Reading Poetry and Wisdom

The last lesson read story and law. This one reads two more kinds: poetry and wisdom. They do not tell what happened, nor command what to do; they teach how to speak to God and how to live.

The Psalms are a book of prayer. Psalm 13 opens with David asking ‘How long?’ four times: “How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever?” (Ps 13:1) This is not a polite prayer; it is someone at the end of their strength telling God the truth.

Many Christians think that before God we may only say words of thanks. The Psalms tell us otherwise: we can speak of pain, and even of complaint—spoken to God. The Psalms are full of laments like this. When reading poetry, don’t rush to turn it into doctrine; first let it become your own words.

Notice too the turn in Psalm 13: the first four verses all ask ‘how long’, and then verse 5 suddenly says: “But I trust in your loving kindness.” (Ps 13:5) The situation has not changed, the enemy is still there, but his eyes have turned from his situation to God. When reading poetry, watch where it moves from and where it moves to. One more thing: poetry often says the same thing in two lines—“Will you forget me forever?” (Ps 13:1) and “How long will you hide your face from me?” (Ps 13:1) are one cry said twice. Once you see this parallelism, you won’t pull each line apart to find a separate meaning in it.

Now Proverbs. Proverbs are general wisdom: this is how things usually go, not a guarantee for every case. The clearest example is two proverbs side by side: “Don’t answer a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him,” (Prov 26:4) followed immediately by: “Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.” (Prov 26:5) Do they contradict each other? No. Proverbs puts them side by side precisely so that we learn to discern: when to ignore, and when to answer. Wisdom is not memorizing a formula; it is knowing the time.

With that in mind, read a proverb many parents know well: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Prov 22:6) This is a proverb—general wisdom, not a formula. It needs to be read from both sides.

If your child has left the faith: this verse does not condemn you. Proverbs are not guarantees—parents can do their best and a child may still take another road; that does not necessarily mean you taught them wrongly. You can keep praying for them, keep loving them, and place them in God’s hands.

If you are raising children now: this verse is still God’s charge to you. Moses said to Israel’s parents: “you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up” (Deut 6:7). Raising children is not useless; it is something to be done faithfully. Paul says the same of the work of ministry: “I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase” (1 Cor 3:6). The doing is ours; the outcome is God’s.

Read poetry to learn to tell God the truth; read Proverbs to learn to know the time. Both serve the same end: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (Prov 1:7).