Rain on Mown Grass

Last updated on: May 9, 2017 at 12:00 am by Peter Leithart

Rain on Mown Grass 2017-05-09T00:00:00+06:00 Peter Leithart

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Psalm 72 is one of the most majestic, calmly triumphant Psalms in the Psalter. Attributed to Solomon, or written for Solomon, it is redolent of the glories of his reign. This king has received judgments from the God of Israel, and that enables him to pass judgment. Gifts from God to the king (v. 1) flow from the king to his people. The king’s name endures, but only because it is incorporated into the name of Yahweh, whose name is blessed forever. He establishes justice only because he has first received justice. Under his reign, justice comes from the mountain of Yahweh’s house, from the mountain of the king’s palace, from the mountaintop that is the king himself, and flows down as peace to the land below.

The king’s justice has particular benefits for the needy and poor. He passes judgment in their favor, rescuing them from those who would exploit their vulnerability and weakness. He saves (yasha) the needy, and, simultaneously, crushes the oppressor. Like Yahweh crushing the head of Rahab, like Yahweh saving Israel from Egypt, so the king has compassion on the poor. This is a liturgical celebration of that preferential option for the poor, a Psalm that makes care of the poor, vulnerable, weak, destitute, and isolated the standard of justice for society. If the least are not cared for, if you need money to get a fair hearing in a court, if the poor have no opportunity to flourish, then the society is not just.

Beyond the borders of Israel, the king commands nomads. Even his enemies pay homage. As CJ Labuschagne has demonstrated at length, the Psalms are intricately patterned poems, often using numerology to highlight themes and to lend texture. In the 17 verses of Psalm 72 (apart from the concluding doxology), there are 137 words. The central word is “Sheba,” no doubt an allusion to the Queen Sheba who visited Solomon to see the greatness of his glory.

On either side of “Sheba” are 68 words, 4 x 17. 17 is the numerical value of the word for kabod, “glory,” often used as a substitute for “Yahweh,” and the number 4 often refers to the universal extent of something—four corners of the earth, four winds of heaven. Sheba’s name—the Queen who pays homage to Solomon and acknowledges Yahweh’s love for Israel—is set in the midst of numerical testimonies to the universal glory of Yahweh’s reign. Sheba is not alone. She comes with the kings of Tarshish and the islands, with the kings of Seba—four groups of rulers, another numerical hint that king Solomon shares in or mediates global reach of Yahweh’s rule.

Enemies lick the dust, like the serpent judged by Yahweh in the garden (cf. Micah 7:17). Other rulers pay homage to the king of Israel in the way they would pay homage to the Lord himself. They prostrate themselves before him. They bring “tribute” offerings—minchah, the word translated as “grain offering.” They “bring near” presents; the verb is qarab, used for the liturgical approach of Israel and the qorban gifts that Israel brings. Homage to Yahweh’s king is a form of homage to Yahweh himself.

Nature itself participates in the justice and good order the king establishes. While he reigns, there will be an abundance of grain, gigantic as cedars of Lebanon (v. 16). The city flourishes like a green field; the city becomes a garden, fresh as Eden (v. 17).

It’s all summed up by the lovely phrase of verse 6: The king is like rain upon the mowing, like showers that water the earth. Rain refreshes. Rain cleanses. Rain glorifies and brightens. Rain on the mowing is a promise of a new harvest beyond today’s harvest. Earth depends on showers from heaven to produce anything. Without showers, there is no abundance of grain, no fruit trees like cedars of Lebanon, no green cities, no life.

The king has been given justice, and when he does justice, the land becomes fruitful. No enemies plunder and devastate the land. The rich can’t seize and exploit the poor, so everyone has enough. Good rule is as necessary to the flourishing of the land as rain is to the growth of plants and the cycle of life. Without rain, the earth produces nothing, and if the earth produces nothing everything dies. Without just rule, the garden withers to a wasteland.

We often think of power as the ability to bend others to our will, or as the force to curb or suppress bad behavior. Those are legitimate exercises of power, but power is more fundamentally empowerment. We exercise power by granting power to flourish. As parents, as employers, as church leaders, as political rulers, in whatever sphere we exercise power, we aim to be as rain on mown grass, as showers that water the earth.

Psalm 72 feels all the more majestic and calmly triumphant because of what precedes it. The Psalter is divided into five books, a fivefold book of song that matches the fivefold book of Torah. Psalm 72 comes at the end of Book 2, which begins with Psalm 42 (42/43). As James Jordan has noted, Book 2 begins with 8 Psalms by Levites (7 by sons of Korah, one by Asaph), followed by 21 Psalms by David. David’s Psalms begin with Psalm 51, Miserere, David’s Psalm of lament after his sin with Bath-Sheba. The Psalms of kingship begin in abject repentance and sorrow.

The Psalms that follow are largely Psalms of distress and battle. David prays when Doeg the Edomite turns him in to Saul and when the Ziphite betray David. David prays when the Philistines take him captive in Gath, and when he is on the run from Saul. Again and again, he is at the point of death. He is threatened by mighty men with tongues as sharp as razors (52:2). Violent men seek his life (54:3). His enemies pursue him, and leave his heart anguished by “terrors of death” and his body by “fear and trembling” (55:1-5). “My soul is among lions,” with teeth like spears and arrows (57:4). He is threatened by serpents and cobras, spawn of Satan (58:3-5). He considers that God has rejected him and broken him, and remains angry with him (60:1). He is drowning and the Lord has to come to rescue him from the deep mire and the flood waters (69:1-4).

There are moments of triumph, especially as we get to the end of the sequence. David calls on the earth to shout joyfully to God and to see the awesome works He has done (66:1, 5). He sings battle hymns: “Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered, and let those who hate him flee before him” (68:1, the great Huguenot battle Psalm). But even at his most triumphant, David doesn’t describe his situation as Psalm 72 describes Solomon. David is never at peace, never without enemies threatening, never at rest. David is beleaguered; David’s son, though, rules in peace. David’s son comes into Sabbath rest.

That’s the sequence of the royal Psalms of Book 2—from repentance through the anguish of opposition and suffering to the triumphant conclusion of Solomon’s reign. But it would be a mistake to think that Psalm 72 alone is a true Psalm of kingship. Rather, the whole sequence from suffering to Sabbath, through humiliation to exaltation, is a royal sequence.

In the Psalter, suffering and Sabbath are distributed to two separate kings—David and Solomon. But the sequence hints at a king who will embrace the both poles of royalty, who will suffer like David and reign like Solomon. And once we catch that Messianic note, we can see that Psalm 72 stretches beyond Solomon to another, better king. Solomon’s reign was glorious, and he did justice. But he also oppressed his own people, as Jeroboam charged. He received tribute from distant kings, but the Lord also raised up rivals to discipline him for his idolatry. The Psalm is about Solomon, but it reaches beyond Solomon to a future king, another son of David, whose reign will be a reign of unalloyed justice, who will bring peace, who will save the poor and needy, who will receive tribute from conquered kings, who will make the earth flourish like Eden.

Psalm 72 as a “celebration” of just rule. It is also a prayer. English translations differ on how they render the verbs of the opening verses. Are they futures (“he will judge,” “the mountains will bring peace,” “he will vindicate the afflicted”) or wishes and requests? Older versions use the future, but more recent ones take the whole Psalm as a prayer for a king, for Solomon, and, given Solomon’s failures, a prayer for another Solomon, an idealized son of David. And so the Psalm becomes not only a Messianic Psalm but a Messianic prayer, chanted century after century, until finally answered by the incarnation of the Son of God, the rain that comes from heaven to water the earth.

Messianic Psalms are still songs of the church. We await the full justice of the eschatological reign of Jesus, the greater Solomon. And in the meantime, the Psalm is a prayer for good rule. Jesus fulfills this Psalm, but He himself rules through human beings who carry out His justice. Psalm 72 is a prayer that He reign in such a way that the kings of the earth bring him tribute and prostrate themselves before him. It’s a prayer that kings reign so as to deliver the needy in their cry and crush the oppressor. It’s a prayer for just society.

Verse 12 introduces a twist. Verses 12-15 seem to simply repeat what was said at the beginning of the Psalm. Why say it again? The substance is the same. Both speak of the needy, afflicted, and poor. Both speak of deliverance and salvation. The two sections are distinguished by a grammatical difference. The first section is a prayer that the Lord would give the king just judgment to deliver the afflicted and crush the oppressor. Verse 12 begins with “for,” or “because.” The Psalmist has just prayed that the Lord would give the king a long reign, make him like rain on mown grass, bring other kings to pay tribute to him. And he asks that the Lord would bless the king in this way because he delivers the needy, because he has compassion, because he rescues from oppression and violence, because the blood of the poor is precious in his sight. A long, prosperous, glorious reign comes with a condition: He must use his power to help the needy. The form of the prayer is: May he reign while the sun endures because he has compassion on the needy.

And, conversely, if not, then not. If he doesn’t use his power to crush the violent and save the victims, if he instead uses his power to extract from and squeeze the weak to enrich himself or his powerful cronies, then this prayer is not for him. He has become a predator, who drinks the blood of the weak considering it precious. Then other Psalms come into play: “O God, shatter their teeth in their mouth; break out the fangs of the young lions, Yahweh. Let them flow away like water that runs off. . . . like a snail which melts as it goes along, like the miscarriages of a woman which never see the sun” (Psalm 58:6-9). Then in a different sense we pray that God would “give judgment” to the king.

Bible - OT - Psalms

Political theology

Previous Post

May 8, 2017

On the History of Charisms

Next Post

May 10, 2017 Yahweh is Good

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 1 Corinthians 1-2 Samuel 1968 Abelard Abortion Abraham Acedia AD 70 Adam Smith Addiction Advent Advertising Aeneid Aesthetics Africa African Christianity African Church African religion Age Aging Agriculture Airline industry Alabama Alasdair MacIntyre Albania Alcohol Allegory Alms Alternative Medicine Ambrose America American Christianity American culture American economy American Evangelicals American Foreign Policy American history American Literature American Military American Politics American Religion American Revolution Anagogy Analytic Philosophy Anamnesis Ancient Egypt Ancient Greece Ancient history Ancient Near East Ancient Religion Angels Anglican Church Anglicanism Animism Anointing of the Sick Anselm Anthropology Anthropomorphism anti-Catholicism Antiquities Antonio Lopez apocalypse Apocalyptic Apocalyptic language Apostles Creed Aquinas Archeology Architecture Arianism Aristotle Ark of the Covenant Art Art History Ascension Aseity Assurance Athanasius Atheism Athens atonement Attention Attributes Augustine Austin Farrer Authority autonomy Avant-garde Awe Bach Ballooning Balzac Banking Bankruptcy Baptism Baptists Baseball Basketball Bavinck Beatitudes Beauty Behavioral Economics Being Benedict XVI Benjamin Benjamin Franklin Beowulf Berkeley Bernie Sanders Bertrand Russell Bestiary Bible Bible - criticism Bible - NT Bible - NT - 1 Corinthians Bible - NT - 1 John Bible - NT - 1 Peter Bible - NT - 2 Corinthians Bible - NT - 2 Peter Bible - NT - Acts Bible - NT - Colossians Bible - NT - Ephesians Bible - NT - Galatians Bible - NT - Gospels Bible - NT - Hebrews Bible - NT - James Bible - NT - John Bible - NT - Jude Bible - NT - Luke Bible - NT - Mark Bible - NT - Matthew Bible - NT - Paul Bible - NT - Philippians Bible - NT - Revelation Bible - NT - Romans Bible - NT - Thessalonians Bible - NT - Timothy Bible - OT Bible - OT - Amos Bible - OT - Chronicles Bible - OT - Daniel Bible - OT - Deuteronomy Bible - OT - Ecclesiastes Bible - OT - Esther Bible - OT - Exodus Bible - OT - Ezekiel Bible - OT - Ezra-Nehemiah Bible - OT - Genesis Bible - OT - Habakkuk Bible - OT - Hosea Bible - OT - Isaiah Bible - OT - Jeremiah Bible - OT - Job Bible - OT - Joel Bible - OT - Jonah Bible - OT - Joshua Bible - OT - Judges Bible - OT - Kings Bible - OT - Lamentations Bible - OT - Leviticus Bible - OT - Malachi BIble - OT - Micah Bible - OT - Nehemiah Bible - OT - Numbers Bible - OT - Pentateuch Bible - OT - Proverbs Bible - OT - Psalms Bible - OT - Ruth Bible - OT - Samuel Bible - OT - Song of Songs Bible - OT - Torah Bible - OT - Zechariah Bible - OT - Zephaniah Biblical Law Biblicism Billy Graham biography Biology Biololgy Biotechnology Blasphemy Blindness Blog news Blogging Blogroll Bloomsbury Group Bob Dylan Body Body symbolism Boethius Boko Haram Bonhoeffer Book of Common Prayer Books Botany Boundary Brexit Britain British History British Politics Bruce Springsteen Buddhism Bureaucracy Burial Business C. S. Lewis C. S. Peirce Calendars Caliphate Calvin calvinism Camille Paglia Canon Capitalism Cappadocians Carl Schmitt Catholic Social Teaching Catholicism Catholicity Causation cemeteries Cervantes Charism Charismata Charity Charles Dickens Charles Hodge Charles Simeon Charles Taylor Charles Williams Chaucer Chermistry Chess Chesterton Chiasm children China Chinese Exclusion Act Chivalry Chopin Chretien de Troyes Christendom Christian Democracy Christian reconstruction Christianity in Britain Christianization Christmas Christology Chronology Church church and state Church architecture Church Calendar Church history Church of England Church Year Cicero Circumcision Cities City of God Civil Religion Civil Society Civil War Civility Classical Theism Classics Climate Change Clothing Coleridge Colloquy of Marburg Colonialism Color Comedy Comenius Commodity Communio Communism Community Comparative religions Computer Science Confederacy Confessionalization Conflict Congregations consciousness Consecration Conservatism Constantine Constitution consumerism Contra Faustum Conversion Coriolanus Cormac McCarthy Cosmology Cosmopolitanism Council of Trent Counter-culture Counter-insurgency Courage Courtly love Covenants Crafts Craftsmanship Cranach Creation Creativity Creator-creature Credit Crime Crime and Punishment Crisis Critical scholarship Criticism Cross Cubism Cultural theory Culture Culture War Dance Daniel Dennett Dante Darwin Dave Eggers David David Foster Wallace David Hume David Jones Deadly sins Death Debt Dechristianization Decolonization Deconstruction Defoe Deja vu Democracy Denis de Rougemont Denominationalism Derrida Descartes Developmental psychology Devils Diocletian Discipleship Disenchantment Disgust Diversion Diversity Divine energies Divine Impassibility Divine Simplicity Divine Warrior Doctrine dogma Dominion Donald Trump Dostoevsky Douglas Campbell Douglas Farrow Dreams Dualism Durkheim Dystopia E.M. Forster Early Christianity Early Modern Europe Easter Eastern Europe Eastern Orthodoxy Ecclesiology Ecclesiology Economics Economy Ecumenism Eden Edgar Allan Poe Edmund Spenser Education Egypt Election Elites Emergence Emma Emotion Empire England English History English Reformation Enlightenment Entertainment Entrepreneur environmentalism Envy Epic Epiphany Episcopals Epistemology Epistles Equality Erasmus Ernst Kantorowicz Eros Eschatology Eternity Ethics Eucharist Europe Evangelicalism Evangelicals and Catholics Together Events Evil Evolution Exile Face Fairie Queene Fairy Tales Faith family Family and Marriage Fantasy Farming Fashion Fasting Fatherhood Fear Femininity Feminism Fertility Fetishization Feud Feudalism Feuerbach Fiction Figs Film Finance Finland Fire Flag Flags Flannery O'Connor Flood myths Folly Food football Foreign Affairs Foreign Policy Foreknowledge Forgiveness Foucault Fracking France Francois Mauriac Franz Rosenzweig free will Freedom Freedom of God French Revolution Freud Funerals Future G. K. Chesterton Gambling Gaming Gay Marriage Gender gender identity Genealogy Geography George Berkeley George Eliot George Herbert; Poetry George Romanes Gerald Manley Hopkins Germany Gethsemane Gift Gifts Giorgio Agamben Global Christianity Global economics Globalism Globalization Glorious Revolution Gnosticism God's sovereignty Gods Goethe Golf Good Friday Gospel Gospels Gothic Gothic architecture Grace Grammar Gramsci Gratitude Greek Literature Greek Philosophy Greek Religion Greek Science Gregory of Nyssa Guillermo del Toro H. Richard Niebuhr Haiku hair Hamann Hamlet Handicap Handles Hands Hans Urs von Balthasar Happiness Harold Bloom Harper Lee Harvest healing Heaven Heavenly treasure Heavenly treasure Hebrew Bible Hebrew language Hegel Heidegger Hell Hellenism; Judaism; Revelation Henri de Lubac heresy Herman Dooyeweerd Hermeneutics Herod Heroic Heroism Hesiod Hidegard of Bingen Hierarchy Hieronymus Bosch Historicism Historiography History History - Early Modern History - Middle Ages Hoaxes Hobbes Holiness Holy Saturday Holy Spirit Home Homeless Homer Homosexuality Honor hope Horror Hospitality Housing Hugh of St. Victor Human Rights Humanism Humor hylomorphism Hymns Hypocrisy. Iago Iconoclasm Identity Ideology Idleness Idolatry Iliad Images Imagination Immigrant churches Immigrant Religion Immigration Imperialism Improvization Imputation Incarnation Incest India Individualism Indonesia Inequality Inerrancy Infant Baptism Infant mortality Infanticide Ingratitude Innovation Inspiration Institutions Insult Intellectual History Intellectuals Intelligent Design International Politics Internet Intimacy IQ Iran Iran-Iraq War Iraq Ireland Irony Islam Islamic State Islamism Ismail Kadare Israel Ivan Illich J. Gresham Machen J.N. Figgis Jacob Jacques Lacan James Bond James Jordan James Joyce James KA Smith James Wood Jane Austen Jane Jacobs Jealousy Jed Perl Jeff Koons Jeroboam Jesus Jewish War 66-70 AD Jihad Johann Georg Hamann Johannine Epistles John Ashbery John Behr John Bunyan John Calvin John Donne John Frame John Howard Yoder John Knox John Milbank John Milton John Owen John Rawls John Ruskin John Stuart Mill John the Baptist John Webster John Wesley John Williamson Nevin Jonathan Edwards Jorge Luis Borges Joseph Conrad Joseph Ratzinger Journalism Joy Judaism Judaize Judgment Judith Butler Jurgen Moltmann Justice Justification Kalevala Kant Karl Barth Karl Marx Karl Polanyi Karl Rahner Kazakhstan Kazuo Ishiguro Kenneth Lonergan Kierkegaard King Lear Kingdom of God Kitsch Knighthood Knowledge Korea Labor movement Lactantius Lamech Lament Landscape Language Latin America Laughter Law Law and Punishment Leftism Lent Les Murray Levi-Strauss Levites Leviticus Liber Mundi Liberal arts Liberal Theology Liberalism Light Lighthouse Linguistics LIstening Literacy Literary structure Literature Liturgics Liturgy Locke Logic Love Luther Lutheran Lutheranism Lying Lytton Strachey Macbeth Machiavelli Machines Madness Mainline Manhattan Manicheanism Manners Manufacturing Manuscripts Mao Zedong Maps Marcion Marilynne Robinson Marketing Marriage Martha Nussbaum Martin Bucer Martin Chemnitz Martyrdom Marx Marxism Mary Mary Douglas masculinity Mass Materialism Mathematics Maundy Thursday Max Weber Media Mediation Medication Medicine Medieval Church Medieval exegesis Medieval Literature Medieval theology Medieval Thought Medievalism Memory Merchant of Venice Mesopotamian Religion Messianic Metaphor Metaphysics Methodist Mexican-American War Michel de Montaigne Michel Faber Middle Ages Middle East Midwifery Mikhail Bulgakov Military Millennium Mind Miracles Miscellaneous Mission missionaries Mixed constitution Modern self modernism Modernity monasticism Monotheism Monroe Doctrine Monsters Montaigne's Essays Moral philosophy Mormonism Moses Mother Teresa Motherhood Motive Mount of Olives Movies Multiculturalism Murder Music Musicals Mutability Mutability Mystery Mysticism myth N. T. Wright Narrative Nation-State Nationalism Natural Law Natural-Supernatural Nature Nature and culture Nature and Grace Nazi Nazirite Necrophilia Nero Nestorianism Neuroscience Nevin Lectures New Atheism New Testament New York City Newbigin News NGOs Nibelungenlied Nicholas of Cusa Nicholas of Lyra Nietzsche Nigeria Nihilism Nobel Prize Nobility Nominalism Norbert Elias Norman MacCaig nostalgia Novels Numerology Obama Objectivity and subjectivity Occasionalism Odysseus Oil Old Testament Oliver O'Donovan Ontology Origen original sin Orthodoxy Othello Owen Barfield Pacifism Pactum salutis Paedocommunion Paganism Pain Painting Paleoconservatism Palm Sunday Pannenberg Parenting Pascal Passions Passivity Pastoral Care Pastoral theology Patrick Modiano Patristics Patronage Paul Peace of God Peace of Westphalia Penal substitution Pentecost Pentecostalism Perichoresis Pericles Persecution Person Peter Peter Enns Petrarch Philip K. Dick Philip Melanchthon Philosophy Philosophy of Action Philosophy of History Philosophy of language Philosophy of science Phone booth Photography Physics Pictures Pierre Bourdieu Place Planned Parenthood Plants plato Play Plot Plotinus Pluralism Pneumatology Poetics poetry Poetry & Stories Poland police Political Philosophy Political theology Political Theory Politics Pop Culture Pope Francis Popular Culture Populism Pornography Porphyry Post-Colonial Theory Post-Structuralism Postmodernism Postmodernity Potential Poverty Power Practice Pragmatism Prayer Preaching Predestination Prediction Prehistory Premillennialism Presbyterian Priesthood Prince Charles Prison Reform privacy Private Prodigal Son Progress Progressivism Property Prophecy Prophet Propitiation Prosperity gospel Prostitution Protectionism Protestantism Providence Prudentius psalms Pseudo-Dionysus Psychological Warfare Psychology Public intellectual Public Life Public Philosophy Public Theology Publishing Punk Rock Pure nature Puritanism Purity Pushkin Putin Pythagoreanism R.J. Rushdoony Race Racism Radical Orthodoxy Rape Rationality Reactionary reading Realism Reason Red State Blue State Reformation Reformational Catholicism Reformational Philosophy Reformed theology refugees reinhold niebuhr Relationality Relativism Relics Religion Religion and science Religions Religious Freedom Religious Liberty Religious Right Renaissance Rene Girard Republican Party Resurrection Resurrection. Revelation Revelations Revenge Revivalism Revolution rhetoric Richard Flannagan Richard II Richard III Richard Wagner Richard Wilbur Righteousness Ritual Robert Frost Robert Herrick Robert Jenson Robert Mugabe Robert Spaemann Robinson Crusoe Rock n' Roll Rod Dreher Rodin Roman Catholicism Roman Empire Roman Religion Romance Romanticism Rome Rootedness Rosenstock-Huessy Rousseau Rowan Williams Rural America Russia Russian literature Russian Orthodoxy Rusty Reno Rwanda S. Y. Agnon Sabbath Sacrament Sacramental theology Sacraments Sacred Sacred Space Sacrifice saints Salt Sam Harris Same-sex marriage Sanctuary Satan Satire Saudi Arabia Scapegoat Scarcity Schism Schleiermacher Scholarship Science Science and Theology Science Fiction Scopes trial Scotland Scott Adams Scott Cairns Scottish Reformation Scotus Scripture and tradition sculpture Sea Second temple Secularism Secularization Self-Help Self-trust Semiotics Semper reformanda separation of church and state Sermon on the Mount Sex Sex Trafficking Sexual abuse Sexual Politics Sexual Revolution Sexuality Shakespeare Shame Culture Shema Sherlock Shopping Silence Simone Weil Simplicity Simpsons Sin Sincerity Sixties Skepticism Slavery Slavoj Zizek Sleep Sloth Social capital Social change Social Imaginary Social Science Socialism Socialization Sociology Sociology of Knowledge Sociology of Religion Sola scriptura Sonnets Sophocles Soteriology Soviet Union Space Spain Speculation Spinoza Spirit Sport Sports Star Trek State State-formation Stephen Masty Steven Bannon Strangers Structuralism structure Subject-object Substitution Suburbs Suffering Suicide Super-Rich Superheroes Supersessionism Supplication Supreme Court Surveillance Symbol Synagogue Taberancle Tabernacle Tax Taxes Tears Technology Teens Teleology Television Temple Ten Commandments Terence Terrence Malick Terrorism Thanksgiving The South The West Theodore Roosevelt Theogony Theological Education Theological Language Theology Theology - Anthropology Theology - Christology Theology - Covenant Theology - Creation Theology - Ecclesiology Theology - Eschatology Theology - Liturgical Theology - Pneumatology Theology - Soteriology Theology - Trinity Theology proper Theopolis Theopolis Institute Theosis Theresa May Thomas A. Clark Thomas Aquinas Thomas Carlyle Thomas Mann Threshing Thucydides Time Tocqueville Tolerance Toleration Tolstoy Tom Wolfe Tools Torah Torture Toscanini Totalitarianism Trade Tradition Tragedy Transhumanism Translation Transubstantiation Travel Trees Trinitarianism Trinity Trinity House Tristan Troilus and Creysede Trump Trump Truth Turkey Twelfth Night Two Kingdoms Typology Ukraine Ulysses Uncanny Uncategorized Uniform Union with Christ United States Unity University Usury Utilitarianism Utopia Value Vatican II Vengeance Vico Victorian Age Victorian Literature Vienna Violence Virgil Virgin Birth Virginia Woolf Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Solovyev Vladimir Solovyov W.H. Auden Walls Walt Disney Walt Whitman Walter Benjamin Walter Lippmann War Wars of Religion Washington DC Wealth Weddings Will William Carlos Williams William Gilpin William Golding Wine Wisdom wonder Word of God Wordsworth Work Works World Council of Churches World History World War I World War II Worldview Worship Wrath Writing Youth Youth Ministry Yuja Wang Yves Congar Zimbabwe Zwingli Zygmunt Bauman

Select a Month January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What did Paul say was the purpose of the Law?

Select your answer to see how you score.

To keep order To lead us to Christ To separate Israel from the nations To make us righteous