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Psalm 145:8-9, 14-21
Proper 13A
Psalm 145 pops up four times across Years A, B, and C in the Lectionary though never as the entire psalm and always with a different configuration of verses included and verses bracketed out. There is not a lot of rhyme or reason to it near as I can tell but unless you plan to…
Psalm 119:129-136
Proper 12A
Psalm 119 is something of a poetic wonder in the Jewish-Christian Scriptures. As everyone knows, it’s the longest “chapter” in the entire Bible and by a lot at that. Luke 1 wins the prize for longest chapter in the New Testament, clocking in at 80 verses. Psalm 119 looks at that and says, “Tell you…
Psalm 86:11-17
Proper 11A
We do not know for certain if David wrote all of the psalms that are attributed to him (probably not seems to be the consensus of many scholars). The Hebrew phrase “Of David” can mean multiple things. Yes, it can indicate authorship but it could also be “in the style of David” or “in honor…
Psalm 65:(1-8), 9-13
Proper 10A
Even after a couple decades writing sermon commentaries on Revised Common Lectionary texts, it remains a mystery to me just what it means when they place some verses inside parentheses. And in the case of Psalm 65 that means just over half of the psalm is so designated. In any event there is very little…
Psalm 145:8-14
Proper 9A
Psalm 145 occurs twice in each of the Revised Common Lectionary’s Years of A, B, and C. But it’s never the whole psalm for some reason. This Year A reading carves out some of the middle of this song while other assigned lections in other years include the first verses, the last verses, the middle…
Psalm 89:1-4, 15-18
Proper 8A
Across its somewhat sprawling 52 verses, Psalm 89 has a little bit of everything. We begin with the first 4 verses assigned by this Year A lection with vows to praise God across the generations (something we will read again next week in Psalm 145). Then there is a whole section on the splendors of…
Psalm 69:7-10, (11-15), 16-18
Proper 7A
The Year A Lectionary has carved out the precise center of Psalm 69, joining the psalm’s action after the first 6 verses that set the stage for a beleaguered psalmist crying for help and then stopping short of a string of verses that call down harsh judgment on the poet’s enemies before the song concludes…
Psalm 90:1-6,10, 12-17: Numbering Our Days – Day1 series: Faith and Science, part 7
“Teach us to number our days,” prays the psalmist, “that we may gain a wise heart.” But what does it mean “to number our days”? A good friend of mine has recently been reading the New York Times bestselling book called Being Mortal. The author of this book is a surgeon and a professor at…
Psalm 8:1-9: God and Cosmos – Day1 series: Faith and Science, part 2
Imagine that you’re lying on a beach. You’re lying on your back and your eyes sweep upward. What do you see? The mighty luminescence of the sun. A few cloud tufts wisping in the breeze. And then you look beyond. You strain your eyes as your vision sinks into the distance, the impenetrable distance that…
Psalm 100
Proper 6A
Recently when the Lectionary featured Psalm 23 as the Year A lection, I took note of the fact that for all its fame as a psalm, the 23rd psalm is actually very short, quite compact. This week we are led to Psalm 100 and it also is among the better-known songs in the Hebrew Psalter. …
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