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