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Psalm 84
Proper 16B
In Psalm 84 the poet expresses her love for God’s “dwelling place.” In fact, her longing to be “in God’s courts” is so deep that she insists that it fills her soul, heart and flesh, in other words, her whole being. While David had wanted to build a dwelling place for the Lord, God had…
1 Kings 8: (1-6, 10-11), 22-30, 41-43
Proper 16B
The last few verses of this lection strike me as much as anything. So much of the Old Testament is all-Israel all-the-time. There is warfare and defeat of other nations, dark warnings about inter-marriage with Canaanites, the threat of foreign religious practices wheedling their way into the faith of Israel. It’s easy at times to…
Psalm 111
Proper 15B
Comments and Observations While God’s modern sons and daughters sometimes seem in a hurry to learn what the Scriptures expect of people, Psalm 111 focuses our attention on the Lord. In fact, only its verses 1 and 10 even directly speak to or about people, while only verse 2 even alludes to them. That’s certainly…
1 Kings 2:10-12, 3:3-14
Proper 15B
Comments and Observations: My wife tells me I think too much about The Godfather, and if you have been paying weekly attention to these sermon commentaries in the Summer of 2015 here, then you know this is indeed the second time in as many weeks that I have mentioned Francis Ford Coppola’s landmark 1974 film. …
Psalm 34:1-8
Proper 14B
Comments, Observations, and Questions to Consider Psalm 34 combines thanksgiving to God for answering prayer with teaching about the kind of godliness that’s the most appropriate response to such salvation. Yet as the NIV Study Bible points out, that combination makes this psalm somewhat unique. After all, most psalms’ praise leads into calls to others…
2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33
Proper 14B
Comments and Observations: I have this theory that although the actors who win the Academy Award earn the award for the entirety of their performances in the movies in question, there is often (maybe always) one key moment in those films that really cinch things. So in Forrest Gump, Tom Hanks is impressive throughout but…
Psalm 51:1-12
Proper 13B
Psalm 51 is what Old Testament scholar James Mays calls a “liturgy of the broken heart.” Like so many of the psalms, it’s a prayer of someone who’s in deep trouble. Here, however, the psalmist doesn’t complain to God about God or other people causing that trouble. He admits he alone has caused the trouble…
2 Samuel 11
Proper 13B
See the OT commentary for 12B which covers both weeks: https://cepreaching.org/commentary/2015-07-20/2-samuel-11/
Psalm 14
Proper 12B
Psalm 14 paints what Jennifer Green calls a “picture of humanity that could hardly be more dismal.” In fact, while most psalms at least begin by acknowledging God in praise or prayer, the poet begins Psalm 14 with the fool’s claim that “there is no God.” She then goes on three times in just three…
2 Samuel 11
Proper 12B
This commentary is for both 12B and 13B: In a memorable sermon on this text, Haddon Robinson said that this difficult chapter in the David saga is a good example of what can happen in middle age when we let our defenses down and become maybe a bit too full of ourselves, a bit too…
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