Add undocumented, unreliable optimizations to the dangers of using custom Parcelable objects in bundles — tl;dr — If you create a custom Parcelable with a View.OnClickListener and send the object to a Fragment using a Bundle, the OS will pass the data copy-by-reference (not actually parceling the data) and the receiving fragment can access the original OnClickListener in nearly all cases. However, this is a…

A brief tutorial and a sample prayer through Psalm 103 — After making the case that Israel’s divinely inspired hymnbook (i.e. the Psalms) is an excellent “instrument for theological instruction,” Tim Keller goes further in his book entitled The Songs of Jesus to describe them as something to be experienced. He says, ‘Psalms, then, are not just a matchless primer of…

Two quizzes to test the accuracy of your conceptions about the two parts of the Bible — Is the God portrayed in the New Testament the same God portrayed in the Old Testament? The stereotypes of a “fire and brimstone, wrathful” old testament god and a “love conquers all” new testament god are prolific in our culture. Consequently, it’s very hard to believe they are the same…

Is it possible for me to go unnoticed? — I found comfort and joy when rewriting this one written by David. What previously felt like omniscient language became personal familiarity language. The only sentences that remained in the omniscient category was the bit about foreknowledge in verses 15 & 16. I updated these verses to use modern scientific concepts…

You’re not done with me yet! — In verse one in the ESV, David says “before the gods I sing your praise”. Does your understanding of monotheism align with David’s? The first half is praise, and the second half includes a description of God’s character and a statement of confidence in God’s present work. The last sentence…

bitter grief & baby killing. — The last verse in this psalm is perhaps the most graphic imprecatory psalms verse of them all. A celebration of the image of throwing babies onto rocks to kill them. Just brutal. Like everything, we must process this in context. Starting from within the text, we see how the author…

Eternal Loyal Love Chorus — This one repeats, a lot. There is the obvious repeating of the phrase ‘because his loyal love is eternal.’ But there’s also repetition within each verse. For example, ‘yada elohim elohim’ (Give thanks to the God of gods) in verse 2 or ‘yada adon adon’ (Give thanks to the lord…

Personified pieces of metal and stone — This one has very similar structure and message to Psalm 115. In fact, there are four verses which are identical (verses 6, 15, 16, & 18 in 135 are identical to verses 3, 4, 5, & 8 in 115 respectfully). This one goes like this: celebrate God because he is…

Ascent Song 15: The Conclusion — This one is quite short and very simple. I think previously (before I noticed the grouping of the ascent songs) I would’ve just passed over this one. But if we view the ascent songs as a group, as a sequence to be read together, it makes sense to have a…