8:21 PM - [Book:] Bounty Hunter Wars, Book One: The Mandalorian Armor ("Star Wars" novel) (Jeter, 1998)
Category: Writing and Poetry

The Bounty Hunter Wars, Book One: The Mandalorian Armor (1998)
("Star Wars" novel)
K.W. Jeter

Book one of "Bounty Hunter Wars" trilogy.  Focuses on Boba Fett and other bounty hunters, many of whom were first seen briefly in The Empire Strikes Back (including Bossk, Dengar, Zuckuss, and IG-88).  Story switches back and forth between the present day (events occurring "during" Return of the Jedi, but after the Boba Fett's falling into the Sarlacc creature during the big "rescue of Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt" scene early in the film) and several years in the past ("just after the events of Star Wars: A New Hope").  In the present, Boba Fett is barely alive after his encounter with the Sarlacc (having literally blown his way out of the creature's stomach).  He is found dying in the desert by Dengar.  With the aid of two wandering medical droids, formerly part of Jabba's large assortment, he tries to save Boba Fett (and to keep those who would prefer Fett dead from killing him) for his own reasons.  They are also joined by Neelah, a former slave dancing girl of Jabba's with only a partial memory.  All she knows is that she had a past before winding up in Jabba's palace and that Boba Fett knows something about it.  In the past scenes, Boba Fett is hired to infiltrate the Bounty Hunter's Guild and to destroy it from within by turning the forces within it against each other.  He is hired by Prince Xizor (who was introduced in the novel Shadows of the Empire) as part of plan to benefit the Emperor (and, secretly, Xizor himself), while a skeptical Darth Vader watches on but has to focus most of his attention on tracking down and destroying the Rebel Alliance (the Emperor and Vader appear in only chapter of this novel, however it is lengthy and quite singificant to the story).  The Bounty Hunter's Guild is led by the elder Trandosian, Cradossk, father of Bossk.  Already rivals, Bossk comes to hate Boba Fett even more for what he ends up doing to the Guild, which plays out many years later in the "present day" scenes of this trilogy of novels.

While I probably wouldn't count this novel as one of my favorite Star Wars novels, it did succeed in holding my interest.  Jeter does a pretty good job of depicting the various bounty hunters and their different personalities.  He does an especially good job with Fett himself (remember, this novel trilogy was written prior to Star Wars: Episode Two - Attack of the Clones, which introduced us to Boba Fett's father, Jango Fett, and showed us Boba Fett as the cloned child of Jango).  The focus of this trilogy is very much on the "bad guys".  Indeed, outside of a few brief references (and one key tantalizing mystery pointing back to the murder of Luke Skywalker's aunt and uncle at the hands of the stormtroopers in A New Hope), the regular principle Star Wars characters (Luke, Han, Leia, etc.) don't appear at all.  Instead, our primary characters are Boba Fett, Dengar, and Neelah.  Therefore, at times I did have a bit of a hard time bringing myself to care too much as to what happened to these characters (as none of them are "good guys" in the typical sense).  But, like I said, Jeter did a good enough job with the various personalities and his weaving of the various elements of the Star Wars mythos to keep my attention for the most part.  About the only character I had a hard time reading about for very long was a new spider like character named Kud'ar Mub'at, the "middle man" of sorts between Fett and Xizor.  An extrememly bizarre creature, it would take me way too long to go into very much detail about him, here.  For more information on him, see this site. (Finished reading 5/15/07)

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8:17 AM - [Book:] The Truce at Bakura ("Star Wars" novel) (Tyers, 1994)

The Truce at Bakura (1994)  
("Star Wars" novel)
Kathy Tyers

Truce at Bakura was one of the first of Bantam's run of original Star Wars novels which started with Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire in 1991.  Bakura picks up the story immediately after Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.  Before Luke, Leia, Han, and company can gather their breaths following the defeat of the Emperor, a distress call is received from an Imperial world out on the rim called Bakura, one under attack from a mysterious new alien race called the Ssi-ruuk.  Luke leads a small rebel strike force to the planet in hopes of driving back the aliens while Leia, Han, and Chewie are sent to try to convince the native people of Bakura to reject their Imperial rulers and join the Rebel Alliance.  When they arrive, however, they find a bit more than they had counted on.  The Ssi-ruuk have unique technology with which they "entech" prisoners, tranferring their very life energies in order to power attack droids and other Ssi-ruuk technology.  Dangers lies both from the Ssi-ruuk and from the Imperial Governor Nereus, who is eager to betray the fragile truce between Imperials and rebels as soon as the Ssi-ruuk can be turned away. (Finished reading 3/26/07.  Also read earlier when it first came out in late 1993 or 1994.)

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4:10 PM - [Bible reading:] Psalm 131
Category: Religion and Philosophy

(First off, two comments.  One, as anyone who might be following these things, I've been bad again.  My last Bible reading entry was in November.  I told you back in my first Bible reading entry I have a tendency to be inconsistent.  This tends to creep over into other areas as well (you'll notice there was a big gap between my comics and books reading entries, too) but I seem to be have always been especially inconsistent with my Bible readings.  I think part of this is due to my rather in depth way of going about it.  First off, I have my plan going in as to what I'll be reading.  Right now I'm on my second reading through the Bible in chronological order (as opposed to straight Genesis to Revelation order), this time with a different list that I'm going by (quite frankly, I'm not liking this one as much as the list I used previously; I'm finding too many obvious errors).  Then, after reading my section of the Bible (it varies how much each time), I've been also reading from a series of commentaries (the Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries series) to supplement what I just read.  And, finally (on top of this), I started doing these entries in my blog talking a bit about what I've read.  What then tends to happens is I get "back-logged" a bit.  I'll have read a passage but not had time to read the corresponding commentary pages or I won't have done my blog entry, so I won't be able to move on to the next day's Bible reading until I've done those things.  Add on to the top of this just everyday factors (including a work schedule that can have me closing one night and opening up the very next morning), plus various other interests competing for my attention and the just plain "lazy factor" sometimes, and, well, there you have it.  Still, as I mentioned way back when I started doing these entries, I hope that my doing them will help me to be a bit more accountable as it's right there for me (and everyone else) to see, just how regularly I've been doing my Bible readings.)

(Second, I did actually read 1 Chronicles 23-25--which I'm not going to comment on here as those chapters, which deal with David's divisions of the Levites into groups according to the sons of Levi and the division of the temple priests and singers, would be difficult to present in any sort of fashion other than of almost purely historical interest--and Psalm 131 sometime around the middle of January or so but am just now getting around to doing an blog entry.)

Psalm 131 is a very short psalm, only three verses long.  It goes like this:

"My heart is not proud, O Lord, my eyes are not haughty;  I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.  But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me."

"O Israel, put your hopes in the Lord both now and forevermore" (131:1-3, NIV).

The theme of this psalm is keeping oneself from feelings of pride and presumption.  As Kidner (Psalms: An Introduction & Commentary) says in his section covering this psalm (which he gives the title, "The Childlike Spirit"), "It would be easy to make this verse an excuse to avoid the challenges of life.  But the sin rejected in 1a is pride [...], while the sin of 1b is presumption.  By the first of these, one undervalues other people (unless they seem worth cultivating); by the second, one overestimates and overreaches oneself" (Kidner 447).

The commentary notes in my NIV Life Application Bible focus on the pride angle, as well.  "Pride results from overvaluing ourselves and undervaluing others.  It leads to restlessness because it makes us dissatisfied with what we have and concerned about what everyone else is doing.  It keeps us always hungering for more attention and adoration.  By contrast, humility puts others first and allows us to be content with God's leading in our lives.  Such contentment gives us security so that we no longer have to prove ourselves to others.  Let humility and trust affect your perspective and give you the strength and freedom to serve God and others" (footnotes on 131:1,2).

Finishing up this blog entry, Kidner states regarding the third and final verse of this little psalm ("O Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore"): "The last verse rouses us from contemplating David to following his example and that of his greater Son: not through introspection but through being weaned from insubstantial ambitions to the only sold fare that can be ours.  'My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work' ([John] 4:34)" (Kidner 448).

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6:08 AM - [Comics:] "Flash Gordon" [newspaper strip] January 7, 1934 to April 14, 1935 (via reprint)

(First off, a rather long aside before getting to "Flash Gordon":) This entry not only marks the first posted of 2007--although actually this is a "catch-up" entry; I actually finished reading this particular item back on December 29, 2006, or thereabouts--it also is the first of a new direction.  In regards to my comics reading, from here on I plan to have two main reading "plans" (or "tracks") going (with maybe an occasional side "trip" along the way).  One of these tracks will be back to the beginning, so to speak.

As anyone following this blog over the past six months or so will already know, I started on a plan to read all of my comics and comics reprints (starting with my DCs) from 1952 to present.  I had read a number of these but then had a bit of an accident, losing (saving over) my reading list that I'd worked up.  That meant my having to work up another list.

This time, however, instead of starting where I had left off at 1952 I decided to go all the way back to my very oldest comics material, the pre-Golden Age and Golden Age stuff.  This has meant for a good bit of preparation work before actually starting my reading as I had to go back and identify just when all of my reprinted comics were originally released and then sort them out on a timeline.  I think I'm finally ready to start now, however.

(My other main comics reading "track", by the way, will be finally getting around to reading all of the stuff that's been collecting in my "to be read" boxes.  Sometime in 1999 I started doing this, getting my new stuff and immediately putting them aside to read later, and I have, regrettably, been doing this ever since. (It became a vicious cycle, after all.  I couldn't read what just came in each month because I hadn't read the issues before it).  This means that I now have hundreds of "current" comics (1999 to present) that I've never read.  So this will be my other main comics reading "track", my "current" comics from 1999 to present.  Those "side trips" that I mentioned would be stuff like my Star Trek and Star Wars comics and other licensed comics that I presumably will be reading along with related, non-comics, works (my "V" comics along with my "V" novels, for instance; same with my Star Trek, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones comics, etc., reading those along with their respective novel series).)

(I plan to play around with a new, alternate menu, which will allow visitors to follow my readings chronologically as they were originally released.  This will take a bit of time, however, so I'm not sure exactly when I'll be able to get around to this.)

*****

Flash Gordon [newspaper strip] (January 7, 1934 to April 14, 1935)

[Chapter 1, "On the Planet Mongo"] (Jan. 7, 1934 - Apr. 15, 1934), [Chapter 2, "Monsters of Mongo"] (Apr. 22, 1934 - Nov. 18, 1934), [Chapter 3, "Tournaments of Mongo"] (Nov. 25, 1934 - Feb. 24, 1935), ["Caverns of Mongo"] (Mar. 3, 1935 - Apr. 14, 1935)
Credits: Alex Raymond (writer/artist).

Significant characters: Flash Gordon, Dale Arden, Dr. Hans Zarkov, Prince Thun (of the Lion Men), Prince Barin, Khan, Ming the Merciless, Princess Aura, Kala (of the Shark Men), King Vultan (of the Hawkmen), Zug (chief of the Cavemen), The Lizard Men.

Reprinted In: Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon Volume 1 (2003).

Summary: My chronological reading plan starts way back here with the first of the "Flash Gordon" newspaper strips from 1934 to 1935 (although as I receive new reprint collections I will doubtlessly be dropping back from time to time to earlier years again; for instance, I've already got the first volumes in the "Popeye" and "Dick Tracy" newspaper strip reprint series, and those start in 1928 and 1931, respectively, and I'll also be including bits of Disney comic strips from this period as well).

This first volume in the Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon series reprints just over the first year of the strip.  "Flash Gordon" is an interesting strip right from the start, but anyone reading volume one of this reprint series will notice right away the amazing transformation the strip underwent during its first year.  The earliest strips tend to be very "crowded", three tiers of three equally shaped small rectangular panels per tier (or row) plus a fourth tier with one panel just like the ones above it and one last extra long panel to finish up the page (and in some cases not even that last double long panel, instead exactly four tiers of four identically spaced panels to a page).  This by necessity makes the artwork rather small and the text a bit hard to read.  Raymond was obviously trying to fit a lot of story into each individual strip at this point.  And a good bit happens in each strip, accordingly.

Around July 1934, however, Raymond starts to experiment a bit more with the layout, using extra long panels and, more importantly, extra tall panels, giving the strip a much more dynamic look.  By the last story arc in this collection ("Caverns of Mongo", Nov. 25, 1934 to Feb. 24, 1935), the strips averaged four to six panels per page.  But they are nice, big panels, lush with detail.  No more squinting required!

The stories themselves are silly yet fun at the same time.  We are introduced to the primary characters of Flash Gordon and Dale Arden right from the first strip.  A "strange new planet" is on a collision course with the Earth (I know, I know; don't question it, just go along with it; remember, this is more "space fantasy" than actual "science fiction" we're dealing with here).  Flash and Dale are taken at gunpoint by Dr. Zarkov (who thinks at first that they are spies) in his rocket ship to this strange planet and they manage to deflect its course so that it won't crash into the Earth.  This is all in the first two Sunday strips.  After this point Earth is no more than occasional referred to as the strip's focus shifts to following Flash's and Dale's adventures on this strange new world, Planet Mongo.

They instantly are taken to the evil ruler of Mongo, Ming the Merciless.  Ming decides to make Dale his wife (he already has several) and that Flash should be killed.  The first story arc ("On the Planet Mongo", Jan. 7, 1934 - Apr. 15, 1934) deal with Flash's escape from Mongo, his initial encounter with Ming's daughter, Princess Aura (who becomes so enamored with Flash as to work against Flash's efforts to rescue Dale), Flash's meeting a new ally in Thun, prince of the Lion Men, and the three's (Flash, Dale, and Thun) escape from the Shark Men.  (Whew!  See what I meant about Raymond's squeezing a lot into these early strips?)

The second story arc ("Monsters of Mongo", Apr. 22, 1934 - Nov. 18, 1934), picks up right where the previous "chapter" leaves off.  Matter a fact, the previous week's strip finished with a cliffhanger (as they usually do), not with an apparent story arc ending.  "Monsters" finds Flash joining forces with Thun and Prince Barin in attempting to overthrow Ming and to rescue Dale (who has been recaptured by Ming).  Flash, Thun, and Barin are captured, and Flash chooses to undergo the two "terrible tests" rather than being executed.  Succeeding in his tests, the three men are sent as slaves to the prison city of the Hawkmen (seemingly starting a new story arc according to a note at the end of the June 10, 1934 installment but the reprint does not acknowledge this, keeping it all part of "Monsters of Mongo").  Jumping ahead a bit, the group (the three men and Dale) end up prisoners of the Hawkmen (Dale once again in the position of being forced to marry a tyrant king) and they must escape from the Hawkmen's floating city.

The third story arc ("Tournaments of Mongo", Nov. 25, 1934 - Feb. 24, 1935), focuses on a tournament Flash enters.  The tournament is called for by the king of the Hawkmen (who is by now an ally of Flash and company) in order to prevent Ming from taking Flash captive again.  The winner of the tournament gets any post in the empire, short of emperor, and any woman for his bride.  All but one (the winner) must die in the tournament, however.  Many enter the tournament (including, secretly, Prince Barin, for he desires Princess Aura).  The rest of the story arc focuses on the different stages of the tournament.  Ultimately it comes down to Flash and Prince Barin, and when Prince Barin's identity is revealed, it is determined that both Flash and Barin will receive kingdoms of their own.  Ming, however, grants them unconquered kingdoms however as one last trick against them.  To Flash and Dale goes the "Kingdom of the Caves".

Finally, the last story arc in this reprint collection ("Caverns of Mongo", Mar. 3, 1935 - Apr. 14, 1935), deals with Flash's and Dale's first adventures in the "Kingdom of the Caves".  Flash initially meets with resistance from the Cavemen but he soon convinces them that he is their new lord and master after defeating their king, Zug, in hand-to-hand combat.  Soon after this, however, Flash is ambushed and taken captive by the Lizard Men.  Recovering from the attack, Flash overcomes his captors and reunites with Dale and their loyal contingent of Hawkmen and Cavemen.

I've never really read Flash Gordon much in the past (the sole exception being the 1988 Flash Gordon series by DC).  I briefly picked up the first volume of the Mac Raboy's Flash Gordon reprint series back when I was reading my 1950s comics but right around that time had my mishap which led to my deciding to go back instead to my 1930s material instead.  I'm glad that I did as I had a hard time getting into Raboy's material as I had no idea who the characters really were yet.  Going back and starting at the beginning of the strip really helped me to enjoy it much more and I now look forward to the rest of the Raymond volumes and the Mac Raboy strips as well.

As you can probably tell from my comments above, much of Raymond's "Flash Gordon" is high fantasy.  "Hawkmen", "Lizard Men", "Cavemen", etc.  It's really all comes across like a sort of combination of "Star Wars" (or, rather, "Buck Rogers", which "Flash Gordon" was initially created to be a sort of knock-off of and competition for) and "Chronicles of Narnia" (which also has all sorts of talking animal-men).  I know that it all sounds quite outlandish, and it is, really.  But Raymond's art really is perfect for this strip, especially once he gets to the really big panels of the later story arcs in this collection.

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10:27 PM - [Comics:] V (DC Comics series) 1-8 (1985)

V #1-8 (1985)

The following entry is a bit of a side trip from my 1950s DC reading (which will actually soon be jumping back even further; see next entry regarding this) and my more current stuff.  A few months back I started a viewing of all of the "V" DVDs (1983 television mini-series, 1984 V: The Final Battle mini-series, and 1984-85 regular television series) along with a chronological reading of all of the "V" novels and comic books.  These comics detailed below I actually read a few months ago (around August, I think), but am just now getting around to making a blog entry for them (I wanted to be sure to get them in before the end of the year).

V #1-3 (February 1985 - April 1985)
Covers by Eduardo Barreto (#1-2), Tony DeZuniga (#3).

"City on the Edge" (#1), "The Town With No Shame" (#2), "Encounter!" (#3)
Credits: Cary Bates (writer), Carmine Infantino (penciller), Tony DeZuniga (inker).

Significant characters: The Resistance (Los Angeles based members: Mike Donovan, Juliet Parrish, Ham Tyler, Chris Faber, Elias Taylor, Willie), The Visitors (Diana, Lydia), Nathan Bates.

Summary: The V comic book series begins at some point apparently still early in the "V" hour long television series which ran from 1984 to 1985 (although there are a few issues which might actually require placing them later; more on that in a minute).  Issue one begins with a group of Visitors coming into the Club Creole and shooting up the place.  Mike, Julie, Ham, and Chris barely escape capture or worse.  It turns out that the Visitors who attacked are not following Diana's orders, however, but instead are being paid by Nathan Bates to take out Ham (who threatened Bates on one of the early episodes of the 1984-85 television series).  Following the attack, Ham and Chris are on their own, evading capture.  Meanwhile, Mike, Julie, and Willie take a Skyfighter on a test mission and end up crash-landing near a very strange, remote, town.

Issue #2 features more of Ham and Chris evading the rogue Visitors pursuing them under the order of Nathan Bates.  Meanwhile, Mike, Julie, and Willie discover that the town is pretty hostile towards strangers.  Further investigation reveals that the town has made a deal with the Visitors, swapping permission to siphon water from the local geysers for the wonderful benefits of Visitor technology, and medical and agricultural advancements.  In issue #3, the Visitors realize that the Resistance members are in the town and seek to capture them.  The people of the town are convinced of just how brutal the Visitors really are and work with Donovan and company in driving the Visitors away.  Meanwhile (at the end of the issue), Ham and Chris plan their own little ambush against Nathan Bates.

V #4-6 (May 1985 - July 1985)
Covers by Tony DeZuniga (#4), Denys Cowan & Rick Magyar (#5), Rich Buckler & Romeo Tanghal (#6).

"Alien Conflict!" (#4), "The Price of Peace" (#5), "Shatterday" (#6)

Credits: Cary Bates (writer), Tod Smith (#4-5) & Carmine Infantino (#6) (pencillers), Tony DeZuniga (inker).

Significant characters: Largely the same as #1-3 (see above).

Summary: Issue #4 picks up right after the previous issue left off.  Ham Tyler and Chris Faber ambush Nathan Bates.  Ham seems ready to kill Bates when Bates reveals that his son, Kyle Bates, and Elizabeth, the "Star Child", have gone missing.  They eventually find Elizabeth but Kyle remains missing.  Meanwhile, an old friend of Julie's, a noted astronomer named Earl Meagan, hopes to arrange for a "peace summit" with Diana.  Issue #5 carries the two separate stories further.  Ham, Chris, and Nathan Bates try to discover from Elizabeth what has happened to Kyle.  At the same time that they are tracking down Kyle at a prison camp run by the Visitors, Earl Meagan travels to Diana's Mother Ship to meet with her.  Only, Meagan's true mission is to destroy Diana and the Mother Ship with a hidden explosive embedded at the base of his skull.  And, in issue #6, the two story lines conclude, as Donovan and Willie sneak aboard the Mother Ship to try to stop Meagan, and Ham, Chris, and Nathan Bates attempt to rescue Kyle from the Visitor prison camp.

(It is this story line in #4-6 which makes me somewhat doubt my current placement of issues #1-8 in relation to the television series.  In the story line involving Nathan Bates in #4-6, he is already aware of Elizabeth, how she's rapidly aged.  At the time that I am now writing this entry, I still have not yet come to the point in the television series where Bates has discovered this.  And issues #1 through 8--#1 through 6, especially--seem to occur consecutively.  So, while I currently have this run of issues as occurring between the television series episodes "The Sanction" and "The Dissident", it may actually come a bit later.)

V #7 (August 1985)
Cover by Jerry Bingham.

"Tennyson"
Credits: Mindy Newell (writer), Carmine Infantino (penciller), Tony DeZuniga (inker).

Significant characters: The Resistance (Los Angeles based members: Mike Donovan, Juliet Parrish), The Visitors (Diana, Lydia).

Summary: A single issue story focusing largely on Julie.  Weary and overly stressed, Julie decides to take a break from the Resistance and travel to her now abandoned childhood home in New Mexico.  Diana learns where Julie is, however, and sends an assassin to do Julie in.

V #8 (September 1985)
Cover by Jerry Bingham.

"Printer's Devil"
Credits: Bob Rozakis (writer), Carmine Infantino (penciller), Tony DeZuniga (inker).

Significant characters: The Resistance (Los Angeles based members: Ham Tyler, Chris Faber, Robin Maxwell), The Visitors.

Summary: In another "done-in-one" story, Ham, Chris, and Robin stop off at a printing press in Sparta, Illinois (the real-life publishing plant that used to publish comic book for all of the major publishers) that is now being used to publish pro-Resistance propaganda.  But, as always, things are not as they seem, and covert Visitor agents are discovered at the plant.  Ham and Chris must find out what the Visitors are up to.  Meanwhile, Robin finds herself falling in love yet again (for, what, the third time???) with a man who turns out to be a Visitor in disguise.  (The Robin angle, plus a newspaper seen with a headline saying "Los Angeles in flames", seems to indicate that issue #8 should maybe occur later in the television series' run than issues #1-7 do.  I have placed them all together for the time being, however.)

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12:59 PM - [Book:] V: The Crivit Experiment (Wold, 1985)

The Crivit Experiment (1985)
("V" novel)
Allen Wold

Seventh original "V" novel (eighth overall). The Visitors have a secret facility conducting breeding experiments involving crivits (sand burrowing carnivorous creatures first seen on the "Breakout" episode of the television series) in the Piedmont Mountain region of North Carolina.  They also have a secret prison camp on the former grounds of Fort Bragg military facility.  Several separate groups of individuals working against the Visitors--including one group of computer scientists working covertly to bug and monitor various Visitor installations, another group of students interested in vandalizing the Visitor offices on their college campus, and a poor farmer and moon shiner who just happens to live next to the Visitors' secret crivit breeding location--eventually all come together in an concerted effort to prevent the Visitors' plans from coming to fruition.

I enjoyed this one pretty well.  While at times I had trouble remembering who some of the characters were (especially the several computer scientists and the handful of college students), I found each of the characters to be well written (especially the poor farmer/moon shiner, Durk Attweiler), and I thought that the plot was pretty well paced.  The author also seemed pretty well researched in regards to the area this novel takes place in, North Carolina.  Oh, and I should mention that we do see one of the regular Los Angeles based characters, Chris Faber, come in towards the end to help this fledgling group of resistance fighters to organize a raid on the prison camp.  Next "V" novel up in my reading--after watching a couple of the television series episodes and also after reading some other non-"V" stuff, most likely--The Texas Run.  (Finished reading 12/10/06)

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3:48 PM - [Bible reading:] Psalms 108-110
Category: Religion and Philosophy

Taking today's psalms in reverse, I'm going to start with Psalm 110.  This psalm is one of the ones most quoted in the New Testament due to its important Messianic themes.

David says, "The Lord [all caps] says to my Lord: 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet'" (Psalm 110:1, NIV).

David is saying here that the Lord (Yahweh) is speaking to another person whom David (King of Israel) also refers to as "Lord".

This "Lord" is greater than David and the angels themselves as God tells him to sit at God's right hand.  As Kidner (Psalms: An Introduction and Commentary) points out, in Hebrews 1:13 we see the statement, "to what angel has he ever said, 'Sit at my right hand...'?"  Jesus Christ explains centuries later to a group of Pharisees trying to trick him in Matthew 22:41-46 that this psalm of David refers to the Messiah, and that in it David refers to the Messiah as his "Lord" despite the fact that the Messiah is to actually be a "son" (or descendant) of David, himself.

As Kidner says, "So this single verse [110:1] displays the divine Person of Christ, His power and the prospect before him.  Together with verse 4 it underlies most of the New Testament teaching on His glory as Priest-King" (Kidner 393).

The other verse that Kidner refers to here (verse four): "The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: 'You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek'" (110:4).

The story of Melchizedek is a brief one, told in Genesis 14:17-20: "After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom came out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King's Valley).  "Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine.  He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying, 'Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth.  And blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.'  Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything" (Genesis 14:17-20).

Kidner: "The passages which clarify this oracle [in Psalms 110, referring to Melchizedek] are Genesis 14:18-20 and Hebrews 5:5-10 with 6:19 - 7:28.  It emerges from these that both the name Melchizedek (king of righteousness) and his sphere as king of Salem (i.e., of Jerusalem, whose shortened form brings out the meaning, 'Peace') made him a fitting pointer to the one who was to come (Heb. 7:2); that the silence surrounding him in the narrative made him an apt symbol of one who in full reality had 'neither beginning of days nor end of life' (Heb. 7:3); further, that his standing on the Godward side of Abraham, both in the blessing and gifts he gave and in the tithes he received, proved his priority over the whole Abrahamic people, and over the levitical priesthood in particular (Heb. 7:4-19)" (Kidner 395).

There is much more, obviously, to be said about Psalm 110, but I will have to leave it at that as I want to say at least a bit about the other two psalms I read today, as well.

***

Psalm 109 is another "imprecatory" psalm, or a call for God to judge the wicked.

David begins with, "O God, whom I praise, do not remain silent" (Psalm 109:1).  He then speaks of what these "wicked and deceitful men" have done to him: "opened their mouths against me", "spoken against me with lying tongues", "attack[ed] me without cause", "in return for my friendship they accuse me", "they repay me evil for good, and hatred for my friendship" (109:2-5).

David then implores God to punish these evil men, voicing various curses against them in verses six through twenty.

Picking it up from verse twenty-one: "But you, O Sovereign Lord, deal well with me for your name's sake; out of the goodness of your love, deliver me.  For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me" (109:21-22).

"Help me, O Lord my God; save me in accordance with your love.  Let them know that it is your hand, that you, O Lord, have done it.  They may curse, but you will bless; when they attack they will be put to shame, but your servant will rejoice.  My accusers will be clothed in disgrace and wrapped in shame as in a cloak" (109:26-29).

"With my mouth I will greatly extol the Lord; in the great throng I will praise him.  For he stands at the right hand of the needy one, to save his life from those who condemn him" (109:30-31).

(Isn't in interesting that both of these psalms, back to back psalms which don't really have anything to do with each other content or theme wise, refer to the image of someone sitting or standing at God's "right hand"?  In 109 it is an image of God standing at "the needy one's" right hand, there to protect him or her.  In 110 it is the Messiah that God is telling, in this oracle or vision given to David, to sit at His right hand.)

***

Psalm 108 I won't say much about here except that it combines portions (the triumphant conclusions) of two previous psalms.  Verses one through five are identical to Psalm 57:7-11, while verses six through thirteen are taken from Psalm 60:5-12.  (Kidner points to the use of the word "God" in Psalm 108 as a clue.  It is used only one other time in this fifth section or "Book" of Psalms that 108 is found in, but is used quite frequently in Book II, which is where the other two Psalms are located.)

Kidner's comments on Psalm 108 are interesting: "Two psalm-endings of David, 57:7-11 and 60:5-12, have been joined to make this single piece.  Each had begun under stress, with David hunted in Psalm 57 and defeated in Psalm 60; but each had ended strongly.  The new psalm [108] starts at this more positive point in each of them [...]  For our use, the earlier psalms may well provide for times of personal or corporate peril, but the present one for times which call for new initiatives and ventures of faith" (Kidner 387).

"My heart is steadfast, O God; I will sing and make music with all my soul.  Awake, harp and lyre!  I will awaken the dawn.  I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, higher than the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and let your glory be over all the earth" (Psalm 108:1-5 [/Psalm 57:7-11]).

"Save us and help us with your right hand, that those you love may be delivered.  God has spoken from his sanctuary: 'In triumph I will parcel out Shechem and measure off the Valley of Succoth.  Gilead is mine, Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is my helmet, Judah my scepter.  Moab is my washbasin, upon Edom I toss my sandal; over Philistia I shout in triumph."

"Who will bring me to the fortified city?  Who will lead me to Edom?  Is it not you, O God, you who have rejected us and no longer go out with our armies?  Give us aid against the enemy, for the help of man is worthless.  With God we will gain the victory, and he will trample down our enemies" (Psalm 108:6-13 [/Psalm 60:5-12]).

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7:55 AM - [Book:] V: Prisoners and Pawns (Weinstein, 1985)

Prisoners and Pawns (1985)
("V" novel)
Howard Weinstein

Fifth original "V" novel (sixth overall).  First, in the order that the novels were originally released in, to reflect the events of the television series (see also notes on Death Tide novel).  Takes place after "The Sanction" television episode and Death Tide (according to timeline used; only vague indications given in the novel itself as to when it takes place, especially in relation to Death Tide, which was written after Prisoners [for instance, no mention is given to Maggie and Chris's relationship seen in Death Tide, nor to Julie's recent miscarriage, also seen in Death Tide; on the other hand, Elizabeth speaks quite comfortably of her late Visitor father in Prisoners, while in Death Tide she is having very vivid nightmares involving him and his death at the hands of her mother--Robyn is "away" in Prisoners]).  First book--again, as they were originally released--to focus entirely on the main "V" characters since The Pursuit of Diana, three books earlier (and Pursuit of Diana does not reflect the events of the television series as it had to be written well before any scripts for the television series were ready in order for Pursuit to hit the shelves at the same time that the series would begin airing).  "Authors' Notes" comments are dated September 1984 (Death Tide's notes were dated December 1984, so Prisoners was finished approx. three months earlier) or just one month before V: The Series went on the air in October 1984.  Weinstein states that he was able to read "the first few stories intended for the television series" when writing Prisoners.

Story deals primarily with Lydia and plan of hers to capture Mike Donovan and other Resistance leaders by formulating a false invasion scheme and passing it on to the Resistance via Fifth Column members aboard her Mother Ship.  At the same time that Donovan, Ham Tyler, and Chris Faber are meeting with their Fifth Column contact concerning this, they are also trying to transport a Japanese Resistance spy (one of several that they had rescued from Lydia's capture) back out of the country, and Julie Parrish is leading others on a mission to acquire more weapons for the Resistance via a secret meeting with a supply ship off the California coast.  Next up in my reading: The Crivit Experiment.  (Finished reading 11/19/06)

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7:19 AM - [Comics:] The Life Story of the Flash (Waid, Augustyn, et al., 1997)

The Life Story of the Flash ([hardcover graphic novel], 1997)
Cover by Glen Orbik.

Credits: "Liz Allen" (fictitious credit), Mark Waid & Brian Augustyn (writers), Gil Kane, Joe Staton & Tom Palmer (artists).

Significant characters: Liz Allen (narrator), Flash 2 (Barry Allen), Kid Flash/Flash 3 (Wally West), Flash 1 (Jay Garrick), Fiona Webb, Professor Zoom (The Reverse-Flash), The Shade (cameo), various other Flash villains and friends/allies (including Justice League of America; all cameos).

Summary: Tells the life story of Barry Allen (The Flash) in the style of a biography (text mixed with comics pages).  Reflects post-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity (including rewriting of original meeting between Barry Allen and Jay Garrick, the original Flash).

Comments: An enjoyable enough graphic novel (and a real must for die-hard Flash fans).  Covers all of the major events in the life of the Flash but by necessity has to be pretty brief in some cases.  For people not already familiar with the history of the character and/or DC history in general, some of it might be a bit confusing (especially the stuff about Iris Allen really being from the future, and how she survived her "death" to be later reunited with Barry).  And some die-hard fans might cringe a bit at the rewriting of certain stories to match up with the post-Crisis DC Universe's continuity (although at the time this graphic novel came out it was pretty much a necessity).  Finally, the choice to tell the story largely in prose (text) "written" by Iris Allen gave this book a very unique feel.  I enjoyed it, overall.

(Note: A softcover edition was also released, in 1998.)

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2:22 PM - [Bible reading:] 1 Chronicles 22 & Psalm 30
Category: Religion and Philosophy

1 Chronicles 22 is a very significant chapter.  In it David begins the preparations for the building of the temple.  God informed David well prior to this (back in 2 Samuel 7/1 Chronicles 17) that it will not be David who will build "a house" for the Lord.  It will be David's son, instead.  "'I declare to you that the Lord will build a house for you:  When your days are over and you go to be with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom.  He is the one who will build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever.  I will be his father, and he will be my son.  I will never take my love away from him, as I took it away from your predecessor [Saul].  I will set him over my house and my kingdom forever; his throne will be established forever'" (1 Chronicles 17:10b-14, NIV).

So here in 2 Chronicles 22, following the events of the previous chapter, where David bought Araunah's threshing floor and set up an altar there as per the Lord's instructions in order to cease the angel of the Lord from taking any more lives in the plague caused by David's transgression and David's subsequent declaration that the house of the Lord will be built there, David now begins the long preparation process.

He gives orders to assemble the "aliens" (non-Israelites) living among them to be used as the primary work force (a pretty conventional way of doing things back then).  He provides large amounts of building materials, including iron, bronze, and cedar logs (the cedar logs provided to David by the Sidonians and Tyrians).

Next he calls his son, Solomon, to him and gives him this charge:

"My son, I had it in my heart to build a house for the Name of the Lord my God.  But this word of the Lord came to me:  'You have shed much blood and have fought many wars.  You are not to build a house for my Name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight.  But you will have a son who will be a man of peace and rest, and I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side.  His name will be Solomon, and I will grant Israel peace and quiet during his reign.  He is the one who will build a house for my Name.  He will be my son, and I will be his father.  And I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever'.

"Now, my son, the Lord be with you, and may you have success and build the house of the Lord your God, as he said you would.  May the Lord give you discretion and understanding when he puts you in command over Israel, so that you may keep the law of the Lord your God.  Then you will have success if you are careful to observe the decrees and laws that the Lord gave Moses for Israel.  Be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid or discouraged" (1 Chronicles 22:7-13).

David then repeats what he has provided so far towards the building of the temple in the way of materials and workers.  After this, David orders "all the leaders of Israel to help his son Solomon" (1 Chronicles 22:17).

"He said to them, 'Is not the Lord your God with you?  And h as he not granted you rest on every side?  For he has handed the inhabitants of the land over to me, and the land is subject to the Lord and to his people.  Now devote your heart and soul to seeking the Lord your God.  Begin to build the sanctuary of the Lord God, so that you may bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord and the sacred articles belonging to God into the temple that will be built for the Name of the Lord'" (1 Chronicles 22:18-19).

***

The liturgical notes for this psalm state: "A psalm.  A song.  For the dedication of the temple.  Of David."  The commentary notes in my NIV Life Application Bible go with this and suggest that it might have been composed by David when he dedicated Araunah threshing floor after God had ceased his plague on Israel to discipline David.  Also, another note suggests that the sickness that David says God healed him of in verses two and three might refer to the plague (although it might just as well refer to any other serious illness David had gone through).

Kidner (Psalms: An Introduction and Commentary), however, points out, "Yet without this title the psalm would have suggested simply recovery from sickness".  He goes on to mention the theory that some suggest that the title notes might actually refer to the preceding psalm.  I will, however, go with the assumption that the title given is correct and view this psalm as one David would have written in conjunction with the start of preparations to build the temple.

As per Kidner, this psalm can be broken down into three sections: the rescue (30:1-5), the foolish boast (30:6-10), and the celebration (30:11-12).

David speaks of how he will exalt God, for God "lifted [David] out of the depths" (30:1).  David: "I called to you for help and you healed me.  Oh Lord, you brought me up from the grave; you spared me from going down into the pit" (30:2-3).

"Sing to God, you saints of his; praise his holy name.  For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning" (30:4-5).  (I love those verses!)

The "foolish boast" of verses 6-10 must refer to, "When I felt secure, I said, 'I will never be shaken'" (30:6).  But then David follows this a verse later with, "but when you hid your face, I was dismayed.  "To you, O Lord, I called; to the Lord I cried for mercy.  'What gain is there in my destruction, in my going down into the pit?  Will the dust praise you?  Will it proclaim your faithfulness?  Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me; O Lord, be my help'" (30:8-10).

Finally, the "celebration":

"You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to you and not be silent.  O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever" (30:11-12).

(All of that said, I can see what Kidner is saying about how the content of this psalm really gives no indication of it being written for the purpose of celebrating the dedication of the temple.  The preceding psalm, Psalm 29, does seem a bit more appropriate for that, what with it's constant praise for God (his "glory", "strength", "the glory due his name", "the splendor of his holiness", etc.), and the way it finishes with, "And in his temple all cry, 'Glory!'  The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord in enthroned as King forever.  The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace" (Psalm 29:9b-11).  So perhaps that note really should go with Psalm 29 instead of Psalm 30?)

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