IT IS all too rare to hear a sermon based on the Hebrew Scriptures. So, any book encouraging such preaching is to be welcomed. Having tackled Old Testament narrative in a 2005 book, Steven D. Mathewson now turns to poetry. While acknowledging its much larger presence in the Hebrew Scriptures, he confines his study to Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs.
The author begins by outlining what he considers to be the necessary ingredients of an “effective expository sermon” (which, he holds, should be between 30 and 35 minutes in length) before turning to the characteristics of Hebrew poetry. There then follows his understanding of how to preach his five chosen books.
Mathewson applies the same methodology to all five books. First, he examines the text itself, before outlining his preaching strategy, which concludes with briefly relating the material to Christ, some suggestions for sermons and/or series of sermons, and a long list of helpful resources for study and preaching that particular book.
The study concludes with sample sermons on Psalms 87 and 137, Proverbs 31.1-9, Job 28.1-28, Ecclesiastes 11.7-12.14, and Song of Songs 1.1-17, 3.6-11 and 8.5-14. These will prove a considerable help to the intended reader. What the author calls “the big idea” of each sermon is placed in bold print, and the reader is to note how these are worked into the conclusion of the sermon which ends with a Christian application.
Mathewson writes from an Evangelical perspective, as his bibliographies confirm. This inevitably means that some will disagree with his exegesis. For instance, does he read into his exposition of the Song of Songs more than the text will allow?
Many of the texts he has chosen for his sermons involve the concept of justice. Undoubtedly the psalmist meant what he said in the notorious Psalm 137.9. Hebrew justice was not afraid to demand an eye for an eye, even though it is uncertain that that particular provision was ever literally carried out. Here the reader is given much opportunity to contrast Old and New Testament views.
In many ways, the wisdom literature is the glory of the Hebrew Scriptures in the bravery that it shows in taking on God on the meaning of life and his justice. Nothing like it appears in the New Testament. With brutal honesty, it admits that doubt is a natural component of faith. We can know God, but not all the answers about him — unjust suffering being one of them — as Job found out.
The author is to be applauded for his concern for the value the Hebrew Scriptures could have for Christian congregations largely ignorant of their content. This study will be a useful introduction for those called to preach on them as part of the Christian Bible, for all the difficulties that will inevitably be encountered. It was these scriptures that Christ came to fulfil.
Canon Anthony Phillips is a former headmaster of The King’s School, Canterbury.
The Art of Preaching Old Testament Poetry
Steven D. Mathewson
Baker Academic £23.99
(978-1-5409-6762-6)
Church Times Bookshop £21.59