Home » Old Testament »
Psalm 133
Easter 2B
Would it be sacrilegious if we added a couple words to the first verse of Psalm 133? “How good and pleasant (and rare) it is when God’s people live together in unity.” Maybe I have been a pastor too long or maybe it’s being 13 months on the other side of the start of a…
Psalm 114
Easter Day B
[Note: The Year B Lectionary assigned Psalm 118 for both Passion Sunday and Easter. I chose to post on that for Passion/Palm Sunday last week and the Easter evening Psalm for this week. If you want to see last week’s post on Psalm 118, click here.] Psalm 114 is a curious choice for Easter Evening…
Isaiah 25:6-9
Easter Day B
What a delightful, even delicious alternative reading for Easter Sunday! The regular (Old Testament?) reading is from Acts 10:34-43, Peter’s proclamation of the Easter message to the Roman centurion, Cornelius. I wrote on that text last Easter, so I thought I’d give you an alternative way to proclaim the familiar message of Christ’s resurrection—not a…
Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29
Lent 6B
You wouldn’t know it to look at it. Yet it’s true: a portion of Psalm 118—specifically verses 22-23—is the single most-oft quoted Old Testament text in the New Testament. Not Psalm 23. Not Psalm 100. Not some well-known story like Abraham sacrificing Isaac or David and Goliath. Nope. It’s little old Psalm 118. That has…
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Lent 6B
The choice of this text for the Sixth Sunday of Lent makes perfect sense if we remember that the RCL has been tracing the theme of covenant this year (Year B). We have moved from God’s covenant with Noah and nature to God’s covenant with Abraham, from the giving of the covenant Law at Sinai…
Psalm 51:1-12
Lent 5B
This semester I am a co-instructor in Calvin seminary’s Psalms & Wisdom Literature course. Last week I did a class session on tips for preaching the Psalms. One warning I always give—based on past experience with student sermons that went off the rails—is never to preach the superscriptions. Whether it is simply the common superscription…
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Lent 5B
This remarkably sunny text may seem a peculiar choice for the dark journey of Lent, unless we see it in the light of theme of covenant on which the RCL has been focusing during this Lenten season. We began with God’s covenant with Noah and all of nature, the covenant on which all life on…
Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22
Lent 4B
The Lectionary is giving us but a small sampling of Psalm 107 by carving out the first three verses and then a half-dozen from the center of the larger poem. If you read the entire psalm, you will discover it is a curious historical retrospective on various experiences that various unnamed people have had at…
Numbers 21:4-9
Lent 4B
In our Lenten journey this year, the RCL has been focusing on the theme of God’s covenant—with Noah and all creation, with Abraham and his descendants, with Israel at Sinai, and next week with the world as promised through Jeremiah’s words to the Exiles. In our reading for today, we have a vivid picture of…
Psalm 19
Lent 3B
Since I began teaching preaching about 15 years ago, one of the things I find myself most often urging students to do is pay good attention to their transitions. Segues, metonymy, giving listeners little verbal hooks inside the sermon to help folks track the sermon’s forward progress: all of these things are vital to good…
Content related to Old Testament