July 11, 2007
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CS Lewis Hated the Psalms
http://youtube.com/watch?v=PQEeCxRBBF0
CS Lewis said some Psalms are “diabolical”, “petty”, “vulgar”, “terrible” and “contemptible”.
Lewis assumed that the imprecatory Psalms are David’s own personal cursings. And thus, Lewis thought that the imprecatory Psalms were “diabolical”. After all, the Scripture forbids men to curse. And since the imprecatory Psalms contain cursing, Lewis concluded that these Psalms are “un-Christian”.
Sadly, Lewis did not see the other option (the imprecatory Psalms are actually Christ cursing his enemies, the reprobate)
Christ says, “But these HOSTILE to me, those not desiring me to reign over them, bring them here and EXECUTE THEM BEFORE ME.” (Luke 19:27)
Comments (1)
Though I have yet to read Lewis’ “Reflections on the Psalms” (it’s on my list) and there are plenty of things that I disagree with him on, I do know that Lewis speaks somewhat tongue-in-cheek frequently, and this is probably an example of that. The reason he does that is to emphasize just how corrupt and twisted our own reasoning is. Lewis is pretty hard to understand sometimes.