These materials were shared with the Psalms Group, a fellowship group with a special interest in learning about, reading and praying the Psalms daily.
Prepared for Psalms Group on Sunday, July 19, 2020
“Comfort Even When There Is No Assurance” is the title of Marva Dawn’s chapter on Psalm 39 in I’m Lonely, Lord—HOW LONG? To introduce this psalm, she shares a friend’s statement of trust in God: “I just believe that God is still in control and that he will bring good out of all things.” The friend, as it turns out, is a quadriplegic who was paralyzed by an automobile accident. (Dawn, p. 139)
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.
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)
The Psalter teaches us about the life of faith, about honest dialogue between us and our Creator. The Psalter gives us hope that the life of faith is worth the effort, often by contrasting the righteous and the wicked. Themes from the Wisdom literature of the Bible (Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon) are prominent in some psalms. (Examples: Psalms 37, 49 and 73)
People in whom God is acting to make them like Him are contrasted with
people who deny God and live like He doesn’t matter.
Psalms 42 and 43 are usually treated as one psalm because:
The repetition of Psalm 14 in Psalm 53 reminds us of the 1,000 years of time that Israel was writing and collecting their psalms. These Hebrew poems were evoked out of the life of Israel and used in their public and private worship. In them, YHWH’s chosen people are sharing His way of life with one another and, ultimately, with all the people of the world.
The complaints, supplications, and imprecations of the lamenting words of the Psalter are recorded, heard, and received by God. God responds based on His character, “the perfections of YHWH,” revealed to Israel through Moses in Exodus 34:5-7:
During Advent, our group’s focus is on the psalms traditionally selected by the Church for the Sunday worship liturgy. You can see these 9 psalms listed in the Sunday Lectionary on page 717 in our revised Book of Common Prayer. ( Psalms 24, 50, 72, 80, 85, 122, 126, 132,146)
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.