| | Just as a side note, there is an idea floating around today that everything in scripture can only be understood in light of the entire story surrounding it, that unless the full context is given, it is automatically wrong. While there is definitely some validity to the fact that reading the full context of any given passage will add to your understanding, and often open up things that you never saw before, it is clearly not true that small, individual passages cannot be quoted completely out of context, as Jesus did it all the time. In fact, it is very unlikely that one would grasp from reading the context of this psalm, or any of the story surrounding what was happening when David wrote it, that it was a prophecy concerning the Messiah. However, since we cannot be sure that we will always be led by the Holy Spirit like Jesus was, nor that we have the understanding of scripture that He had, we really do need to exercise extreme caution when quoting a passage apart from the surrounding context. The point here is simply that it is NOT "automatically" wrong to quote a passage all by itself, without including the context.--[[User:MBack|Michael Back]] 15:22, 22 March 2010 (EDT) | | Just as a side note, there is an idea floating around today that everything in scripture can only be understood in light of the entire story surrounding it, that unless the full context is given, it is automatically wrong. While there is definitely some validity to the fact that reading the full context of any given passage will add to your understanding, and often open up things that you never saw before, it is clearly not true that small, individual passages cannot be quoted completely out of context, as Jesus did it all the time. In fact, it is very unlikely that one would grasp from reading the context of this psalm, or any of the story surrounding what was happening when David wrote it, that it was a prophecy concerning the Messiah. However, since we cannot be sure that we will always be led by the Holy Spirit like Jesus was, nor that we have the understanding of scripture that He had, we really do need to exercise extreme caution when quoting a passage apart from the surrounding context. The point here is simply that it is NOT "automatically" wrong to quote a passage all by itself, without including the context.--[[User:MBack|Michael Back]] 15:22, 22 March 2010 (EDT) |