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.

Psalm 31 - Into your hands I commit my Spirit

Psalm 31 - Into Your Hands,  I Commend My Spirit

I love this time of year.  There is beauty everywhere.  If only I could freeze frame all of the colors of fall.  I look about and try to etch a memory indelibly into my mind, but it doesn’t work.  Nothing remains in my memory, even sights of beauty.  I walk from one room into another and forget what I’m looking for.  I write so many notes to myself to jog my memories that I have notes for my notes.  The price of growing old, I guess.

This beauty is but a fleeting moment for us to enjoy.  We can’t store them up for tomorrow or the next day much though we may want to.  We have to let these days go like the falling leaves, trusting that in the spring new leaves will grow; new beauty will assault our memories.  But for today, we have the autumn leaves.  And I ask myself, what more do I have to let go of this year?  How is God stripping me yet again in this life?  Like the trees I am being stripped bare of adornment, externals, till nothing is left but the bare bones, the frame from which new life will grow.

Psalm 31 might be termed an autobiography in three parts, much like Psalm 23.  There are three psalms joined into one, a triple cry for deliverance. 

In verses 1-8 the writer is seeking assurance of protection from some impending trouble.  He begins with a statement of trust in God, then he asks God to listen to him and rescue him.  “Take me out of the net which is hidden for me,” he pleads.  He doesn’t know the exact nature of what is about to come, just that evil lies in wait for him. 

He commits his spirit, his life, into God’s hands, confident that God will protect him, uttering the words that Jesus himself used before his death with one small change.  Jesus added the word Father.  Where the writer of the psalm was committing his life into God’s hands, confident that he would escape death, Jesus was committing his life to the Father in his death.   As one commentator states:  “A psalm which comes into the mind of the Sufferer of all sufferers at the moment of death is a psalm to be reverenced.” (Interpreter’s Bible, Vol 4, p. 163).    

As is common in laments, the writer thanks God in advance for all he will do.  The writer rejoices for God has not let him fall into the hands of his enemies and has set his feet in a broad place, a metaphor found in other Psalms.  In this case the writer escapes the snares and traps that had been set for him.

Then there is an abrupt change from rejoicing to lament in verse 9.  Verses 9-12 are the words of one who is being plagued by physical disease, an ailment that has been long standing.  He has been crying his eyes out with grief, his strength is gone, even his bones are wasting away.  When dealing with grief and prolonged illness it can feel like your whole life has been like this; that it has been forever, even if it has not been the case. 

He has forgotten the joy experienced in verse 7 and now all is sadness.  The writer is an object of scorn, even horror.  People flee from him.  In verses 13 – 18, the lament shifts to someone who is being lied about.  They are whispering together against him he says.  They are scheming to take his life.  It could be that in his suffering he is paranoid, imagining that people are plotting against him.  This is easy to do.  The machinations of the mind can be wild indeed.   Or it could be that people are plotting against him.  He escaped the plots in the first part of his life only to be attacked even stronger later.

Perhaps the writer was afflicted with leprosy or some other disease making him unclean.  Later Christians saw Jesus, the suffering servant in this passage.  He was a sight that people couldn’t bear to look at, so marred was his form from being scourged.  People ran away from him during his last hours.

Who are the pariahs of our times?  Who do we run from?  Perhaps victims of AIDS who are considered unclean?  Perhaps those disfigured by war and disability that we don’t want to look at because it upsets us? As I grow older and face the weakening of my bones, this passage takes on new meaning.  Are the old among us the new pariahs that we put away into “homes” so that we don’t have to deal with them?

But even in this state of great suffering, the writer remains faithful.  He puts his trust in God, asking God to deliver him from his persecutors, asking God to put them to shame, even send to hell, those who would lie against him.  Some commentators would clean up this passage, stating it is unchristian to condemn another to hell and spiritualizing the passage to mean our own failings and sins being condemned to the land of shadows.  While this can be one way of using the passage, it is highly unlikely the writer meant any such thing.  When in despair and pain, it is human to respond with anger and the desire for revenge.

The last section, verses 19-24, is a hymn of thanksgiving for God’s deliverance from the suffering of the previous verses.  Now comes the happy ending.  At the end of life, the writer is able to look back at his life and see how God has been present.  It is with confidence that he can say, “Blessed be the Lord, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me.”  He then instructs others, those younger, those yet to come, to trust in the Lord who saved him.  It is the Lord who delivers justice, who “requites him who acts haughtily,” not us.  So be strong and wait for the Lord.

Thus is one life, a mixture of suffering and blessings.  The challenges of youth give way to even greater challenges in mid-life.  Those who remain firm in faith, trusting in their God, will reach peace and quiet after the storms of life.  Over all, the one phrase chosen by Jesus resounds, “Into your hands I commit my spirit.”  Repeatedly throughout life, we are challenged to let go, to place our life into God’s hands, just as the trees let go of their leaves.  We do so in preparation for that final letting go at the end of our life.

So as to my initial question - what might God be asking me to let go of this fall? – I don’t know.  But I’ll trust in the Lord.  Whatever challenges may be facing me, whatever new losses, I will land on firm ground for God is with me.

Copyright October 2012 Robertson

Random Thoughts on Preaching by Catholic Lay Woman

Random Thoughts on Preaching using the Revised Common Lectionary by a Catholic Lay Woman

            As a Catholic Lay woman who has never been formally trained in preaching, who am I to preach?  I am not allowed to preach in the Catholic Church, that being reserved to ordained priests and deacons, and yet that is what I’ve been doing in other settings.  For the past twelve years I’ve been preaching each Sunday at services at the retirement community where I held the position of chaplain, using the Revised Common Lectionary as the basis for my preaching. 

I liked using the Revised Common Lectionary.  I liked knowing that millions of people throughout the world are hearing the same readings and hearing sermons preached on those readings, yet no two will be alike.  To me, that is incredible.

            I loved the challenge of trying to find a common theme for all three of the readings.  It was like solving a puzzle each week.  I know that preaching instructors would say this is not a good idea, that this is a beginner’s mistake - the readings weren’t set up with a common theme. Usually the Gospel and Old Testament readings were connected but then you had these letters thrown in to provide a different direction for preaching if desired, not to make the preacher do mental gymnastics in order to find a connection.  But that is what I liked to do. 

Good preachers I’ve heard stick to one reading, one theme that they develop in depth.  Some even preach a whole sermon on one verse of Scripture.  But then I don’t claim to be good.  I guess I’m just a beginner, especially in comparison to others who have had extensive training and more years of experience than I have had. 

I loved being forced to reflect on God’s word by my weekly deadline.  I would reflect on the readings, pray about them, carry them with me in my head all week, asking first what God was saying to me through these readings, then what God might be saying to my people. It is work, hard work, it took up a good portion of my week, yet it was good work, God’s work. 

I will miss it now that I no longer hold this position.  It seems I’m a fraud who has finally been found out.  But then who among us is truly worthy to speak God’s words?

copyright Robertson, August 2012

Psalm 30:5b - Joy comes with the morning

Psalm 30:  Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.

Joy comes with the morning.  I’ve been living with this passage for the past month, since July 18 when my position as chaplain was abruptly eliminated.  One minute I was planning out the next month’s sermons, an hour later I was sitting in my car with twelve years of my life packed into the trunk and back seat. 

The psalm I was scheduled to preach on next was Psalm 30.  When I read it the next morning, I felt comforted by its assurance of rejoicing in the morning.  I wasn’t rejoicing yet, but the promise was there.

            As I dealt with shock, denial, anger and sadness over the loss of this position, I’ve reminded myself repeatedly, in the morning rejoicing.  This too will pass.  Perhaps I’m on the verge of the greatest adventure yet; this next chapter in my life might very well be the best.  I’ve reflected on these words as I’ve puzzled over what to do about my sojourn into the realm of Psalms.  Not even a third of the way through, I know I don’t want to quit, but how to continue?  In the morning comes rejoicing.

            I no longer have the necessity of preparing a sermon every week to push me into Scripture, but I’m also free to go in different directions.  Freed of the need to come up with fifteen to twenty minutes worth of material, I can write shorter, more reflective pieces if I want.  But what do I want?  A good question.  In John’s gospel Jesus asks his disciples, “What are you looking for?  What do you want?”  So, what do I want?

            Joy comes with the mourning.  Joy can be found within mourning and grief.  The writers of the Psalms didn’t wait for God to deliver before thanking God for blessings.  They thank God in advance.  In the midst of lamentations, the writers thank God for hearing their cries, confident that God will come through for them.  And so I trust, in the morning comes rejoicing.  I don’t know what shape this rejoicing will take; I just know it will happen. 

The sorrows of today, the struggles and challenges, all will pass, will seem like but a minute in comparison to the joys that tomorrow will hold.  God is creating a glorious future for me, opening a window to replace the door that shut.  Sorrow lasts but for a moment, joy comes with the morning.  Each day is a new beginning.

“Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing; thou hast loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness, that my soul may praise thee and not be silent.  O Lord my God, I will give thanks to thee forever.”  Psalm 30:11-12