Day 19: Live Poets Society
“Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.” – Proverbs 16:24, New International Version
A Happy Time
In the course of God’s redemptive plan, for a short, happy time, the warrior-poet King David led and inspired God’s people. His creative genius emanates from many of the psalms. We’ve lost the music, but we have not lost the powerful emotions, truths and proclamations of praise revealed in them. Only the shepherd boy, now the shepherd king, could pen with such pathos these comforting words: “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1, King James Version).
The Poet
Poets create, and through their art, they discover beauty and value. Poets express what we feel but cannot articulate. Their carefully chosen words speak for, and to, our souls.
Godly Poets
In an increasingly flippant world, we need the winsome word, the beautiful imagery, the heartfelt expression of the poet. We need godly poets like David who pour out every emotion of the heart, the things we’re all feeling but nobody’s talking about. They skillfully bring us back to eternal truths that soothe our troubled spirits.
Where are the godly poets? Where are their poems?
God’s Poem
Ephesians 2:10 says, “We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (New International Version). The Greek word for “handiwork” here is poiema, from which we get the word “poem.”
We are divine sonnets, written not with ink but with His Spirit, not on sheets of paper but on the tablets of our hearts. God is the poet. We are his poems.
Next: David wrote many of the Psalms. His son’s writing also made it into Scripture but was quite different.
Questions:
- Do you like or read poetry? Why or why not?
- What do you think the role of the poet is in society and in the body of Christ?
- What is your favorite Psalm of David, and why?
- How does it make you feel that you are God’s “poem”?
Going Deeper:
- Read the Psalms. You can read all the Psalms by reading only one psalm a day for five months. Or you can read five psalms a day for one month. Warning: You might need to take some extra time to get through Psalm 119.
- Read Art and Culture — What is the Christian’s Responsibility?
