The two Psalms don’t seem to belong together. My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord, my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.” The Psalm confesses that God is a “sun and shield ” God bestows “favor and honor ” God never withholds good from those who know and fear God. “How lovely is thy dwelling place, O Lord of hosts. The Psalm extols how beautiful God is, how gracious and kind, how generous in his provision. Thus he prays, “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” In contrast, God is eternal, powerful, and wrathful God stands in judgment of human foolishness and rebellion. We are fragile, like grass that flourishes in the morning dew but fades and withers in the afternoon heat. The Psalm contrasts God’s eternity and human finitude. Psalm 90 reminds us of humanity’s crushing mortality. The “Doubletake” that has come to mean the most to me is the juxtaposition of Psalm 90 and Psalm 84. I applied the idea of “Doubletake” to how I grouped them. I chose to memorize, or rememorize, a number of Psalms, which I then used as prayers in my morning devotions. I decided at the beginning of the Covid shutdown to apply “Doubletake” to my study of the Bible. Each artist saw and therefore painted something very different. In fact, all four painters worked from the exact same spot and painted the exact same scene. In one case the curator grouped four paintings of a canal in Venice. His goal was to challenge visitors to view art from a fresh angle of vision, to do a “doubletake.” Years ago I attended an art exhibit that carried the unusual title, “Doubletake.” The curator arranged the exhibit by grouping together paintings and photographs that didn’t at first seem to belong together.
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