Sermon Commentary Library

Our weekly sermon commentaries are Lectionary-based, which across its three-year cycle, encompass a vast array of biblical texts. Filter the Sermon Commentary Library to search Scripture texts by book and chapter to find commentary, illustrations, and reflections to spark ideas.

Looking for something else? View our Heidelberg Catechism sermon resources and our Reformed Connections to the RCL section that traces Lectionary texts to specific parts of the Heidelberg Catechism and the Belgic Confession.

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Psalm 34:15-23 Sermon Commentary

Proper 16B

Welcome to Week 3 of Psalm 34. As noted before, the Lectionary for some reason devotes three consecutive Sundays to this relatively short psalm. What’s more, in the original Hebrew this is an acrostic poem, meaning it is meant to be memorized and seen as a unity. But despite via the Lectionary we have considered…

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Psalm 34:9-14 Sermon Commentary

Proper 15B

It is not at all clear to me precisely the thinking behind dedicating three August Sundays to a single psalm.  Preachers are challenged enough this month on the Gospel side of things with five weeks’ worth of sermons from John 6, all pretty much on the same theme.  But now we are getting a triplet…

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Psalm 34:1-8 Sermon Commentary

Proper 14B

These days I am contributing two sermon commentaries a week here on the CEP website: the Old Testament reading and the Psalm.  This week I worked on the Old Testament passage first: the tragic story of the unraveling of David’s household through the rebellion and later the heartbreaking death of David’s son Absalom.  So having…

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Psalm 34:1-8 (19-22) Sermon Commentary

Proper 25B

Digging Into the Text: 1). The first thing to notice about this Psalm is that it is an acrostic. The poet/Psalmist not only takes on the usual formal patterns of Hebrew poetry such as parallelism, but adds the even more demanding form of the acrostic. It is analogous to the modern poet adopting the form…

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Psalm 34:1-8 (19-22) Sermon Commentary

Proper 25B

Psalm 34 blends thanksgiving to God for answering prayer with teaching about the kind of godliness that’s the most appropriate response to God’s salvation. Yet as the NIV Study Bible points out, that combination makes this psalm somewhat unique. After all, most psalms’ thanksgiving leads to calls to others to join in that praise. There’s…

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Psalm 34:1-8 Sermon Commentary

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…

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