and as he embraces him, grace pours out on them both. Jacob, who has wrestled through the night in search of God's blessing, finds it here in the frank forgiveness of his elder brother. Jacob marvels at the mercy extended to him, as he had marveled the night before at meeting God face-to-face.  He connects the two experiences thus: "For to see your face is like seeing the face of God, now that you have received me favorably." (Gen 33:10)

Forgiveness is a miracle, of which God is the source. Without divine help, we can no more forgive the sins of others than we can forgive our own sins. We can only step forward and begin the process by opening our hearts and minds to a forgiving attitude, and then asking for God's grace to provide the miracle. When we do, we will find that to forgive is to enter the presence of God. To fail to forgive is to forever shut ourselves out of that presence. M. Catherine Thomas observes: “Forgiveness is primarily an issue of Presence, because with forgiveness comes the restoration of the Presence of God.” Forgiveness, we find to our surprise, is the only way back to the garden.