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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 (...)

Psalm 1 is a wisdom psalm that serves as the preface to the psalter, sharing literary and theological relationship with the Torah.1 Torah–the first five books of the Hebrew Bible—is traditionally translated as the “law” (...)

The knowledge of the risen and ascended Jesus involves more than adopting a baseless belief in an assortment of factoids about a mythical Messiah who makes his grand exit from earth by floating away into (...)

Psalm 47 is a hymn that celebrates God’s reign as king over the earth.1 The psalm also portrays a procession for the purpose of celebrating God’s kingship. This is most evident in the declaration that (...)

Psalm 98 is the fifth psalm in a group of six psalms in Book Four of the Psalter known as the Enthronement Psalms (Psalms 93, 95-99).1 The Enthronement Psalms celebrate the reign of God as (...)