Sunday, August 05, 2007

A Year of Wonders for Oyarsa


Hey Everyone,

It's been a little over a year since I first began blogging the Bible. I've found the experience extremely rewarding, though tiring and overwhelming at times as well.

So far I've gotten through 8,198 of 31,103 verses, or just over 26% of the Bible (if I decide not to go through the deutercanonical books - which are quite tempting since I haven't read half of them). So, at my current rate it'll take me another three years. I'd kinda like to finish sooner than that - maybe the prophets will go faster?

Anyway, I wanted to open the floor up to you folks who have been kind enough to join me so far, and ask if you have any feedback for me.

  • What posts have been the most interesting or helpful? What am I doing right?
  • What posts have been the least helpful? What do I need to do better at?
  • Am I going too slow? Too fast?
  • What the heck should I do when I get to the Psalms? Any advice on how to blog those without having to do a post for every individual psalm?

Comments:
I've not been reading for a great length of time, so I will defer my thoughts on most of your questions. Regarding the Psalms - there really is no easy way. You could try doing it topically. Reading/bloggings all the wisdom psalms, then all the lament psalms, etc. However, even doing it that way would leave you with large(ish) categories. You could try to start blogging a Psalm every other day or every week (in which case you'd finish the Psalms about the time you finish the Bible). It's more reading for you, but would spread out the Psalms.
 

Congratulations on your anniversary, WfO! I continue to enjoy your perspective.

My favorite posts of yours are the ones that deal with the more difficult themes in the OT. The honesty of your reactions have been a comfort to me. I appreciate that you don't try to "explain away" the darkness of these themes, yet continually remind us of the hope and mercy of Christ.
I honestly can't think of anything you need to improve on.

I also appreciate the 1-2 post a week approach. Since the baby is growing, I don't get as much computer time, and I end up skimming over a lot of the more active blogs. If you were posting more frequently, I'd have to skip posts or lag really far behind.

I like the PP's idea to start interspersing Psalms now, according to theme. Pick two wisdom psalms one week, two lament the next.

I'd also like to see you take a look at the deuterocanonical books. There's a growing movement in some Protestant circles to reexamine them, and I think your insight is valuable. If you're up to it, the Septuagint has a few more books, too...

:)

Many years!
 

You've taken on a big project, and that is quite admirable. A growing experience, isn't it?

Enjoy.

Collin
 

Well, I have been here only for a short time myself - but I value this blog!

I like the Psalm-every-other-week idea too.
 

I think Episcopalians read through the Bible once every two years by following the Daily Lectionary. Maybe you can get some ideas there.
 

Three years? I don't know.
 

I'm an Anglican myself, so I'm definitely familiar with the lectionary. But that's a little different from what I'm doing. The lectionary lets you look at the entire story through a microcosm of four readings. I'm trying to go through the entire story straight at least once, not least so that I can then read the lectionary with more fruitfulness.

Which is why I'm a little wary of just going through the psalms one at a time (well, that and the fact that it would be 150 posts, and in an entire year I've only done around 90!). It would be cool to do - to take each psalm and look at the story through the lens of that psalm. But I lean towards wanting to look at big categories and themes of the psalms, and get a feel for what they are telling us about God, and how praying these prayers advance the story.

But that may not work - I don't know. Going through them one at a time and reflecting may be a more appropriate way of reading them. Just for my information, does anyone know any good ways of categorizing the psalms? I know there are "books" in the biblical text, and that some are "psalms of David" and some are "psalms of Ascent". Any good ideas on how to break them down if I go this route?
 

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