Chapter: Book 5

If Psalm 108 is “a recipe for an hour of need,” what are its ingredients?

Dear Psalms friends,

We have skipped right past Psalm 108 each time we have read and prayed our way through Book 5, the concluding book of Psalms.  Its superscription states that it is “of David,” and it appears that David composed this community lament using material from two previous psalms:  Psalm 57:7-11 (an individual lament) and Psalm 60:5-12 (a community lament).

So what is the flow of thought in this new arrangement?  What seems to be going on? What groups of people are involved? What is God’s place in this psalm?

Prepared for Psalms Group, August 30, 2020

Psalm 136 is the only psalm in the whole Psalter which has a repeated refrain in every verse.  It is a far-reaching celebration of the love and covenant faithfulness of YHWH to his people, for steadfast love is the love which honors and works within the covenant.  (Grogan, Prayer, Praise and Prophecy, p. 236)

Psalm 136 and The Songs of Jesus, pp. 344-346

Dear Psalms friends,

This Sunday’s focus psalm is Psalm 136, the last of the Psalter’s storytelling/narrative psalms.  The faithful people in Israel kept retelling the unfolding drama of YHWH’s dealings with Israel.  Here’s a helpful outline for reading these storytelling psalms:  

Psalms Group, August 23, 2020

Okay, guys…when I chose these two eight verse sections of Psalm 119 as our focus, I didn’t notice the rhyming Hebrew letters. But it makes this lesson more fun…and hopefully more memorable.

Prepared for Psalms Group, August 15, 2020

Psalm 112 is a wisdom psalm that partners with the hymn of praise to YHWH in Psalm 111.  Psalm 112 showcases how one whose core essence (“heart”) trusts steadfastly in YHWH becomes increasingly “YHWH-like” in attitude and action. This transformation happens by YHWH’s works and word. Look for what Psalm 112 show us about how to experience this “blessed”  transformation.