Epilogue: For Thine is the Kingdom

Epilogue – For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.  Amen.

Doxology – Walter Brueggemann at a recent conference exclaimed that doxology needs to be exuberant, a self-abandonment in response to the inexplicable generosity of God.  Easter certainly is a time for doxology, exuberant praise of God for all God has done for us!

As we finish our Bible Study, it feels inadequate to end on being tested.  It doesn’t feel complete.  To feel complete I add an exclamation about our God – for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever!  Doxology!  We need to “do” doxology, a statement of faith in our God who provides everything we need.  And then we begin all over again, “Our Father . . .”

Holy Week - Put Us not to the Test

Week 7, Holy Week –Lead us not into Temptation and Deliver Us from Evil

Psalms of Deliverance

7, 10, 12, 13, 17, 22, 26, 31, 35, 39, 44, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 64, 69, 70, 71, 74, 77, 79, 80, 82, 83, 85, 88, 90, 94, 108, 109, 120, 126, 137, 140, 141, 142

I have long had a love/hate relationship with Holy Week.  I love the liturgies and the Scripture readings; they are so rich in meaning.  However I hate what they entail if you seriously undertake these celebrations.  They require that you go through the gates of death, walk with Jesus during his final hours, endure all that he endured.

Holy Week tests us and I don’t enjoy being tested.  Jesus taught us to pray, put us not to the test.  He knew that the spirit was willing but the flesh weak.  The apostles are put to the test during the final day of Jesus’ life and failed miserably.  None were able to stay awake with Jesus; Peter denied he knew Jesus and all fled out of fear.

Bible Study Week 6 - Forgive as We Forgive

Bible Study -Week 6

Forgive Us our Sins as We Forgive Those who Sin against Us

Penitential Psalms:  6, 25, 32, 38, 50, 51, 102, 106, 130, 143

Forgive us as we forgive.  We get another break this week in that we only have ten psalms to read, however the message is a powerful one, one of forgiveness as we prepare to celebrate Holy Week, the great culmination of Lent.  Along with the traditional penitential psalms: Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130 and 143; Fr. Murphy includes Psalms 25, 50 and 106.

           

Psalm 25 is another acrostic psalm with each line beginning with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet.  The unifying theme is praying for forgiveness and guidance.  Psalm 106 is an historical psalm recounting Israel’s sinfulness in worshipping false idols and complaining against God, and God’s great mercy and forgiveness of them despite their sins.  Psalm 50 sets the stage for Psalm 51.  A charge is brought against the people. 

Bible Study Week 5 - Give Us this Day our Daily Bread

Week 5  – Give Us this Day our Daily Bread

Psalms of Supplication

5, 28, 36, 42, 43, 54, 61, 63, 86, 123

This week and the next we get a break as we prepare for the grand finale of Lent, Holy Week.  We only have ten psalms to focus on this week and next week, but rich ones.  Having recognized God as Father, praised our God in heaven, and prayed for God’s will and kingdom, we now turn to our own needs. 

Jesus instructs us to pray:  give us this day our daily bread.  We are to pray every day for that which we need, not just our bread, but everything.  We are to turn to God in prayer, seeking that which we desire.  The psalms are plaintive as the writers cried to God to hear their prayers.  We are to pray to our Father for all of our needs, trusting that our God who provided bread, manna, in the desert to the Israelites, will provide for our needs as well.  It is a reminder that we can depend on our God, as Jesus tells us:  “Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or drink, or about your body, what you will wear.  Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are not you more important than they?”  (Mt. 6:25-26)

Bible Study week 4: Thy Will Be Done

Bible Study, Week 4 – Thy Will Be Done on Earth as it is in Heaven

Wisdom Psalms – 1, 37, 49, 73, 91, 112, 119, 127, 128, 133, 139

Liturgical – 15, 24, 134

Prophetic Exhortations – 14, 52, 53, 75, 81, 95

Historical – 78, 105

Out of all of creation, we are the only ones with the ability to choose ways that are not God’s ways.  We have free will.  And so, we need to choose carefully, trying to align our lives with God’s will for us.

In order to help us in making these choices, we have the wisdom, liturgical, prophetic exhortations and historical psalms.  They focus on God’s law and the need to keep those laws.

The wisdom psalms are a collection of wise sayings, similar to the book of Proverbs.  Sometimes they are loosely held together through a poetic structure, other times they follow an organizing theme.  We hear in the first psalm, “Happy are those who do not follow the way of sinners . . . rather the law of the Lord is their joy.”  They offer us reassurance that those who follow God’s ways will be blessed. 

Bible Study Week 3 - Thy Kingdom Come

Week 3 – Thy Kingdom Come

Royal Psalms

Messianic - 2, 18, 20, 21, 45, 72, 89, 101, 110, 132, 144

Canticles – 46, 48, 76, 84, 87, 122

Hymns of Yahweh’s Kingship – 47, 93, 96, 97, 98, 99

What does it mean to say God is king in our democratic society?  God is not the president, elected by people with limitation on his power.  God is king, it is his birthright; there are no restrictions on his power.

Our psalms for today explore kingship. They include the Messianic Psalms that refer to earthly kings, pointing to Jesus, the Messiah; Canticles of Zion which speak of God’s presence in his holy city Jerusalem and favoritism towards Zion; and psalms that praise God as the one true king.

Jesus tells us that the kingdom is both present among us and yet to come.  These psalms speak of a king on earth as well as God in heaven.  The earthly king, in that he is of David’s lineage and anointed by God, is God’s representative and yet not the one true king.  We pray for kings on earth, for our leaders, that they may lead well, following God’s ways.  There are prayers for Jerusalem, an earthly city that foreshadows the New Jerusalem, the holy city in God’s kingdom, heaven.

St. Ignatius Loyola in his spiritual exercises asks us to choose, under whose banner do you march?  Are you under God’s banner or the world’s banner—the banner of Satan?  You need to make a choice.  Who is king of your life?  Who do you follow? Even if you made that choice years ago, it needs to be looked at over and over again to see if you have remained true to that choice.  Are you living that choice in reality or only in words?  Do you say God is king, yet let the cares of the world distract you from serving God?

Jesus tells us to pray, thy kingdom come.  That implies that God’s kingdom has yet to arrive.  This week we reflect on:  what does it mean to say God’s kingdom is now and yet to come?  What does it mean to say God is king?  And what are we called to do to bring about God’s kingdom? 

 

Copyright Feb. 2013, Robertson

Bible Study Week 2, Holy is thy Name!

Week 2  – Hallowed be thy Name

Psalms of Praise and Thanksgiving

Praise – 8, 19, 29, 33, 100, 103, 104, 111, 113, 114, 117, 135, 136, 145, 146, 147, 148, 140, 150

Thanksgiving – 9, 30, 34, 40, 41, 65, 66, 67, 68, 92, 107, 116, 118, 124, 138

                When we see a beautiful sunrise, a work of art, or experience a moving play or liturgy, we talk about it, even when we say there are no words.  There is that within us that needs to speak words of praise. 

           

            C.S. Lewis tells us:  “I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise.  We delight to praise what we enjoy.”  And we urge others to join us in praise.  After our sports team wins, Facebook is full of comments as we share our momentary pleasure.  How much more reason to share our joy in the Lord!

            We praise God not because God needs our praise but because we need it.  We need to shout from the mountain tops the wonder of God’s loving kindness.

            Praise requires that we recognize who God is, God’s greatness.  We have reason to pray “Holy is your name!”  You would think our worship services would be filled with enthusiastic acclamations of praise but far too often our words fall flat.  Our prayers become rote memorizations bereft of the power of meaning.

            Praise is central to the Psalms.  The early Christian community knew its need to praise God for the beauty of creation (8, 18, 29, 104 & 108) and for God’s providential care for his people, especially for his loving kindness (hesed) and fidelity and truth (emit).  Each of the five sections of the Psalms end with words of praise, with the final section exploding in a symphony of praise that starts with Psalm 145 and comes to a grand conclusion in Psalm 150.

            Partnered with the Psalms of praise are the Psalms of Thanksgiving.  Cognitive psychologists know that as we think so we feel.  Thinking about all that our God has done and giving thanks can raise our spirits.  It’s hard to remain downcast when focusing on our blessings.  Giving thanks every day can lead to an attitude of gratitude that recognizes all life as gift.  The Eucharist is the great thanksgiving prayer of the church, thanking God for the great gift of his Son.

            As you read through these psalms of praise and thanksgiving, focus on all of the reasons you have to praise God and give thanks.  Let the words transform you.  Our God truly is an awesome God, worthy of praise and thanksgiving!  Holy is his name!

Copyright Robertson 2/2013

Bible Study Week One - Our Father in Heaven

LENTEN BIBLE STUDY:  Praying the Psalms in Light of the Lord’s Prayer

Week 1 - Our Father in Heaven

Psalms of confidence and trust

3, 4, 11, 16, 23, 27, 62, 115, 121, 125, 129,131

Week 1 of our Bible study begins with the first line of the Lord’s Prayer:  Our Father in Heaven.  This phrase speaks of our identity as God’s children and reminds us that we can approach our God with confidence and trust.

Long before Jesus instructed us to call God Father, the writers of the psalms approached God with boldness and confidence because of God’s loving kindness expressed in his covenant with his people.  The psalms associated with this phrase are the psalms of confidence:  3, 4, 11, 16, 23, 27, 62, 115, 121, 125, 129, 131.

Included in this grouping is the 23^rd Psalm - the Lord is my shepherd, perhaps the most well-known of all of the psalms.  Other psalms include Psalm 27 - the Lord is my light and my salvation, Psalm 121 – I lift my eyes to the mountains, and Psalm 125 – As mountains surround Jerusalem, the Lord surrounds his people both now and forever.  The last psalm in this section, Psalm 131, is a psalm of quiet trust that invites us to rest in the Lord like a child on its mother’s lap.  “I have stilled my soul, hushed it like a weaned child, like a weaned child on its mother’s lap, so is my soul within me.”  (vs. 2)

I invite you to “still your soul.”  Try to find some time during the craziness which is life to rest in quiet confidence knowing you are loved.  Reflect throughout the week on what it means to call God Father.

And so, we begin our Lenten journey by reflecting on “who we are” and “whose we are” – beloved children of God and members of one family.  

copyright Robertson 2/2013

The Psalms and the Lord's Prayer- Bible Study

The Psalms and the Lord’s Prayer

Deitrich Bonhoeffer in his book, Psalms: the Prayer Book of the Bible, says:  “All the prayers of Holy Scripture are summarized in the Lord’s Prayer, and are contained in its immeasurable breadth.  They are not made superfluous by the Lord’s Prayer but constitute the inexhaustible richness of the Lord’s Prayer as the Lord’s Prayer is their summation.  Luther says of the Psalter:  ‘It penetrates the Lord’s Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer penetrates it, so that it is possible to understand one on the basis of the other and to bring them into joyful harmony.’” 

How are the Psalms intertwined with the Lord’s Prayer?  Unfortunately, Bonhoeffer didn’t expand on this idea, leaving me wanting more.  Fortunately I’ve been able to find elsewhere how the Psalms fit into the Lord’s Prayer.             

Fr. Thomas Murphy, OFM, in the introduction to his book, Sing a New Song:  Praying the Psalms in the Light of the Lord’s Prayer, writes:  “Over time, I made the exciting discovery that the seven phrases of the Lord’s Prayer can be matched with seven categories of psalms which include all 150 psalms.  In teaching us to pray, Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant, had also provided a concise summary of the ancient psalms.”

What a wonderful framework for studying the Psalms!  Fr. Murphy goes on to say, “The rich poetic grandeur of the psalms is brought into focus by the simplicity of the Lord’s Prayer.  Meanwhile, the concise expressions of the ‘Our Father’ can be more fully appreciated through the poetic imagery of the psalmists.”

With this in mind, I propose to do a Bible study of the Psalms this Lent, looking at them through the framework of the Psalms.  I will reflect on one phrase of the Lord’s Prayer each week, culminating with Holy Week.  I invite you to join me in this endeavor.  

Each week I will post the line and the psalms associated with that line.  I encourage you to think about the particular phrase from the Lord’s Prayer all week, reflecting on what that phrase means for you in your life.  Then read the psalms associated with the phrase when you have time to sit down with your Bible, perhaps first thing in the morning or before bed at night, or during your lunch break.  Share your thoughts and reflections on this blog if you feel so inclined.

In this way we will explore the richness of the Lord’s Prayer and the Psalms together.

Copyright Robertson February 2013

Psalm 33: Sing a New Song

Psalm 33 – Sing a New Song

Psalm 33 instructs us to sing a new song – what might this new song be?  How do we know it is new and not just a rehash of some other songs, warmed over and re-served?  Ecclesiastes says there is nothing new under the sun.  If so, what could this new song be?  More often than not, when we preach, we try to find new ways to get across the same old story – the story of God’s love, a message worth repeating.  We struggle to find new ways to get our listener’s attention so that God might speak to them. 

Often people claim they are starting out fresh, maybe leaving a relationship or job for another, only to find themselves in the same rut with the same problems, only the names and faces have changed.  So what is the new song the Psalmist is writing about?

Psalm 33 talks of God as creator.  The writer praises our God who through his word made the heavens (6-9).  It is the Lord’s counsel that stands forever, not the counsel of men (10-11).   Our God watches the goings on below on his earth and keeps his people safe (13-15, 18-19).  People are not saved by armies but by their God (16-17).  And so we have reason to sing songs to our God, but what is so new about this?

God in Isaiah says “see I am doing something new.”  Only God can do something new.   So how do we know we are doing something new?  If God is the author.   Only God, the creator, can bring new life out of dried out bones; only God creates, we are but participants in God’s creation. 

So sing a song to our God, allow God to sing within us, allow God to change us, transform us, and then our song will be new.  So . . . what are you doing that is new????

Copyright Robertson January 2013

Psalm 32: Is Confession Good for the Soul?

Psalm 32: Is Confession Good for the Soul?

“When I declared not my sin, my body wasted away. . . I acknowledged my sin . . . then thou didst forgive the guilt of my sin.” (3-5)

It’s been said that confession is good for the soul, and this psalm would attest to that.  The writer was afflicted with suffering.  Knowledge of some past sin was haunting him to the point that he had become physically ill.  As long as he held it in, he was tortured, wracked with guilt but when he told his sin to God, he found forgiveness. 

This is the second of the penitential Psalms, but it is also a psalm of thanksgiving.  The writer is thankful to God for the gift of forgiveness.  “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,” (1a) he states.  He knows the gift of forgiveness, but in order to know this he had to first sin and recognize his sinfulness.  “It can no doubt be ‘a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God’ (Heb. 10:31), but it is a worse thing to fall out of them,” as one commentator states (Interpreter’s Bible, vol. 4, p. 170).  The psalmist had fallen out of God’s hands through his sin.  How great his delight to return to God through confession.  The psalmist then instructs the reader to not be stubborn like a mule but to turn to God for forgiveness in order to experience what it is to be “blessed.”

Surely confession is good for the soul, but first there must be recognition of what needs to be confessed, then there must be genuine remorse.  It isn’t enough to admit to a wrong doing.  In the news this week has been Lance Armstrong’s confession that he had used drugs during his years of competition.  He finally admitted to what he had done but he claimed he was just doing what everyone else was doing.  He justified his actions.  So, was this confession good for his soul?  It is not for us to judge what is in his heart, that is for God – best to leave it there.

“My words fly up, my thoughts remain below.  Words without thoughts never to heaven go,” the king in Hamlet states after an unsuccessful attempt at prayer. (Hamlet, Act III, sc. III)  He knew he had sinned but wasn’t willing to do what was necessary to make amends, to admit to what he had done and give up his ill-gotten gain.  And so he remained in his sin.

Perhaps the greatest sins are the ones we refuse to see, sins of excessive pride, greed, justifications for hording the world’s goods, walking away from those in need.  None of us are perfect; therefore all of us are in need of God’s forgiveness.  Perhaps our prayer needs to be that God will help us see when we have fallen short of the mark for by ourselves we remain blind.  Then our confession will bring the healing and forgiveness we need.

Copyright Robertson January 2013

A Cup of Coffee and the Psalms

Coffee and the Psalms

 “My strength returns to me with my cup of coffee and the reading of the Psalms.”  Dorothy Day

Good things happen over a cup of coffee or tea:  in depth conversations with a friend or just shooting the breeze; early morning meditations with God.

Since I’m no longer preaching every Sunday, I took a break from posting to this blog in order to re-evaluate, redesign and recommit.  I’m still pursuing my own study of the Psalms, praying them, reflecting on them, studying them.  I will be sharing these but my entries will be shorter.  I hope they will still provide fodder for preachers who may want to preach on the Psalms but will also reach a wider audience.

I hope that this blog will be a space for dialogue about the Psalms, for a chance to, in a sense, sit down together with a cup of coffee and converse.  To discuss, what are your favorite Psalms and why?  Are there quotes about the Psalms that you really like?  Have the Psalms played an important role in your life and if so, how?  All of these will be up for discussion.  I hope you will join me in this endeavor.