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Psalm 22:25-31
Easter 5B
Let’s try a little thought experiment: imagine running across a long-ish narrative poem that began with something like, “The one I love torments me day and night, insults me in private and in public. She has made me out to be a villain, and I rue the day I ever met her at times. Who…
Psalm 23
Easter 4B
Psalm 23 is hands down the most famous poem in the Hebrew Psalter. People seem to read their own lives and experiences into this lyric little song. That is quite amazing given how foreign most of the imagery is. Have you ever met a shepherd? Spent any time with sheep? Has your head ever been…
Psalm 4
Easter 3B
It is easier so see in some Psalms more than others but many of the Psalms were written for two or sometimes three voices. Psalm 4 is clearly to be understood as having two speakers (at least two): the psalmist and Yahweh, the God of Israel. It’s pretty obvious that the psalmist is speaking in…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Psalm 22:23-31
Lent 2B
In this week’s Gospel sermon article here on the CEP website I noted the dramatic experience of Peter in Mark 8 when he falls about as far as a person can fall within the span of minutes. Peter goes from being blessed to the heavens by Jesus to being cursed to the depths of hell…
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