Anapestic tetrameter

Psalms 27-29

Reading through Psalms 27 something struck me. It was one of those things that could only happen at the confluence of several very random events aligning, either that, or God's ways are not our ways. The factoids align like this:

• I can't keep the beat and don't have rhythm.
• Francis Chan preached a sermon in November 2008 that I just listened to yesterday.
• Lauren posted a blog entry on Tuesday, March 2nd
• I read the 27th Psalm today

Huh? Francis Chan's sermon about end times (heaven vs hell) included a section about the how children's bible stories don't really tell the gospel story. His example was that the story of Noah's Ark as told to children focuses on the faith of one (a good thing), but minimizes the horrible reality that millions perish because they don't know the Lord. Lauren's blog entry celebrated Dr Seuss' birthday. Since I can't keep the beat and don't have rhythm, when I read through the 27th Psalm, parts of it reminded me of the anapestic tetrameter (da da DUM da da DUM da da DUM da da DUM) that Dr Seuss used to make his children's books so memorable.

My "what-iffer" started thinking. What if the gospel truths were put into a meter that would help children learn the truths of the gospel? No hidden truths disguised as cute children's characters, but instead gospel reality simply written in a style which draws and pulls the reader into the text so that the kids know not only the stories, but also the underlying truths. We know that the psalms were originally created in a style that was suited to the oral tradition of the time, but much of that is lost in the translation to modern English vernacular. Perhaps, I should dust off my poetic side.