Sunday, October 25, 2009

My Favorite Part of the Bible

My favorite Bible verse is Psalms 139: 

O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me; Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising; thou understandest my thought afar off; 

If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me; 

If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me"; even the night shall be light about me; For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb; When I awake, I am still with you. 

When I was at UC Davis, a fellow English major shared the above verse with me. I can't remember her name, but I hope she's doing well. 

O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me; Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising; thou understandest my thought afar off; 

If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me; 

If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me"; even the night shall be light about me; For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb; 

When I awake, I am still with you.

See also, the Koran. Islam requires all believers to accept Jesus Christ's and Moses' teachings: 

Say, "We believe in God and what has been sent down to us, and what was sent down to Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the Tribes, and what Moses and Jesus were given, and what all the Prophets were given by their Lord. We do not differentiate between any of them. We are Muslims submitted to Him." (Sura al-Baqara: 136) 

The messenger has believed in what was revealed to him from his Lord and so have the believers; each has believed in God, His angels, His scriptures and His messengers. We do not differentiate between any of His messengers. They say, "We heard and we obeyed; we seek your forgiveness, Our Lord, and unto You is our destiny" (Sura al-Baqara: 285) 

By the way, if anyone has insight on Biblical passages mentioning prophets after Jesus, please post a comment. The Bible seems to accept the possibility of future prophets. See Revelation 11:10 (read entire chapter for proper context); Matthew 10:40-41 & especially Matthew 23:34; John 13:20 & 15:20; and Acts 11:25-30, 13:1, and 15:32 (mentioning prophets born after Jesus's birth). More here.

Bonus: "Those who believe [in the Koran], and those who follow the Jewish [scriptures], and the Christians and the Sabians, any who believe in Allah and the Last Day [of Judgment], and who work righteously, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve." -- Koran, Al-Baqarah, 2:62 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Bible has some fairly poetic verses.

For a scientific counterpoint, I also recommend reading some of Richard Dawkins' work. Here's the first paragraph in his book UNWEAVING THE RAINBOW:

We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Sahara. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively outnumbers the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.

Matt Rafat said...

I've nicknamed Richard Dawkins "The Gentlemanly Atheist." He has some great books. Thanks for sharing that "verse."