If it can be worried about, it must be worried about. That’s one of my life philosophies. Not that it’s a good one. Not that it was one of my own choosing. My mother, a champion worrier, handed this philosophy down to me. I wish I could be rid of this obsessive worry. I’m working […]
Read More
“Do it again, do it again,” small children say over and over again when engaged in a favorite activity. One push on a swing is never enough. You have to keep pushing till you drop from exhaustion. It isn’t enough to read a favorite book once. It has to be read multiple times till you […]
Read More
“Everybody lies” – so says Dr. Gregory House from the popular TV series “House.” Cynical, yet it rings true, we all lie at times. It is a social skill first formed at the age of reason, seven, then developed over time. Anyone who insists they never lie is a liar. The writer of Psalm 52 […]
Read More
Psalm 51, the most well-known of the Penitential Psalms, is a psalm commonly associated with Lent. The writer prays for the removal of personal and social sin. So what does Psalm 51 have to say to us in the midst of this holiday season? Psalm 51 Psalm 51 is attributed to King David after being […]
Read More
Psalm 50 and Paul in Hebrews 13:15 speak of offering God a sacrifice of praise (“Through him, then, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.”), but what does that mean? How can praising God be a sacrifice? Isn’t it a joy and […]
Read More
Who is the prudent one? What does it mean to be prudent? Psalm 49 gives us a clue. In canon law studies, the question was always, what would the prudent man do? To be prudent, according to Webster, is to be shrewd in management of practical affairs, to be cautious, discreet, judicious, foresighted, sensible and […]
Read More
“Next year in Jerusalem!” So ends the Jewish Seder meal. Pilgrimages to the holy city of Jerusalem were an important part of the Jewish faith in Old Testament times. There was only one Temple, the Temple in Jerusalem, David’s city. The journey was meant to give pilgrims plenty of time to reflect on God; the […]
Read More
Every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we pray “thy kingdom come,” often sliding over the words without pausing to understand what the words mean. Jesus proclaimed that the kingdom of God was near. He compared the kingdom to a mustard seed (Mt. 13:31), yeast (13:33), a treasure (13:44), a pearl of great price (13:45-46), […]
Read More
In a world full of noise and activity, Psalm 46 reminds us of the importance a being still and listening to our God. Our Noisy World In his book, The ScrewTape Letters, C.S. Lewis has the devil, ScrewTape, giving instructions to his disciple, Wormwood, on how to lead humans astray. When Wormwood comes up with […]
Read More
Psalm 45 was written for a royal wedding. We love royal weddings, don’t we? For that matter, as a society we seem to be in love with weddings, rivaling the royal wedding with expenditures and extravagances to make that day “special”–as if wanting to commit your lives to each other wasn’t special enough. But for […]
Read More
