I have mentioned to you previously that I am in the process of reading the entire Bible again this year. Today, I will provide another example of interesting scripture that I have read in the past week. Here is the shortest verse in the entire Bible:
Psalm 117:1-2 – Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples. 2 For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.
This short Psalm shares two properties in the Bible – (1) it is the shortest chapter in the entire Bible, and (2) it is also the middle chapter in the entire Bible. God looking redemptively here beyond the borders in the Old Testament is made clear in verse 1 (also called A Global Invitation). Paul quoted this verse in Romans 15:7-13 to illustrate the point from the beginning of time that God has pursued a worldwide redemptive purpose. Verse 2, is what God has promised and will provide (called A Grand Explanation). The author of this chapter is unknown.
This is shortly followed by Psalm 119, which is the longest chapter in the entire Bible, 176 verses long. This chapter in the Bible is called the Mount Everest of the Psalter. The author is unknown, but David, Daniel, and Ezra have been suggested. The psalmist apparently wrote this chapter while under some sort of serious duress.
This is also an example of an acrostic psalm, meaning it is composed of 22 similar sections, each containing 8 lines. The eight lines of the first section start with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and the Psalm continues until all 22 letters of the Greek alphabet have been used in order. The resulting Psalm is then 22 X 8 =176 verses.
I hope you enjoy today’s somewhat “different” message! May God bless America throughout this weekend and its 250th anniversary celebration!
Please note that a few weeks ago, recipients of my TGIF message who use a gmail account may have stopped receiving my messages. I have received the following failure to send message as follows – [Sorry, we were unable to deliver your message to the following address.
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