The Bible is a love letter from God? (Lectio Divina and the Bible)

[TarkanAttila]

I’ve heard this saying, even from other Catholics. Even from learned Catholics. I never really thought about it that way, until recently.

But how are these words of God? I don’t mean to say they’re theologically wrong. But… a lot of these sound like the words of men. Words I should be saying to God, not the other way around. The Psalms for example:

Psalm 119
IV (Daleth)

My soul lies in the dust;
by your word revive me.
I declared my ways and you answered:
teach me your statutes.

Make me grasp the way of your precepts
and I will muse on your wonders.
My soul pines away with grief;
by your word raise me up.

Keep me from the way of error
and teach me your law.
I have chosen the way of truth
with your decrees before me.

I bind myself to do your will;
Lord, do not disappoint me.
I will run the way of your commands;
you give freedom to my heart.

Can someone help me to understand, or see, how God can speak to me through these words?

To elucidate, last night I heard a talk on EWTN radio about Lectio Divina. A fellow who had written a book on LD, and he said that phrase. What he meant by it was that, well, when most of us pray, it’s a monologue. It’s just us talking to God, and feeling we never get a response back.

LD, however, according to this fellow (IIRC), is a dialogue, where God begins speaking through Scripture, and therefore we’re called to respond to Him in Meditation, prayer, and contemplation.

I always thought of the Psalms as being words we are supposed to say to God, and most of the rest as, well, instruction to us. But eek I’ve honestly never really thought of Scripture as God writing to us (or talking to us).

 

[NotWorthy]

Maybe God is teaching us how we should praise Him…

Love is a two-way street and we can receive even more Love from God when we love Him back, joyfully and completely.

This Psalm seems to be a way to teach me to love God even further.

 

[TimothyH]

Maybe God is teaching us how we should praise Him…

Love is a two-way street and we can receive even more Love from God when we love Him back, joyfully and completely.

This Psalm seems to be a way to teach me to love God even further.

+1

I would not even know that I am supposed to pray to God had God not revealed to mankind through his Holy Church that each of us are to do so.

Whenever I don’t know how to pray, I look at the Psalms and how Jesus prayed. Jesus even teaches us how to pray when he gives us the Lord’s Prayer.

All of it is revealed by God.

-Tim-

 

[bmullins]

The psalms are prayers. The problem is most people think of prayer as a one way street. How can you truly have a conversation with someone if you never stop to listen? Lectio Divina reminds us to do just that. We read God’s word, and we then think about it what it means based on context (exegesis.) Then we read it again, and look for a spiritual meaning. Then we read it again and think how it could apply to our lives. Then we read it again, and this time we listen. We wait for God to tell us what it means. We ask God to show us how HE wants us to take it.

When we read the Old Testament, many people see it as an angry fellow compared to the God that Jesus talks about. That’s where they err. They read it based on their own perception of events, and how they would be feeling when doing those things. Instead it must be read as salvation history. As a plan to bring Jesus on the scene to redeem us from our own sinful nature. We have to look at it from the view of a loving father, protecting and guiding his children. Lectio divina helps us to trust in the Holy Spirit to show us exactly that love story.

 

[LilyM]

If I wrote a letter to someone I might easily within that letter quote things other people have said to me, if I find them wise, moving, loving - perhaps even if I find them terrible.

God’s love letter tells the story of His love relationship with Israel among its other functions, and the Psalms are part of that - the part where David returns the love on behalf of Israel.

 

[Mintaka]

First off, we can’t pray except by God helping us pray. The only reason we have a mind, or breath in our lungs, is that God set us up with it and maintains it. (Granted, through the natural law, but still.) So anything you think of is just a rephrasing of what God urged you to pray to HIm.

Secondly, Jesus is true God and true Man. He is the human being, the new Adam. Anything that is said by a human being in the Bible, He’s right there, in a way.

Third, Jesus taught the disciples, on the road to Emmaus after His Resurrection, all the places where He speaks in the OT, or where the OT speaks about Him. What He said then and in previous years of preaching, what He said on the Cross, and what the Holy Spirit taught the disciples later, is the foundation of Christian Biblical interpretation,

The Psalms were said to have been written mostly by David, and partly by priests and Levites. But Jesus was the heir of David and the ultimate High Priest.

We know several places where He treated the Psalms as His own words, and we know from many statements in early Christian literature that the Psalms were taught to Christians as all being spoken by Christ, either for Himself or as a prayer (or praise, or scream of frustration) on behalf of all of us humans. If you read through the Psalms looking for this, or if you read the Fathers’ explanations of how this works, you will quickly see that it really is true.

There are many books explaining the Christological orientation of the Psalms. St. Augustine did a two-volume one; there’s a recent translation and there’s an older version online. But there are other good explanations and sermons from the Fathers available online.

Start with Psalm 1, Beatus Vir (“Blessed is the man.”) This one’s a good intro, because it’s very easy to see that it fits Christ better than it ever fit King David or a normal Levite. Things that seem like well-meant poetic hyperbole from the Psalmist turn out to be literally true for Jesus.