Before the Door of God: An Anthology of Devotional Poetry

This is a wonderful book about religious poetry, all the way from the Book of Psalms to the 21^st Century. Starting with the Psalms, it tells the story of how the creator inspired brilliant prose for thousands of years. If you look at the Psalms (or Tehilim in Hebrew) then you will see that not all of them are devotional. Some of them simply praise the beauty of life, others are pleas for a life of happiness. In the book of Genesis, when Jacob makes one last plea to be saved from Esau, he doesn’t mention God in the plea, he just says “save me here and now.” In the book of Jonah, despite the prayer he says towards the end, it seems more of a cautionary tale than something sacred. Unlike the earlier books of the bible, it makes a monstrous beast a greater part of the story. As Before the Door of God progresses, you will see that the theologians who wrote these words were more interested in life than in religion.

One of the greatest things about this book is that it makes the scriptures interesting.  Compare the Song of Songs to Amazing Grace by John Newton; both are essentially very mellow, calm, and balanced in mood. Now compare them to the first five books of the Bible; they’re a dream compared to the wrath and fire of those books! Genesis, Exodus, and so on are full of divine wrath, punishment, and fury. In every chapter the creator terrorizes someone as a dire punishment or warning of some kind. But then once you reach the book of Chronicles, which has the Psalms, Song of Songs, and the book of Jonah, everyone is at peace. This probably inspired John Newton and other English Christians whose works are renowned.

I would however, have liked to see some more scholarly research into the origin of these writing. The Song of Songs has been attributed to Solomon, but linguists have proven that it was written much later, long after Solomon was dead. I would’ve liked to learn more about why it was written at the time, and what inspired it. As with later devotional poems, I would’ve likewise be interested in how the time and place influenced the writing. If Amazing Grace was written by a Cleric who was inspired by the Evangelical church, then how come the Evangelicals were gaining more ground in England at this time?

Though some more historical background information would be welcome, this book is of definite value for bible study.