Who doesn't love feasts? God gave the people feasts they could enjoy before him. Indeed, God commanded the Israelites to gather together at seven sacred assemblies every year involving feasts. Leviticus 23 describes them: 1. Passover (verse 5) 2. Feast of Unleavened Bread (6-8) 3. Feast of First Fruits (9-14) 4. Feast of Weeks (15-22) 5. Feast of Trumpets (23-25) 6. Day of Atonement (26-32) 7. Feast of Booths (33-43) The people gathered at the tabernacle (later, the temple). Not only did these festivals ensure that people remembered God’s mighty works, but they pointed to something significant about Jesus. In fact, Jesus fulfilled the first four on holy days! What do I mean by “fulfilled”? The apostle Paul wrote that the festivals “are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ” (Colossians 2:16-17). In other words, the feasts and what they commemorated foreshadowed some reality about Jesus. Thus, Jesus fulfilled the feasts when he completed that which they foreshadowed.

For years, Hebrew poetry mystified me. When I was about to read the Book of Psalms for the first time at age 17, I was excited. So many people had told me that Psalms was their favorite book of the Bible, and I couldn’t wait to experience what they had experienced. But I was disappointed. I thought they were repetitive, and none followed the standard flow of an essay: Introduction, three to five points, conclusion. Instead, the middles and ends often repeated the beginning. I could not make sense of many of them. That is, until years later when I finally learned how to interpret Hebrew poetry. Then the structure—which relied on repetition—made sense. Not only could I now interpret the psalms, but I also could finally pray them the way they were meant to be prayed. Here’s what I needed to know.

"We will not fear," the Psalms tell us. Yet these are difficult times. My girlfriend just texted me for prayer—her sister has surgery today for breast cancer, but their widowed mother can’t visit because she’s at high risk for coronavirus. My brother-in-law has an inoperable brain tumor, and out-of-state family can no longer visit. At the same time, his ability to use technology is fading. Additionally, my husband is losing his job for reasons unrelated to COVID-19, but so are millions of others due to shelter-in-place mandates. So what is our hope during a worldwide crisis? How do we not fear? Psalm 46 tells us.