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Psalm 97
Easter 7C
Very near the center of Psalm 97 in verse 7 we find a curious turn of phrase. It actually looks almost like some fractured syntax. First we are told that all those who worship images are put to shame. Well and good. But then comes a line without a verb and that seems almost to…
Psalm 67
Easter 6C
You don’t see it in Bible translations much anymore these days other than in a footnote. But when I was a child, I recall seeing the word Selah pretty often in the Book of Psalms in the Bible version we used at Ada Christian Reformed Church. I don’t recall if I ever asked my parents…
Psalm 148
Easter 5C
Psalm 148 gives us a lot of movement. The first four verses have us moving in a downward direction. We begin in the heights above, in the heavens. Then we move down a rung to see angels and heavenly hosts. Continuing the descent we arrive at the sun, moon, and stars. Finally we get to…
Psalm 23
Easter 4C
Not even an hour before I sat down to begin working on this sermon commentary on Psalm 23, one of my students preached an in-class sermon on Jesus’s Parable of the Lost Sheep from Luke 15. She reminded us in the course of the sermon that there are connections between that parable and the I…
Psalm 30
Easter 3C
A core tenet of the Christian faith is, to quote from the much-loved hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” “Thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not, as Thou hast been, Thou forever will be.” The more fancy theological term for this is the Doctrine of Divine Immutability. Or we sometimes say God is the same…
Psalm 150
Easter 2C
Psalm 150 is the giant exclamation mark that closes out the Book of Psalms. In six swift and short verses the psalmist looks back on the previous 149 songs in the Hebrew Psalter and then as much as says, “Here’s what this whole book has been saying all along.” The psalms—each of them and all…
Psalm 114
Easter Day C
Last week our Psalm commentary was on Psalm 118, one of the options for Palm/Passion Sunday. This week the Year C Easter Psalm is 118, the only option. So for this commentary we will take up Psalm 114, which is the Psalm assigned for Easter evening. Psalm 114 is in its own way a somewhat…
Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29
Palm Sunday C
The Year C Lectionary—like all three Lectionary cycles—gives us two options for this final Sunday in Lent. We can focus on the Liturgy of the Palms to celebrate Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem or we can make it Passion Sunday / Liturgy of the Passion and focus more on the upcoming crucifixion and death of Jesus…
Psalm 126
Lent 5C
The first half of this short psalm does not seem to fit the Season of Lent very well. This begins as a psalm of rejoicing and praise, remembering the time the exiles returned from Babylon. Those verses paint an almost delirious picture of happiness, laughter, and people feeling as if their dreams had at long…
Psalm 32
Lent 4C
According to the old saying, “Confession is good for the soul.” The psalmist who penned Psalm 32 would agree but would also add that not confessing is bad for soul and body. The psalmist here famously declares that for that season of his life when he refused to own up to and acknowledge the sins…
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