John Goldingay

When Suffering Links to Sin Psalm 38 A friend of mine recently gave me a moving description of the Alcoholics Anonymous group to which he belongs. People go to meetings because they are desperate. They know they cannot kick their habit on their own. It’s more like a disease. They…

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Psalms for Everyone - The Lowly Will Inherit the Land

by SPCK - John Goldingay

The Lowly Will Inherit the Earth Psalm 37: 1-20 The day before yesterday, in a demonstration that turned violent, the police station a quarter of a mile from where I lived as a child in Birmingham, England, and a quarter of a mile from my church there, was set on fire. One has a …

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Psalms for Everyone - On Living in Two Different Worlds

by SPCK - John Goldingay

On Living in Two Different Worlds Psalm 36 The governor of Texas recently held a prayer rally that aroused the ire of people who believed he was transgressing the boundary between church and state, and it also aroused the fascinated incomprehension of commentators. One remarked t…

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Psalms for Everyone - They Hated Me without a Reason; They Will Treat You the Same

by SPCK - John Goldingay

They Hated Me Without a Reason; They Will Treat You the Same Psalm 35 It’s amusing that many of the nastier parts of the Old Testament don’t seem to raise a problem for Jesus in the way they raise a problem for Western people; it helps us see that our niceness has nothing to do w…

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Psalms for Everyone - I Will Survive

by SPCK - John Goldingay

I Will Survive Psalm 34 Our preacher yesterday told us how two years ago she had married a man who was soon abusing her. So after a short while she had to decide to leave him, though it was enough time for her to be pregnant. Thus she soon found herself divorced, jobless, and a s…

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Psalms for Everyone - God's Commitment Fills the Earth

by SPCK - John Goldingay

God’s Commitment Fills the Earth Psalm 33 Yesterday we went to the beach. It was a foolish venture because it was an August Saturday; I forgot that everyone else would have the same idea and that the parking would be impossible, but in the late afternoon we finally sat on the san…

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Psalms for Everyone - Love Covers a Multitude of Sins

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Love Covers a Multitude of Sins Psalm 32 Yesterday a federal court found six police officers guilty of shooting six citizens in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. My wife and I were reflecting about how the rest of us can’t simply dissociate ourselves from an event such as the s…

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Psalms for Everyone - They're Trying to Wash Us Away

by SPCK - John Goldingay

They’re Trying to Wash Us Away Psalm 31 Last night we went to a concert by the great honky-tonk/blues singer Marcia Ball, who grew up in Louisiana. Her closing song was Randy Newman’s unbearably moving “Louisiana.” The song describes how the Mississippi River rose all day and all…

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Psalms for Everyone - Answer to Prayer Phase Two

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Answer to Prayer Phase Two Psalm 30 In connection with Psalm 16, I have mentioned how a few months ago I met, fell in love with, and proposed to someone, then discovered I had prostate cancer and arranged to have surgery. We had a very moving prayer time in church, and I knew God…

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Psalms for Everyone - Who Is Really God (and Do you Treat Him as Such?)

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Who Is Really God (and Do You Treat Him as Such)? Psalm 29 Without being fully aware of what she was doing, on the eve of her daughter’s wedding my innocent, soon-to-be wife agreed with her prospective son-in-law’s mother (who was the matriarch of a large, Mexican, Roman Catholic…

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Psalms for Everyone - Our Handiwork and God's

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Our handiwork and God’s Psalm 28 In the news last weekend was a story about an unemployed and deep-in-debt hairdresser in his forties who went to a “Money Cometh to You” conference at a church in Vermont to listen to a visiting preacher who promised that the Lord could not only s…

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Psalms for Everyone - One Thing

by SPCK - John Goldingay

One Thing Psalm 27 Soon after I came to the United States, I attended an inaugural lecture by a man who (we were told) was a full-time pastor and a half-time professor. I laughed because I assumed it was a joke—how could you be a full-time this and a half-time that? (He also told…

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Psalms for Everyone - I Wash My Hands in Innocence

by SPCK - John Goldingay

I Wash My Hands in Innocence Psalm 26 In the Episcopal church, when we move from the first part of a service, which focuses on the reading of Scripture, to the celebration of communion, someone pours a little water over my hands as the priest and I say some words from Psalm 26: “…

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Psalms for Everyone - I Can't Wait

by SPCK - John Goldingay

I Can’t Wait Psalm 25 “We can’t wait till you come to see us next year,” a friend in the Philippines said. “I can’t wait till the concert on Saturday,” a singer-songwriter said. “We can’t wait to meet your new wife,” a friend said. “I can’t wait for Christmas,” another friend sai…

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Psalms for Everyone - Will God Let You In? Will God Let You In?

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Will God Let You In? Will God Let You In? Psalm 24 Five days before the Egyptian army crossed the Suez Canal in September 1973, aiming to recapture Sinai from Israel, I was in Sinai climbing what in Arabic is called “Mount Moses,” the mountain traditionally regarded as Mount Sina…

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Psalms for Everyone - In the Dark of the Canyon

by SPCK - John Goldingay

In the Dark of the Canyon Psalm 23 In the foothills of the mountains near where we live is a retreat center where we have a faculty gathering each fall. Two years ago a new director at the center gave us some advice we had not been given before. If we met a bear on the grounds, w…

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Psalms for Everyone - On Facing Two Sets of Facts

by SPCK - John Goldingay

On Facing Two Sets of Facts Psalm 22: 19-31 Two friends of ours were giving us an amusing account of a difference they had discerned between the way they approach problems in their relationship and in other aspects of life. It was amusing yet also serious and profound. When there…

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Psalms for Everyone - My God, My God, Why?

by SPCK - John Goldingay

My God, My God, Why? Psalm 22: 1-18 Each Palm Sunday as part of our church’s worship we read the story of Jesus’ trial and execution, with members of the congregation taking different parts. There are a number of frightening moments in the story. Particularly sickening is the poi…

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