Search Results

Psalm 15 is usually categorized as an entrance liturgy. The mention of God’s “tent” in v. 1 recalls the portable tabernacle of the wilderness era (Exodus 33:7-11; Numbers 12:5); but the designation came to be (...)

In Psalm 82, the poetic imagination of the Psalmist conjures a mythic heavenly court. This court is different from typical pictures of the radical monotheism of Israel. The one true God is now surrounded by (...)

Psalm 113 is the third psalm in a group of psalms in Book Five known as the hallelujah psalms (Psalms 111-118). It also the first of a collection of six psalms (Psalms 113-118) that are (...)

Psalm 146 lacks any evidence of context, enabling the reader to hear it in her own time and place. In the psalm God is the author of liberation (v. 7), the only one worthy of (...)

Written as an acrostic poem, approximately every other line in Psalm 37 begins with a successive letter of the twenty-two letter Hebrew alphabet. This can even be seen in the English translation of the NRSV (...)

Psalm 111 is a classic psalm of praise extolling the virtues of God presented as the praise of a single individual. It is a Hallel, one of the psalms that begins with hallelu Yah, “Hallelujah”, (...)

Psalm 121 is one of the Songs of Ascent, Psalms 120-134, as indicated by its opening words. In general these psalms focus on Jerusalem, the journey to Jerusalem — always categorized as “going up,” and (...)

Fifteen psalms in the Psalter, Psalms 120-134, share a common superscription, “Songs of Ascents. The root meaning of the word “ascents” is ‘alah–”to go up.” The frequent references to Jerusalem and Zion in this collection (...)

Were anyone to quiz congregants filing in to worship about the content of the little book of Joel, chances are good that few could cogently respond. Why then, preach from Joel? Several considerations might lead (...)

Joel 2 is, perhaps, most well known from its quotation in Acts 2:14 and following. In Acts, Peter calls upon Joel’s words to help the festival crowds in Jerusalem understand the powerful in-rushing of the (...)