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Psalm 29
Epiphany 1B
Last summer a tornado ripped through our area. It did not come very close to where I live but for those in and near its path, it was frightening. Whole homes were destroyed and in some places so many trees came down, you could not recognize whole neighborhoods. A man with whom I chatted this…
Psalm 148
Christmas 1B
No moment on the annual calendar gets more associated with popping champagne corks than New Year’s Eve. So it is appropriate that on this last Sunday and day of 2023 the Lectionary directs us to Psalm 148, which is in its own way a fizzing and frothing bottle of champagne in word form. It is…
Psalm 126
Advent 3B
Whenever I read Psalm 126, the phrase “delirious with joy” leaps to mind. What emerges in the opening verses here is a portrait of people whose wildest dreams somehow came true and they discover that they just cannot stop giggling over it and grinning like the proverbial Cheshire cat over and over and anon. Weeping…
Psalm 85:1-3, 8-13
Advent 2B
This week’s Psalm selection for the Second Sunday in Advent is in some ways very similar to last week’s selection of Psalm 80. In both psalms there are pleas for revival and restoration, for a relenting of divine anger over sin so that restoration could come to both land and people. Insofar as Advent has…
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
Advent 1B
The Lectionary directed us to Psalm 80 not long ago during Year A on October 3 and now here it is again at the head of Advent for Year B. If you want to see the commentary on this from just two months ago, you can click here. For this commentary we will look at…
Psalm 95:1-7a
Proper 29A
This is another one of those lections that stops just short of the place in the psalm where there is a decisive—yet probably important—shift of tone and theme. Yes, the first seven verses of Psalm 95 are a lovely doxological celebration and a call to worship this Creator and Redeemer God for all God is…
Psalm 90:1-8 (9-11), 12
Proper 28A
Psalm 90 is pegged in the superscription to be a psalm of Moses and though Moses’ having written this whole poem may be unlikely, there can be little doubt why this psalm has long been associated with Moses. Like Moses himself and the people he led for 40+ years, this psalm is a little bit…
Psalm 70
Proper 27A
At Calvin Seminary for the past two academic years we have been holding a once-weekly Public Reading of Scripture where we gather for 30 minutes to read aloud a couple chapters each of an Old Testament passage, a Gospel passage, and a Psalm. Not long ago Psalm 70 was read by a student and you…
Psalm 43
Proper 26A
Most scholars seem pretty certain that Psalms 42 and 43 were either originally just one psalm or that they are such tight companion psalms that you are not really supposed to read either of them in isolation from the other. But here we are being asked to look at only Psalm 43. A glance back…
Psalm 1
Proper 25A
With only a few weeks left in the Lectionary’s Year A cycle before Advent and Year B arrives, suddenly we arrive at Psalm 1. Along with Psalm 2, this poem is like the gateway into the Hebrew Psalter. As we have noted often in our sermon commentaries here on CEP, the Book of Psalms is…
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