Category: Psalms Group
These materials were shared with the Psalms Group, a fellowship group with a special interest in learning about, reading and praying the Psalms daily.
Psalm 12
From Reflections on the Psalms by C.S. Lewis:
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:
1. Preparation
Learning to pray a psalm in Christ involves study, meditation, and praying in the Spirit. Studying a psalm includes reading it repeatedly from several different translations, focusing attention on its actual words and images, and doing the research necessary to comprehend what the psalmist is saying. Comprehension usually requires using tools like a study Bible, Bible dictionary, and/or commentary.
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.
A Psalms Group email preparing for Sunday, April 19, 2020
In addition to reading chapter 3, “History,” of Open and Unafraid, please prepare for our time together tomorrow by reading Psalm 110 from several translations, including a study Bible. Psalm 110 is the most frequently quoted psalm by New Testament writers. It is also the psalm Jesus talks to his critics about in the last days of his earthly life.
Commenting on Psalms that celebrate the installment and victory of God’s chosen king, NT. Wright calls Psalm 110 “short and startling.” (Wright, The Case for the Psalms, p, 44.) He further comments:
Adapted from Out of the Depths: The Psalms Speak for Us Today by Bernhard W. Anderson, pp.225-225.
“Echoes of Old Testament psalms are heard in more New Testament passages than those included in this list, which is confined for the most part to direct quotations or specific allusions.”
Prepared for Sunday, April 26, 2020
The fifteen Psalms of Ascent are placed in the Psalter after Psalm 119, Israel’s love letter to YHWH for his Torah, his instructions for life in YHWH’s mercy, grace, steadfast love, and faithfulness. (See Exodus: 34:6.)
If we wish to make the most of the psalms, then, we must not only understand them as prayers, we must also understand how they “do” prayer. The psalms show us the nature of faithful prayer in the following ways: