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The Psalms enrich preaching during Holy Week and Easter, even if few preachers base an entire sermon on the Psalms. Jesus prayed the Psalms from the cross, and the Gospels quote the Psalms to tell (...)

Psalm 119 follows Psalms 113-118, known as the Egyptian Hallel, which are psalms recited during the Jewish festival of Passover. It, like Psalms 111 and 112, is an alphabetic acrostic in form, but it is (...)

When a psalm is divided up, like the one for this Sunday (verses 1-7, 17-19), the integrity of the psalm is lost. Then the beautifully intertwined words of lament to God and praise of God (...)

Handel Had It Right At least once a year, in the church where I grew up, our resident soprano soloist sang with great enthusiasm (and a bit too much tremolo) “I know that my Redeemer (...)

“Ein feste burg ist unser Gott…” is the original, German phrase that opens Martin Luther’s famous hymn. In English we sing “A mighty fortress is our God” but that is not quite the meaning of (...)

Psalm 51 is one of the most common psalms recited by Protestant Christians. They know it as a familiar component of weekly worship services. It has been a mainstay for decades in corporate prayers of (...)

All Those Bagpipes Of the texts that the lectionary pitches for this Sunday (Luke 13, Hebrews 12, Isaiah 58, Psalm 103), I suggest letting the first three go by and taking a cut at the (...)

The Shaking of the Foundations The Working Preacher may decide to preach on the Gospel text for today, following along with a series of sermons on Luke. The text from Hebrews is also inviting, with (...)

God is Great, God is Good One of the table prayers we have used in our family has been “God is great, God is good, and we thank him for our food.” This prayer summarizes (...)

Lifestyles of the Rich and Ransomed The four lectionary texts assigned for this Sunday have a common theme: wealth. More specifically, the texts are concerned with attitudes toward wealth. The theme is considered in a (...)