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Psalm 24 is notoriously difficult to interpret.1 While virtually everyone sees that it falls into three parts: verses 1-2; verses 3-6; and verses 7-10, their disparate nature renders most attempts to explain their interrelationship conjectural (...)

The reading for this week from Hebrews 7:23–28 provides a summary of a rather important discussion from the author of Hebrews. Prior to this selected text, the author goes to great lengths to explain how (...)

Although it is not entirely unique in the Psalter, the most striking thing about Psalm 91 is that it ends with a divine speech in verses 14-16.1 Usually when God speaks in the Psalms, it (...)

Does it matter to know God’s name? For a child who grows up in a religiously homogeneous community, God might not need a name other than “God” (especially if it is believed that there is (...)

Last week we looked at the larger canonical context of the book of Job and the larger literary context for Job 1-2. The larger canonical context was Job’s dispute with Deuteronomic orthodoxy and its simplistic theology (...)

Perhaps you’ve heard the old saw, “Announcing your plans is a good way to hear God laugh” (or something like that).1 If making plans of our own (presumably in the face of God’s plans for (...)

Psalm 146 opens a collection of five hallelujah psalms at the end of the book of Psalms (146-150).1 Each of these psalms begins and ends by encouraging everyone to “praise the LORD!” which is the (...)

With the concluding verses of Psalm 34, the author has returned to the subject matter with which he began, namely the suffering from which God delivered him (verse 4).1 Along the way, as we saw (...)

Psalm 130, best known by its Latin incipit De Profundis, “Out of the Depths,” has inspired church musicians for centuries, usually in the context of a Requiem Mass.1 One need only mention Johan Sebastian Bach’s (...)

Ecological activist and author Bill McKibben suggests that “environmental devastation stands as the single great crisis of our time, surpassing and encompassing all others.”1 If he is correct or even close to being correct, then (...)