Stephen Fry said of his involvement in the BBC’s ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ programme that he received more mail and feedback from one programme on the Holocaust than from anything else he had ever done. One viewer even said, ‘I never knew what the Holocaust meant until I saw your programme.’ This demonstrates that many people cannot see the link betwe4en facts and historical narrative unless these facts are brought to life, mediated by personality. The slaughter of a nameless six million people is hard to fathom, but if we follow the story of one named and delineated family, we can be moved inexpressibly.[1]
Many find the long historical narratives in the Old Testament tedious and abstract. Yet the Bible gives us many personal stories of faith: Abraham, struggling through years of waiting for God’s promises to be fulfilled; Joseph’s ups and downs over thirty years; Moses dealing with fractious and rebellious followers; David’s life story from shepherd boy to old king. These personal stories help us to see the connections between history and life as we are living it – for the pilgrim way is not so different now, despite vast changes in our world. Human nature (the basis of history in many ways) does not change much, and we relate to these personal stories of faith as we allow ourselves to enter into them
God does not change (Mal 3:6), and therefore the historical psalms remind us of His faithfulness, love, compassion and forgiveness – all attributes of His nature which are constant. By rooting history in the wisdom genre of literature through these psalms, we see also that the connection between the abstract and the personal is meant to have a direct influence on how we live life now. If we want to live wisely, we will be careful to absorb the lessons history teaches us and learn to keep God’s commands. (Ps 78:1-7)
[1] [1] https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2006/jul/09/featuresreview.review