gratitude & hoopla: Lewis on the Maledictory Psalms

gratitude & hoopla

"Nothing taken for granted; everything received with gratitude; everything passed on with grace." G. K. Chesterton

17.5.06

Lewis on the Maledictory Psalms

Nate at Eight Strings quotes extensively in his latest post from Reflections on the Psalms by C. S. Lewis. Lewis is commenting on the "maledictory" passages in the Psalms, those disturbing verses that seem to be driven by hatred and spite rather than love and mercy. We avoid them like the plague, we Christians. I myself have often read a Psalm aloud in my small group or to a friend, hoping to bless my hearers, and found myself picking over these passages like a man in a minefield.

Lewis, of course, is able to shed some significant light on these matters, and although he doesn't really make these passages any more palatable--how can they be? why should they be?--he at least helps us to think about these things more clearly.