Prepared for Sunday, July 26, 2020
Dear Psalms friends,
Our focus tomorrow is LIFE, the life God creates and is renewing and redeeming.
- What experiences of “fighting for life” have you had? (with your own life or someone else’s life)
- When have you prayed for fullness of life and feared the worst: death, permanent damage, depletion, wasted life, loss of a future?
- When have you experienced loss of “shalom” (a deep sense of wetl-being marked by a fullness of life, p. 149)?
- What experiences of restoration of “shalom” have you had? When and how has God breathed life back into you?
- How has that led to “new songs” in your life? (Psalms 33:3, 40:3, 96:1, 98:1, 144:9, 149:1)
Our lectionary psalms this week were Psalms 47-69. Check out these references to life: Psalm 54:3-4, 56:6 and 13, 59:3, 61:6, 63:3-4, 9-10, 64:1, 65:5-13 about creation, 66:8-9, 68:20, and 69:28. You may find others!
David Taylor includes Psalm 54 is his list of “psalms of life” on p. 158 in question 7, which also includes all the lyrics to Charles Wesley’s hymn “Author of Life Divine.”
Psalm 54 is an individual lament offering words for any person of faith to use to keep talking with God and about God in life-threatening, life-diminishing situations.
- What is the psalmist asking God for? Why does he want these things from God? (54:1-3)
- If “Selah” indicates a pause to be still and to contemplate, what seems to be the result of that “time out”? (54:4-5)
- Recalling Fr. Paul’s paraphrase of “Behold” as “Hold the phone!,” what might your own personal paraphrase of 54:4 be?
- What does he now expect God to do? (54:5)What is the psalmist’s response in 54:6? What do you know about “freewill offerings” (peace offerings) with sacrifice and about “giving thanks” in Hebrew worship? How does that help you with your own response to God?
- What is motivating the psalmist’s responsive offerings of worship to YHWH? (54:7)
- Finally, how is Psalm 54 similar and different from “Author of Life Divine,” Wesley’s hymn on pp. 158-159.Consider these verses we read this week from John and 2 Corinthians as you compare and contrast the psalm and the hymn. (John 1: 1-5, which reminds us of John 8:12, and 2 Cor. 4:10-12 and 16-18, and 2 Cor. 5:4)
For those of you who are doing the summer reading of C. S. Lewis, look back at “SomeThoughts” in God in the Dock. What connections are you noticing between this short essay and our chapter on “Life” in Open and Unafraid?
I look forward to our time together at 9 am tomorrow morning!
Grace and peace in Christ,
Toni