Monthly Archives: September 2022

Psalm 76 The Fearfully Powerful Defender of Peace

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Let us Beat Swords Into Plowshares, a sculpture by Evgeniy Vuchetich, given by the Soviet Union to the United Nations in 1959

Psalm 76

<To the leader: with stringed instruments. A Psalm of Asaph. A Song.>
1 In Judah God is known, his name is great in Israel.
2 His abode has been established in Salem, his dwelling place in Zion.
3 There he broke the flashing arrows, the shield, the sword, and the weapons of war. Selah
4 Glorious are you, more majestic than the everlasting mountains.
5 The stouthearted were stripped of their spoil; they sank into sleep; none of the troops was able to lift a hand.
6 At your rebuke, O God of Jacob, both rider and horse lay stunned.
7 But you indeed are awesome! Who can stand before you when once your anger is roused?
8 From the heavens you uttered judgment; the earth feared and was still
9 when God rose up to establish judgment, to save all the oppressed of the earth. Selah
10 Human wrath serves only to praise you, when you bind the last bit of your wrath around you.
11 Make vows to the LORD your God, and perform them; let all who are around him bring gifts to the one who is awesome,
12 who cuts off the spirit of princes, who inspires fear in the kings of the earth.

The image of God as an incredibly powerful Divine Warrior occurs frequently throughout the scriptures. The world of the ancient Middle East was a conflicted one with war being a frequent feature as rival kings or empires competed for power, land, and wealth. The spoils of war were for most of history a significant source of income for the powerful and an incredibly dangerous upheaval for those who victims of the warriors who pillaged. Psalm seventy-six’s essence is, “our God is more fearful than the instruments and warriors of war.” In a world that is unsafe, an awesome (fearful) deity who defends the people would be a source of confidence.

The psalm centers on Jerusalem as the place where God is known. Like Isaiah 2: 2-4 and Micah 4: 1-4 there is a focus on Zion being a place where war ends, and the nations come to learn the ways of the God of Jacob. The initial verse begins with a parallel between Judah and Israel, in Judah God is known and in Israel God’s name is great. Being known in Hebrew reflects intimacy, while the honoring of God’s name as great indicates the power of God. In characteristic fashion[1] the psalm brings together the desire of God to dwell among and be known by the people with the awesome power of God where God’s name is to be held in honor. (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, pp. 609-610) The parallelism continues with the dual naming of Jerusalem (Salem and Zion) as the dwelling place of God. Salem is from the Hebrew shalom (peace, harmony with God). Zion refers to the hill on which the city is built (there are various theories on what its origin of the term, but the term has become synonymous with Jerusalem or the dwelling place of the people of God). The term for dwelling place has been used elsewhere for a lion’s den or lair and it is possible that the metaphor of God as a lion is introduced into the poetry here. (NIB IV:980) In language similar to Psalm 46, God shatters the instruments of war and perhaps war itself. The ‘flashing arrows’ are likely flaming arrows (the meaning of the first word is uncertain) and most translations indicate that the final thing shattered are the weapons of war, but the Hebrew simply states war. It is possible that the presence of the Divine Warrior shatters the personification of war itself. God stands glorious (literally shining forth) and more majestic than the mountains.[2] Now the strongest warriors have had the spoils of war taken from them and the troops are unable to stand as they sink into the sleep of death. Horse and rider lay stunned at the voice of God. The Divine Warrior who resides in Zion is a fearful foe.

The key word in verses seven through twelve is “feared” (NIB IV: 979).[3] When the Hebrew Bible speaks of the ‘awesomeness’ of God it reflects the fearful strength of this Divine Warrior who defends the people of God but also is never to be taken for granted by the people. This is why Proverbs states, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1:7). The God who dwells in Zion, who desires to dwell among the people of God is a God who the earth fears when that God utters judgment in anger. Yet, God’s judgment and anger is to protect the vulnerable and the oppressed of the earth. Kings and princes who attempt to seize power learn to fear God’s judgment, while for the weak this fearful one who brings an end to war is a source of powerful hope.

The chosen people were not to strive to become a military superpower that relied upon armed men and war horses to conquer the nations around them. The story of Israel is complex and their reliance upon the God of Israel does not prevent acts of seeking military conquest or attempting to build armies to defend themselves, conquer their neighbors, or to maintain control internally. The law and the prophets envision (in general) a people of peace defended and sheltered by a Divine Warrior whose dwells among the covenant people. This reliance was tested in a conflicted world. There would be kings in Judah and Israel who would raise up sizeable armies, yet in comparison the empires of Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, or Persia they would always be vulnerable militarily. Yet, I believe this psalm shares a hope with Isaiah for a time when nations learn the ways of the God of Jacob, no longer train for war, and return the implements of warfare to the tilling and harvesting of the land.

[1] For example, Genesis begins with two creation narratives, one where God creates by speaking (awesome power) and one where God dwells among creation in the Garden of Eden and talks with Adam (intimacy), these twin themes are frequently present in the Exodus narrative, the prophets, and psalms.

[2] Another challenging line for translators. The Hebrew tarep is often assumed to be a copying error since it means prey. If prey is intended here, God stands forth on the mountain of prey like a lion (see above) (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 609). Hebrew poetry often has individual words or phrases that are difficult to translate because they are rarely used words or ideas.

[3] Hebrew yare– this is rendered as both awesome and fear in the NRSV.

 

Psalm 75 God’s Answer to the Boastful and Arrogant

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The Temple by Radojavor@deviantart.com

Psalm 75

<To the leader: Do Not Destroy. A Psalm of Asaph. A Song.>
1 We give thanks to you, O God; we give thanks; your name is near. People tell of your wondrous deeds.
2 At the set time that I appoint I will judge with equity.
3 When the earth totters, with all its inhabitants, it is I who keep its pillars steady. Selah
4 I say to the boastful, “Do not boast,” and to the wicked, “Do not lift up your horn;
5 do not lift up your horn on high, or speak with insolent neck.”
6 For not from the east or from the west and not from the wilderness comes lifting up;
7 but it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another.
8 For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed; he will pour a draught from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs.
9 But I will rejoice forever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.
10 All the horns of the wicked I will cut off, but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.

This short psalm which points to trusting God in the presence of those who are boastful and wicked may, like the previous psalm, originate in the context of the destruction of Judah by Babylon. The first three psalms of book three of the psalter are likely placed together intentionally at the beginning of the psalms of Asaph. Although the psalm itself does not have many references that would specifically point to the destruction of Jerusalem or the exile in Babylon it shares common language with the prophets of that time, particularly Habakkuk. Yet, the psalm itself can be a source of strength for anyone who is waiting for God to lift up the weak and bring down the arrogant, silence the boastful, and judge the wicked.

The psalm likely takes place in the context of a worshipping community praising God in preparation for petitioning God with their concern. The initial verse is a challenge to translate and understand because of the phrase ‘your name is near.’[1] Yet, if this is initially spoken within the context of a worshipping assembly in the temple (your name’s dwelling place in the previous psalm) it is a community giving God thanks in the midst of the temple. The words of the assembly are interrupted by God’s voice beginning in the second verse where God declares that at the appointed time God will judge with equity. The divine oracle may extend through verse five or verse six, but these words from the God who holds the pillars and foundations of the earth in the midst of the chaos tells the wicked and boastful not to sound their own horn. Perhaps this is the boastful Babylonians who are gloating in their military might and national power, but in the presence of the God of Israel their insolence is an annoyance. The solution to the crisis of that time will not come from the east (Egypt) or the west (Babylon) or the wilderness. The lifting up of the oppressed and lowly will be accomplished by the God of Israel. Verse eight uses a common image in scripture for God’s judgment, a cup,[2] and like the prophets the psalm expresses God’s judgment on the wicked and arrogant as a hope for the righteous who are suffering in the turmoil of the world. The divine voice returns for the final verse where the power (horns) of the wicked are cut off and the righteous are lifted up.

For the psalms, and the bible as a whole, the righteous live in dependence on God while the foolish, arrogant, and wicked boast in their own power and accomplishments. Even in the midst of the chaos of the world around them where the wicked seem to be powerful the faithful still assemble to give thanks to God and to anticipate God’s action to set the world aright.  The people of God have always been a “community waiting and hoping for justice.” (Brueggemann, 2014, p. 327) God’s justice may not be seen in the moment, but the community lives in hope and seeks out the places where they can hear God’s voice speaking to them. They wait for the time when the boastful are silenced and the wicked are brought down so that all of humanity and all creation can live in shalom (peace).

[1] The Hebrew versions of this (MT) reads “and near your name, they recount.” The Greek (LXX) and Syriac ancient translations read “and we call on your name.” (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 602) I agree with the NRSV and NIV which follow the Hebrew as explained above.

[2] Isaiah 51: 17, Jeremiah 25: 15; 49: 12, Ezekiel 23: 32-34, Habakkuk 2: 15-16, Revelation14: 10; 16:19; 18:6

Psalm 74 A Psalm When the World Collapses

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Memorial to the Main Synagogue in Munich which was destroyed during Kristallnacht, November 10, 1938. Psalm 74:18 is used in the center of the monument.

Psalm 74

<A Maskil of Asaph.>
1 O God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?
2 Remember your congregation, which you acquired long ago, which you redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage. Remember Mount Zion, where you came to dwell.
3 Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins; the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary.
4 Your foes have roared within your holy place; they set up their emblems there.
5 At the upper entrance they hacked the wooden trellis with axes.
6 And then, with hatchets and hammers, they smashed all its carved work.
7 They set your sanctuary on fire; they desecrated the dwelling place of your name, bringing it to the ground.
8 They said to themselves, “We will utterly subdue them”; they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.
9 We do not see our emblems; there is no longer any prophet, and there is no one among us who knows how long.
10 How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever?
11 Why do you hold back your hand; why do you keep your hand in your bosom?
12 Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the earth.
13 You divided the sea by your might; you broke the heads of the dragons in the waters.
14 You crushed the heads of Leviathan; you gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness.
15 You cut openings for springs and torrents; you dried up ever-flowing streams.
16 Yours is the day, yours also the night; you established the luminaries and the sun.
17 You have fixed all the bounds of the earth; you made summer and winter.
18 Remember this, O LORD, how the enemy scoffs, and an impious people reviles your name.
19 Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild animals; do not forget the life of your poor forever.
20 Have regard for your covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the haunts of violence.
21 Do not let the downtrodden be put to shame; let the poor and needy praise your name.
22 Rise up, O God, plead your cause; remember how the impious scoff at you all day long.
23 Do not forget the clamor of your foes, the uproar of your adversaries that goes up continually.

This is one of several places in scripture where poets and prophets wrestle, together with the rest of the people of God, over the loss of the temple and the transport into exile. Some of these reflections engage with the deep hurt and anger at the loss of their home, like Psalm 137. Others, like Jeremiah or 2 Kings, point to the unfaithfulness of the people in their relationship with God as being responsible for the disaster. Psalm 74 also attempts to make sense of the destruction and violence that has been encountered and wonders how long it will be before God acts to restore the people and fulfill God’s portion of the covenant. In the aftermath of a defeat at the hands of an enemy which has destroyed both their military resistance and the symbols of their faith the psalmist calls upon God to act and restore the people and the house where God’s name dwells.

The defeat of Jerusalem by Babylon and the destruction of the temple causes a crisis of identity for the people of Judah. The temple, more than just a building but a symbol of their faith, the Davidic king, promised to reign perpetually, and the land have all been taken away and those who have attempted to remain faithful to the covenant now have to reshape their identity without these central aspects of their life. Unlike in the prophets or in the narration of Israel’s history, there is no confession of guilt here. Perhaps the psalm comes from a place still too fresh for that type of reflection, or the psalmist may view that they and those around them have remained faithful. They do not question the justice of God’s action against the people of Judah, but they turn back to the covenant and God’s action to claim them as a people and ask for God’s restoration and forgiveness. The cause of their disaster is God’s anger and casting off of the people and their restoration can only be found in God’s turning back toward them.

The appeal is to God’s sovereignty. Although there is no confession of guilt and no declared acts of repentance the psalmist believes their enemy has gone too far. God’s anger should be kindled against them because they have burned the holy place, smashed, and vandalized the building, have placed their emblems and symbols in the places where only the name of God should dwell and have burned any place where the people could gather. The enemy’s triumph has caused not only the people of God to be scoffed, but God’s name to be dishonored. With no holy place or holy people to bear a message from God the people can only shout ‘how long’ and hope in the silence for a word from God to answer their question.

I believe that the enemies in this psalm are the Babylonians who conquered Jerusalem in 598 BCE and the language in the second half of the psalms reflects a polemic against the religion of the Babylonians that we are familiar with through the Enuma Elish where Marduk kills the great multi-headed dragon Tiamat (Leviathan) and sea monsters (dragons). In contrast it is the LORD, the God of Israel, who triumphed over the chaotic forces of the sea in the creation and who subdued the great monsters that threatened creation. This God who created the day and night, sun and stars, springs, and streams, and fixed the boundaries of the earth can act on behalf of this conquered people. The God who formed a covenant with the people in the Exodus and overcame Egypt can now overcome Babylon. The God who hears the poor and the vulnerable can now hear their cry from their oppression and will deliver. But if none of these reasons are suspicious, the psalmist calls upon God to defend God’s name from the impious who scoff at God’s power. The enemy who conquered the people has arrayed themselves against God and the people wonder aloud how long they will wait before they see God’s response to the adversaries of this generation.

Psalm seventy-four ends without a resolution and those speaking it enter into the space of waiting for God’s answer. Even in the midst of crisis the faithful ones continue the conversation with God and call upon God to act. The Babylonian exile does not end the crises that will arise for the faithful people, and this psalm has been a resource in times where national or personal identity has been challenged among the faithful. The picture above is from a memorial for the main synagogue in Munich, which was destroyed during Kristallnacht on November 10, 1938 and the center of the memorial uses Psalm 74:18 as the Jewish people would once again ask God, “how long” while an impious people in their actions destroyed the holy places of the people and in words and actions reviled the name of God.

Psalm 73 When Faith is Challenged

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Love is Not a Victory March by Marie -Esther@deviantart.com

Psalm 73

<A Psalm of Asaph.>
1 Truly God is good to the upright, to those who are pure in heart.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped.
3 For I was envious of the arrogant; I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 For they have no pain; their bodies are sound and sleek.
5 They are not in trouble as others are; they are not plagued like other people.
6 Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them like a garment.
7 Their eyes swell out with fatness; their hearts overflow with follies.
8 They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression.
9 They set their mouths against heaven, and their tongues range over the earth.
10 Therefore the people turn and praise them, and find no fault in them.
11 And they say, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
12 Such are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches.
13 All in vain I have kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.
14 For all day long I have been plagued, and am punished every morning.
15 If I had said, “I will talk on in this way,” I would have been untrue to the circle of your children.
16 But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task,
17 until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I perceived their end.
18 Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin.
19 How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors!
20 They are like a dream when one awakes; on awaking you despise their phantoms.
21 When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart,
22 I was stupid and ignorant; I was like a brute beast toward you.
23 Nevertheless I am continually with you; you hold my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me with honor.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire other than you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
27 Indeed, those who are far from you will perish; you put an end to those who are false to you.
28 But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, to tell of all your works.

Several church communities I am familiar with have adopted the popular, “God is good all the time and all the time God is good” saying. While I do not disagree with the assertion that God is good, an honest reflection on the life of faith may question the experience of God’s goodness. One of the gifts of the psalter is that it includes prayers that wrestle with the experience of God’s goodness in a world where the wicked seem to prosper and the righteous suffer. The righteous ones in the psalms ask questions of God, speak openly of the things that make them question their way of life as they, “keep looking for truth in the midst of an imperfect world.” (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 593)

What does it mean for God to be good to the upright and the pure of heart in a world where the wicked are at peace and the righteous suffer. The observation of a world where the immediate experience seems to contradict the promise of prosperity for those keep God’s covenant. In Hebrew the psalmist sees the shalom of the wicked (translated prosperity in the NRSV). Shalom indicates peace and prosperity. It is what is promised to the righteous but is now viewed by the psalmist as being received by the wicked. Their physical and emotional health is secure, they are well fed, they bear no consequences for their violent words and actions, their pride is viewed by others as a virtue. Their way of life seems to contradict the will of God and yet they seem to be rewarded in society for their self-centered actions. On a societal level this seems to have been the struggle of Israel, staying faithful to God when their neighbors seemed to prosper, and on an individual level the psalmist confesses that it nearly caused him to stray from the path and adopt the practices of these apparently successful wicked ones.

In contrast the ones who has kept their hearts clean and washed their hands in innocence have encountered suffering.   Whether their pain is physical or social, it causes them to question the efficacy of the way of life they have attempted to walk. They live in tension between their faithfulness to the circle of the faithful and their view of the peace and prosperity of the wicked. In the moment the world appears to be upside down with the wicked prospering and being commended while the righteous suffer and are excluded or taken advantage of. It is only by bringing this question to the community of faith and the place of worship that the psalmist is able to see beyond their perception of the moment.

The resolution of this psalm reminds me of the difference between climate and weather. Weather is the observation of the atmospheric conditions and their impact in a short window of time while climate looks at the compilation of individual weather observations to study the changes over time. The psalmist initially is observing the wicked within a short window of time but once they enter the sanctuary of God they see that this window of time is transitory. In the moment the wicked may experience shalom, but it is an evanescent experience that will vanish like a dream disappears upon waking. Indeed, the psalmist views the current prosperity of the wicked as an slippery slope that ultimately leads to their ruin. The psalmist confesses their own shortsightedness which caused them to question God’s goodness in the world and to consider the attractiveness of the ways of the wicked ones who lived well-fed and well-loved in their community.

The psalmist ends in a space of faith. The experience of the moment is transitory, but God is their rock that they can lean upon. God’s justice may not be experienced immediately, but the wicked will not find shalom forever, they will find that God can know and that their actions are seen. Yet, in pondering the prosperity of the wicked, the righteous one has found their treasure in being close to God. The process of questioning one’s experience has brought the poet closer to God. The prosperity of the wicked no longer seems as appealing since the psalmist desires nothing more than the presence of God. For the upright they come to know that God is good not in their experience of material prosperity but instead in God’s physical proximity.

The Book of Judges

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Cracked pots, Picture taken by Enric from the Monestary of Sanahin, Armenia shared under creative commons 4.0

Transitioning into the Book of Judges

Judges 1 The Disposition of the People of Israel

Judges 2 The Pernicious Cycle of Disobedience

Judges 3 The First Three Judges

Judges 4 Deborah, Barak, and Jael

Judges 5 The Song of Deborah and Barak

Judges 6 The Calling of Gideon

Judges 7 The Collapse of the Midianite Threat

Judges 8 The Conclusion of the Gideon Narrative

Judges 9 The Brief Bloody Reign of Abimelech

Judges 10 A Brief Respite and the Pernicious Cycle

Judges 11 Jephthah and a Corrupted View of God

Judges 12 Jephthah’s Ignoble End and Three Minor Judges

Judges 13 The Birth and Calling of Samson

Judges 14 Samson and the Marriage at Timnah

Judges 15 Samson’s Fiery Vengeance

Judges 16 Samson, Delilah and a Crashing End

Judges 17 The Idol of Micah

Judges 18 A World Where Might Makes Right

Judges 19 The Levite, the Concubine, and the Violence of Gibeah

Judges 20 War Between the Tribes of Israel

Judges 21 A Tragic Conclusion

Resources on the Book of Judges

Reflections After Walking Through the Book of Judges

 

Reflections After Walking Through the Book of Judges

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Cracked pots, Picture taken by Enric from the Monestary of Sanahin, Armenia shared under creative commons 4.0

The scriptures that both Christians and our Jewish ancestors have inherited are a deeply varied collection of works that attempt to make sense of the encounter between the people of God, the world around them, and the God who has called them. The reality that our scriptures include this violent, colorful, and disturbing book with a tragic ending is pretty exceptional because many people would attempt to hide a book that paints the tribes of Israel in an unflattering light, that contains several texts of terror, that presents Israel’s loss of identity so completely and its Judges as such flawed characters. This was a difficult book to look deeply at, not due to technical issues but because of its dark portrayal of the lawless world of this time between Joshua and the first kings of Israel.

The stories that are compiled in the book of Judges are ancient and their world is alien to us. It is hard not to impose modern ideas about civilization onto these stories, but in both technology and worldview this takes us to a very primitive place. The law as we see it outlined in the books of Exodus through Deuteronomy is absent and reading closely we see the patterns of worship often are indistinguishable from those of other communities like the Canaanites. I would agree with many modern scholars that the law probably reaches its final form much later than the events narrated in Judges, but I also am suspicious that there has been much lost from the time of Moses and Joshua where a common leader was able to unite the tribes. In a pre-literate society without a common set of leaders and where even the Levites fail to hand on the worship and the law of God we end up with a collection of tribes whose life and practices reflect the land of Canaan they live within.

The book of Judges is part of a larger pattern within the scriptures including 1&2 Samuel and 1&2 Kings which attempts to view history through a theological lens and make sense of the collapse of Israel and Judah. Many of the stories that make up Judges were probably well known and told for generations around campfires. They are stories that may point to a ‘heroic culture’ and ‘heroic individuals’ within a broader time of oppression. The narrator of Judges attempts to bring these stories in all their strangeness together into a common narrative which can point to a broader cultural disintegration among the tribes of Israel and prepare the people for the next stage in the history of the people, the time of kings. Samson, for example, struggles with his identity as a person set aside from birth for a particular calling and he does everything he can to deny this identity. Yet, Samson is reflective of Israel as a whole turning aside from their calling (in the narrator’s view) and the seemingly godforsaken world at the end of the book is reflective of Israel’s lack of faithfulness to the covenant.

I do think that the way our Jewish ancestors organized the Bible which includes Joshua through Kings as a part of the prophets (Nevi’im) rather than the writing (Ketuvim) is insightful to the purpose of this book. Instead of being a book of history which narrates the events, this is a theological telling of history to illustrate the consequence of covenant unfaithfulness for the people. The dark topics covered with the book are uncomfortable, but they have provoked some interesting and deep discussions both within the confines of these reflections and within my community. As distasteful as they may be, the texts of terror contained within the book demand a telling and my experience is that if we are unwilling to talk about them when others stumble upon them they will seek answers and not all those who talk about scripture among the broader church do it in a helpful manner.

I am glad to complete this journey. The book of Judges will probably never be one of my favorites, but I do feel like I have learned from this journey through the book. I have attempted to be sympathetic to the narrative and to as much as possible understand the stories in their context. I know my narration of this book is far less triumphal than some, and even the book of Hebrews (the one New Testament reference I’m aware of to the book) interprets it in a triumphal tone:

And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, and shut the mouth of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. (Hebrews 11: 32-34)

The book of Judges instead ends with the cry of abducted and traumatized women, the aftermath of tribes going to war with one another, and an Israel who looks more like Sodom than any vision of Zion. Just as dystopic literature can highlight the things that are wrong in our modern society, this theological exploration of this lawless and disunified time in Israel’s story helps to illuminate the dangers of the people losing their identity and conforming to the practices of the surrounding world. It may not be comfortable reading, but it can be enlightening.