The Heart of God: A Study in the Poetic Books of the Bible

There is a valuable saying that can help guide us in the Christian life: “Never feel your way to truth, but instead, ‘truth’ your way to feelings.”

That has helped me on several occasions when I’ve been tempted to construct reality around my emotions of the day. If I’m angry, the world suddenly becomes a bitter arena where everyone is an enemy. If I’m sad, my surroundings are colored by blues and grays.

If my emotions or feelings lead me, then my thoughts can quickly spiral away from what’s real—what God is declaring for my life.

Yet, God has made us emotional beings.

On the one hand, we’re not animals. Our passions aren’t our ultimate drive. But we’re also not robots. To be human is to feel deeply.

Indeed, the God Most High invites our feelings and our emotions. And in His kindness, He shapes them according to His Word. He “truths” our feelings so we might properly worship Him.

Made for Relationship

In the beginning God created everything that is. This whole universe magnifies His glory and holds the fingerprints of His handiwork.

But the highlight of creation reveals who God is.

After He had created the sun and the moon, the skies, the seas, the land, and all the inhabitants in between, He created people. In Genesis 1:26, we read, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness’” (ESV). The image of God in every human reminds us that every person has dignity—every life is precious. But the Imago Dei also reminds us that we were created to relate to God in a very special way.

Rocks and trees and giraffes were created in relation to God, but men and women were created for relationship with Him. He doesn’t merely want to observe us from afar. He wants to love us deeply.

The God who created us to enjoy His love has also given us the language of relationship. In practice, we typically go to God in prayer or in song. This is more obvious. But HOW should we relate to God? The blueprint can be found in the Scriptures.

The Bible is God’s Word to His people. In its pages, He has revealed everything we need to know about Him (doctrine), but we also see His heart. In other words, just as God uses the Bible to declare truth, He also speaks to us personally in its pages. This is most evident in the Poetry Books of the Old Testament.

Language of the Heart

In our English Bibles, immediately following the “history” section of the Old Testament (Genesis - Esther), we come to five highly poetic books of the Bible:

Job | Psalms | Proverbs | Ecclesiastes | Song of Songs

Now, these five aren’t the only books of the Bible that contain poetry. No, God loves to sprinkle poetry all over the Bible. It’s highly present in the Prophets (Habakkuk), and is even featured in Narrative works that fill much of the Old Testament (Exodus 15) and the Epistles of the New Testament (Philippians 2).

Yet, in these five books of poetry, God is giving the language of relationship. The poetry books demonstrate how God intends to relate to us and how He has invited us to relate to Him. Through these pages, we see the Heart of God most clearly.

This summer, Crosspoint will spend fourteen weeks walking through the Poetic Books. As we do, we’ll sharpen ourselves to read biblical poetry. In these sermons, we’ll examine how God loves to speak through metaphor, colorful imagery, patterns and figures of speech, and highly emotive language. But even more, we’ll experience together a new layer of God’s love.

Our God is not distant, and He is certainly not apathetic to our burdens. The Poetic Books provide the template we need to run to God with raw honesty, processing life’s greatest joys and our most profound sorrows. Alongside David, Solomon, and others, we can train ourselves to cry out to God and to rest in His love.

Join us beginning on May 3 as we pursue the Heart of God.