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As the worshiping church follows the Gospel narrative into Jerusalem and toward the cross, the song-prayers of the Psalms provide the “soundtrack” for the drama that unfolds. These words—already old and beloved by the time (...)

The first seven verses of Psalm 25 are, at the broadest level, a prayer for help.1 The psalmist calls upon God for relief from some sort of trouble involving unspecified “enemies” (verse 2). As such, (...)

This psalm is a prayer of penitence, confession, remorse, owning mistakes made, and seeking a fresh start of new life with a restored soul upon receiving God’s forgiveness.1  Psalm 51 is traditionally attributed to David, (...)

First there is a blinding flash of light and then the thunderous sound of God speaking.1 It’s the story of the Transfiguration, right? Yes. But it is also the beginning of Psalm 50. A festival (...)

As is usually the case, the particular verses of the psalm that the lectionary assigns can be more richly understood by reading Psalm 89 in its entirety. Doing this work will help the preacher recognize (...)

The first three verses of this psalm can be interpreted in at least two ways. The psalmist may be 1) remembering with joy what God has done for God’s people in the past or 2) (...)

If you are considering this psalm selection for Christ the King/Reign of Christ Sunday, one of the first decisions you’ll need to make is whether your sermon text will be only verses 1-7a or the (...)

This deceptively simple psalm serves as the introduction to the Psalter and sets before us, the readers, a vision of life as a journey marked by bifurcating paths: turn one way, happiness (1:1), another, destruction (...)

Are we teachable? Can we change? Can we grow into the image of God in which we are created?¹ Each text for the 18th Sunday after Pentecost asks these questions. Psalm 25 puts them in the (...)

Context, context, context! Just as location is all important for home buyers, so is context crucial for understanding every passage of the Bible. Most biblical segments, even law codes, are embedded in a larger narrative (...)