John Goldingay
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken, Zion
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken, Zion
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken, Zion Psalm 87 A few weeks ago, we had a visit from friends in London who told us exciting tales about developments in their parish, where they have a rector who is full of ideas for reaching out into the community and a church that is growing. …
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - A Servant Leans on His Master
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - A Servant Leans on His Master
by SPCK - John Goldingay
A Servant Leans on His Master Psalm 86 The media report that two days ago Christians in Egypt undertook a demonstration related to obstacles put in the way of building a church. The demonstration then became an expression of dissatisfaction with military rule in Egypt, so Muslims…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Restore Us Again
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Restore Us Again
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Restore Us Again Psalm 85 It is easy for me as a Brit to be resentful of the U.S. media’s critiques of Britain and Europe. “Why do they think it’s their business to criticize when the United States can’t solve its own problems?” I wonder. “Are the British media so critical of the…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The One Day and the Thousand Days
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The One Day and the Thousand Days
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The One Day and the Thousand Days Psalm 84 Each of the churches to which I belonged as a minister in England used to have something like a retreat each year—not a business-focused retreat (the connotation that often attaches to the word retreat in the United States) but a weekend…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Choose Your Fate
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Choose Your Fate
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Choose Your Fate Psalm 83 Biblical scholar Michael V. Fox has what you might call a typical Jewish background. At the beginning of the twentieth century his grandfather had a narrow escape from pogroms in Russia, when hundreds of Jews were killed and thousands raped, mutilated, a…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - On Challenging the Gods and God
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - On Challenging the Gods and God
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On Challenging the Gods and God Psalm 82 Two friends who live in the Philippines had lunch with us a week or so ago while on a visit home in the United States. One of them, a Chinese American, told us that in the Philippines he had a sense of the presence of evil spirits that he …
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - On the Relationship between Worship and Sermon
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - On the Relationship between Worship and Sermon
by SPCK - John Goldingay
On the Relationship between Worship and Sermon Psalm 81 We went to the first regular seminary chapel service of the quarter yesterday, and there was lots of resounding singing, (tuneful) shouting, and melodious guitar and piano (equivalent to the harp?). There were no horns this …
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Bring Back! Come Back!
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Bring Back! Come Back!
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Bring Back! Come Back! Psalm 80 It’s nearly three hundred years since the First Great Awakening, a revival of religious life in Britain and even more in the British colonies in America a few decades before the War of Independence. This First Great Awakening was mostly a movement …
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - One Way to Evade Compassion Fatigue
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - One Way to Evade Compassion Fatigue
by SPCK - John Goldingay
One Way to Evade Compassion Fatigue Psalm 79 The expression “compassion fatigue” has been around for a while. The nature of modern communications media means that we become instantly aware of suffering in different parts of the world, but we cannot deal with all that suffering or…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - People Who Are Standing Need to Watch Lest They Fall
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - People Who Are Standing Need to Watch Lest They Fall
by SPCK - John Goldingay
People Who Are Standing Need to Watch Lest They Fall Psalm 78: 38-72 A few months ago one of the members of our church, a lively lady in her nineties who always had something to contribute, suddenly became less consistent in coming to church, and then didn’t appear for two or thr…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The Subtle Link between God’s Grace and People’s Response
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The Subtle Link between God’s Grace and People’s Response
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Subtle Link between God’s Grace and People’s Response Psalm 78: 1-37 Yesterday in church the Old Testament reading was the giving of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, and we followed that reading with some congregational discussion of which of these commands seem most import…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Has God Changed?
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Has God Changed?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Has God Changed? Psalm 77 One of our students came to see me to ask me to meet with another student whose life seemed to be falling apart and who was talking about suicide. The woman had been married for twenty years; her first husband had been “the love of her life.” Then he bec…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Fear or Reverence
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Fear or Reverence
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Fear or Reverence Psalm 76 Last week I was lecturing on the Psalms at a college in Michigan, and I referred to the extraordinary freedom that the Psalms assume we have in our relationship with God. You can say anything to God. In relation to God, we are like children in relation …
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The Promise of a Poisoned Chalice
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The Promise of a Poisoned Chalice
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Promise of a Poisoned Chalice Psalm 75 The news today tells of two men called Abu Elias and Robert who were interviewed as they sat at the bottom of the stairs of the Convent of Our Lady of Saydnaya, a city high in the mountains north of Damascus. It is one of the few communi…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Enough Punishment Already!
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Enough Punishment Already!
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Enough Punishment Already! Psalm 74 This evening, as I write, will be the beginning of the Jewish year 5772; in other words, on this reckoning the New Year will be the 5772nd year since creation. It will be followed by the Day of Atonement and the Festival of Sukkot. Thinking abo…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - God Redeems Now
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - God Redeems Now
by SPCK - John Goldingay
God Redeems Now Psalm 73 Last night we went to a concert by rock-country-bluegrass-folk artist Steve Earle. I first heard him at Nottingham Rock City when he was still fairly fresh out of prison where he had been for drug-related offenses. Twenty years later in a club in Disneyla…
Introduction
Introduction
by SPCK - John Goldingay
INTRODUCTION As far as Jesus and the New Testament writers were concerned, the Jewish Scriptures that Christians call the “Old Testament” were the Scriptures. In saying that, I cut corners a bit, as the New Testament never gives us a list of these Scriptures, but the body of writ…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Acknowledgments