Who are your “peeps,” your people? Friends? Family? Co-workers? Who are the people the psalmist refers to in Psalm 78 – my people? And why do they matter? Psalm 78 Another psalm by Asaph, Psalm 78 – my people “is the longest of the historical psalms. Its lesson is that history must not repeat itself. […]
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Is it possible to completely know ourselves or others? Much less God? In Psalm 76 – known, we hear how God is great, known throughout Judah. But what does that mean? Psalm 76 Another psalm of Asaph, Psalm 76 (NIV) begins by saying God is renowned in Judah. Other translations, including the King James, the […]
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The superscription for Psalm 60 – You were angry, says it is for our instruction. Why was God angry? What are we to learn about God’s anger from this psalm? Psalm 60 is both a lament and a psalm of triumph. The triumph comes after losses and lessons learned from those losses. The superscription reads: […]
Read More The book of Psalms is the prayer book of the early Hebrew community. In it you find the full range of human emotion, including anger. So, what do the Psalms teach us about anger? Anger in the Bible Human anger is seen as a natural part of human behavior in the Bible, though one that […]
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In the beginning, God created humans in God’s image and likeness. But since then, we humans keep fashioning God after our own image and likeness, following after false gods rather than accepting an inclusive God. It’s understandable. We are limited beings with constraints on our ability to comprehend the unlimited. We use what we know […]
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Have you ever gone through a time of loss and disorientation? Sometimes these are necessary for spiritual growth. Theologian Walter Brueggemann divides the Psalms into three categories: psalms of orientation, disorientation and re-orientation. This week’s psalm, Psalm 79, is a psalm of disorientation. Psalm 79 Psalm 79 is a communal lament. The temple has been […]
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“Those who don’t learn from history, are doomed to repeat it.” (George Santayana) And sometimes, even when we know our history, we repeat it! Psalm 78 is a loose accounting of the history of the Hebrew nation up to the time of David. It is a story we continue to repeat; a history of our […]
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