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The biblical texts for the second week of Advent are Isaiah 40:1-11, Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13, 2 Peter 3:8-15a, and Mark 1:1-8.1 The prophetic voice in Isaiah confidently claims an end to exile as the “Lord (...)

Psalm 95 is a bit unusual in that it is a hymn of praise that includes a prophetic warning, as do Psalms 50 and 81.1 The psalm’s combination of a double call to worship (the (...)

“A Mighty Fortress is Our God”—the hymn, which according to Ulrich Leupold, “more than any other epitomizes Luther’s thought and personal experience”—is a rather free paraphrase of Psalm 46.1 For that reason, the psalm is (...)

As the twice-repeated refrain (verses 3, 5) indicates, Psalm 67 is a song meant for public worship.1 We can imagine a worship leader or choir singing the body of the psalm, with the congregation or (...)

Although the central section of this psalm is comprised of hymnic praise of God, the psalm as a whole suggests that the prayer exemplifies what Walter Brueggemann categorized as psalms of reorientation.1 Psalms of reorientation (...)

God’s work is messy business. Perhaps this messiness is part of the appeal of the royal succession narratives in the opening chapters of 2 Samuel. The story reaches a crucial point with the initial establishment (...)

Like Psalm 46, last week’s psalm, Psalm 24 is related to Jerusalem (see Psalm 46, Reformation Sunday). Its content, structure, and movement strongly suggest that it was used in ancient times by worshipers as they (...)

Notes (and hymns) for a six-part preaching series on the Psalms1 This worship and preaching series on the psalms is meant to move through the psalms in a manner that reflects both how the Psalter (...)

As always, preaching for a festival of the church brings competing goods: Do we preach the text or preach the day? I will always want to err on the side of preaching the text, though (...)

Luke goes to great lengths to characterize Jesus’ death as a continuation of his ministry. Maintaining continuity between Jesus’ ministry and his death provides one key marker of healthy theology. Jesus announced the reign of (...)