The Language of God
“Poetry is language used with personal intensity. It is not, as so many suppose, decorative speech. Poets tell us what our eyes, blurred with too much gawking, and our ears, dulled with too much chatter, miss around and within us. Poets use words to drag us into the depth of reality itself.” - Eugene Peterson, Answering God The Bible is inspired. We get this from passages like 2 Timothy 3:16.
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” (2 Tim. 3:16) God worked through human beings to give us his holy Scripture. What we have today is what God wants us to have, but what about the Bible is inspired? People often point to the words and say the words are inspired. Yes, the words are inspired. We could not speak or be understood without words, but is this all that is inspired? I believe we focus so much on words—and rightly so, words are important—we sometimes miss other ways Scripture is inspired. If the Bible is what God wants us to have, we should also pay attention to how words are used, laid out, and organized. Our understanding of inspiration should also include elements such as form and genre.
Why is this important? Let’s examine one example. About one-third of the Bible is poetry. If the Bible is inspired, God chose to speak to us using poetry. He could have chosen another way. He could have chosen another literary genre, and the Bible does contain multiple literary genres, but one of the main ones is poetry. This means we need to pay attention to poetry. We need to learn to read poetry well so we can receive what God is communicating to us.
Why does God use poetry? This is a good question to think about. There are likely multiple reasons why God chose to speak to us via poetry. The poetic form is helpful in describing things beyond us, things we cannot see and may struggle to understand. How do we describe God? How do we describe what takes place in the spiritual realms? Poetry helps us. Poetry is the language of love, and God is love (1 John 4:8). It only makes sense that poetry is a language that God often uses.
Poetry also benefits us as human beings and makes us better readers of Scripture. One cannot read poetry quickly. Poetry makes us slow down and pay attention. This makes poetry countercultural. It is anti-TikTok and anti-Twitter. We live in a distracted age. We live in an age where we are being pushed to go faster and faster. We live in an age lacking beauty. Poetry is good for the soul. As we learn to slow down, pay attention, and recognize beauty, we become more astute readers of Scripture. Our eyes are opened to what God wants us to see and understand. Don’t take my word for it. Listen to the poetry of God.
“Be still, and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10)