Psalms Group, Sunday August 2, 2020, 9 AM
We will focus on the theme of “Nations” tomorrow, presented in chapter 13 of Fr. David Taylor’s Open and Unafraid. He starts off by describing his own experience and understanding of “Who is my neighbor?” What experiences have shaped your understanding of that question? How has your reading and praying of the psalms impacted your understanding of who your neighbor is?
Prepared for Sunday, July 26, 2020
Dear Psalms friends,
Our focus tomorrow is LIFE, the life God creates and is renewing and redeeming.
Prepared for Psalms Group meeting on July 12, 2020
Here is a printable PDF file for our meeting. The text is below if you prefer to access it online.
Psalm 30 is an individual’s song of thanksgiving. It tells the story of going into trouble and coming out of trouble.
Psalm 30 narrates the person’s story of assurance and confidence morphing into self-sufficiency and conceit. Then the loss of self-sufficient well-being (prosperity, health) brings disorientation that resembles death. From the depths of the pit of despair at both his deathly circumstances and his own arrogance and complacency, the humbled psalmist cries to YHWH for mercy and help.
Email preview for Psalms Group on May 31, 2020
Dear Psalms friends,
Tomorrow we will be concluding the strange and memorable Eastertide of 2020 with the joyful celebration of Pentecost Sunday, the official birthday of the church. Appropriately, our Psalms group will focus on “Joy,” chapter 6 of David Taylor’s Open and Unafraid.
We will explore Psalm 66 to help us enter into the joy of rescue and deliverance,
the joy of troubles and transformation,
and the joy of thanking God and telling others about who he is to us and what he does for us.
Psalm 66 is an appropriate focus for Pentecost Sunday because this feast day marks the end of Eastertide. Psalm 66 is associated with the mightiest act of God, resurrection from death. The ancient church entitled Psalm 66, “a psalm of resurrection.” Psalm 66 gives us words to celebrate the mightiest acts of our Triune God: the incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, the coming of the Holy Spirit to empower the Church, and the promised soon return of Jesus and his eternal reign. It also gives us an example of an individual expressing joy to YHWH and sharing it with other faithful people.
Unless otherwise noted, quotes are from Interpreting the Psalms by Patrick D. Miller, Chapter 5: “Enthroned on the Praises of Israel: Interpreting the Biblical Hymns”
“The most exuberant, extensive, and expansive indicators of who and what God is, and what God is about, are found and elaborated in the hymns and songs of thanksgiving that the people of Israel and individuals in that community uttered again and again in the course of Israel’s history.” (p. 64)
Psalm 35 is a lament psalm of angry complaint. Trouble seems close by, hatred is growing, and trust in God is wavering. Maybe you can relate to a person in a badly deteriorating situation—you or others you have known or heard about, now or in the past.
Email preparing for May 10, 2020
Thanks be to God that we don’t have to fake “fine.” Life in Christ includes suffering and pain of all kinds and also includes resources to get through it.
The Book of Psalms begins (1:1) with “Blessed is the man” and ends with five hymns of praise focused on God, equivalent to “Blessed be the LORD.”
There is a step-by-step progression in this praise:
From an email sent on 5/1/2020 to prepare for Sunday’s Psalms Group
Last week we joined the pilgrims as they proceeded to Jerusalem singing their Psalms of Ascent—psalms that helped them stay in reality about the trouble in their lives, about YHWH who acts to keep his faithful, and about their ultimate security and peace in YHWH. Journeying together through the Psalms of Ascent helps us find words to express our distress, to call for God’s help, and to experience his rest and peace. I hope your reading of chapter 4 on “Poetry” in Open and Unafaid enhances your psalm reading and praying.