God is great. God is good. Let us thank him for this food. Amen.
As a child, this was the prayer we prayed before every meal. Despite its brevity, this prayer pronounces unfathomable truths. The God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus is unmistakably great and relentlessly good. Words like holy, strong, and compassionate fill the pages of the Bible to describe him.
However, the Bible is not just filled with abstract adjectives. Often, God’s Word uses much more colorful imagery. Indeed, a careful reading of the Bible reveals a God whose self-description shocks our religious sensibilities.
One of those places is Psalm 78:65. Asaph, a court musician and singer, tells the history of God’s mighty works in Israel. He begins with the Exodus and proceeds through the wilderness to the eventual reign of King David. In all, he recounts the faithfulness and love of God, while Israel repeatedly rebels.
In one stretch, he describes God’s anger, kindled by Israel’s traitorous disobedience (v. 56-58). He responds by rejecting Israel and subjecting his people to the oppression of foreign nations (v. 59-64). Asaph gives an explanation for the events of Judges and 1 Samuel, for God’s just dealings with his sinful people.
But here is the shocking statement. Psalm 78:65-66 says, “Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a strong man shouting because of wine. He put his adversaries to rout, he put them to everlasting shame.” These words, if not inspired, would cause great consternation. Who would describe God this way?
What Is God Like?
Imagine for a minute a conversation with your pastor or another Christian. You ask him, “What is God like?” He answers, “Well, he is like a sailor hung over from a night on the town. Once sobered, he arises shouting to curse all those who have opposed him. With strength he routs his enemies and reclaims his stolen goods.”
Such a description of God is not just mildly shocking but disturbingly uncomfortable. And yet, is this not an amplified paraphrase of Asaph’s statement?
What does this teach about God? What do we learn about his Word? Can we really talk this way about God?
Latitude and Limits of Language
First, this imagery teaches us that the Bible is far richer and more detailed in telling us about God than we are in our regular conversation about him. God cannot be defined by simple platitude alone. Nor can he be understood by imprinting our parental prerogatives on him. In other words, when we hear that God is Father, we cannot say, “As a parent, I would never subject my children to torture. I would always want them to have the freedom to make their own choices. Thus, God can never ordain suffering or affliction, he can only permit it.” Such a view fails to read the details of Scripture (see Psalm 105:17, 25).
Second, the language of the Bible is analogical. In no way should we say, “God is a drunken sailor.” Nor should we believe the reason why his people perish is because “God is asleep.” Such a rendering fails to understand the importance of the word like. The Lord is like a strong man shouting because of wine, but he is not a raging drunk. Failure to understand that all language about God is analogical will inevitably result in distorted views of God. Moreover, in Psalm 78, the takeaway point is less that God is like one who awakes in a drunken stupor, and more that he is one who rescues his people and puts his adversaries to shame.
Third, we should see the world as a classroom that teaches us about God. He is the author of all creation, which reflects upon him. God the Father is reflected in the way a father loves and instructs his children. Husbands mirror the kind of relationship Christ has with the church. When mothers rejoice over their babies with singing, or wives remain faithful to their unfaithful husband, they reflect God.
Fourth, Scripture can use images and actions that by themselves are perceived negatively, even sinfully, to give meaning. For instance, Jesus gives the parable of the unscrupulous servant in Luke 16:1-9 and says that the citizens of heaven should learn to use secular wealth for the gain of eternal treasures, i.e. friends in heaven. He is not condoning the man’s impropriety but using his example to instruct.
In the same way, the psalmist speaks of God in a way that associates his actions with those of a drunken sailor, but this comparison does not posit the sin of the drunkenness upon God. He is not a drunkard. He is never out of control. Unlike the sailor who loses his wits and his wallet, God is perfectly ruling at all times (Ps. 103:21; 121), but from a certain vantage point it appears as though God had lost control of his people when the Philistines stormed Israel. However, like a man rising from his stupor, shouting because of wine, God routs the enemy and reestablishes his people.
Lesson of Language
In our teaching, we should let the language of life color our understanding of the Lord. God is light, love, holy, and true. Yes! But such abstract words need pictures, and as the Bible is full of them, so should our minds be renewed by all that Scripture says about the Lord—-propositions and parables.
Moreover, our views of God should be defined by the details of the Bible, and not just a limited number of memory verses. God is love (1 John 4:8), but as D. A. Carson has reminded us, God’s love is variegated. It displays itself in multiple ways in a plurality of relationships. The love that the Father has for the Son, for instance, is different from the love God has for inanimate creation.
Thus, as we read the Bible, our understanding of God should grow in vividness. Our limited views should not simply be flattened into staid platitudes such as, “If God loves the whole world then Jesus must have died for the whole world,” or, “If God is love, then love must win.” No, with attention to detail we should learn from the Bible that sometimes God is like a drunken sailor, who lets his possessions fall into the hands of the enemy and awakens to rout their oppressors and rescue his people. Whether we have considered it before or not, our salvation depends on this imagery, that the God who is silent for a time will not remain silent forever. When his people cry out to him, he will arise and come to their aid.
May we who read and teach God’s Word labor to take in all that God says about himself and glory in not just what is familiar, but also what is strange, because sometimes in the unfamiliarity of God’s Word he shows us himself most clearly.
Is there enough evidence for us to believe the Gospels?
In an age of faith deconstruction and skepticism about the Bible’s authority, it’s common to hear claims that the Gospels are unreliable propaganda. And if the Gospels are shown to be historically unreliable, the whole foundation of Christianity begins to crumble.
