John Goldingay

Being Blessed and Being a Blessing Psalm 21 Yesterday a young Christian man set off an explosion in Oslo, Norway, to preoccupy security forces, then took a ferry to a nearby small island. Hundreds of young people with political connections or political involvement were at camp th…

Written
1 credit

Psalms for Everyone - How to Be Codependent

by SPCK - John Goldingay

How to Be Codependent Psalm 20 In our church we are in the midst of accepting that we can no longer afford a full-time rector. As a result I am becoming the only priest involved with the church on a regular basis, presiding at services and preaching except on occasions when I ask…

Written
1 credit

Psalms for Everyone - The Mystery of Sin

by SPCK - John Goldingay

The Mystery of Sin Psalm 19 One of the Christians I know who have had affairs had three such relationships and got away with two without anyone knowing. Then some people discovered about the third (I don’t know what his wife might have suspected), which was how he came to be talk…

Written
1 credit

Psalms for Everyone - Self-Knowledge or Self-Deception

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Self-Knowledge or Self-Deception Psalm 18: 25-50 I know some Christians who have had affairs, and I have come closer to doing so than I should have done. When Christians talk about their affairs, the story regularly involves an element of denial and/or self-deception. Maybe the p…

Written
1 credit

Psalms for Everyone - We've Probably All Been Rescued from Death a Few Times

by SPCK - John Goldingay

We’ve Probably All Been Rescued from Death a Few Times Psalm 18: 1-24 Between us my wife and I have had four or five illnesses that would have left us dead had we lived in most contexts in human history. We have both had appendicitis that might have killed us without medical inte…

Written
1 credit

Psalms for Everyone - Go On, Look into My Heart

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Go on, Look into My Heart Psalm 17 From time to time my wife asks me what I’m thinking. She has to do so because whereas she instinctively tells me what she’s thinking, I’m not good at doing so. But it’s a potentially scary question. Occasionally I might be thinking something tha…

Written
1 credit

Psalms for Everyone - The Secret of Life

by SPCK - John Goldingay

The Secret of Life Psalm 16 As a result of a routine physical exam I was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. Quite likely it would not develop into something actually life-threatening before I died of something else, and I might have decided to do nothing about it, but the d…

Written
1 credit

Psalms for Everyone - How to Dwell with God

by SPCK - John Goldingay

How to Dwell with God Psalms for Everyone Part 1 Psalms 1-72 Psalm 15 A composition. David’s. 1 Yahweh, who may stay in your tent, who may dwell on your holy mountain? 2 The person who walks with integrity, and acts with faithfulness, and speaks the truth in his heart. 3 He has n…

Written
1 credit

Psalms for Everyone - What a Rogue Says to Himself

by SPCK - John Goldingay

What a Rogue Says to Himself Psalm 14 In the last decades of the twentieth century there was a thing called the charismatic movement that emphasized the felt reality of God’s presence and the perceptible reality of God’s speaking and acting in healing people. One of my bosses con…

Written
1 credit

Psalms for Everyone - How Long, How Long, How Long, How Long?

by SPCK - John Goldingay

How Long, How Long, How Long, How Long? Psalm 13 About the same time as the story I described in connection with Psalm 12, I had a dream or a vision—I’m not sure what it was. I was pushing Ann in her wheelchair across a bare plain toward the horizon. It was hard, but I had people…

Written
1 credit

Psalms for Everyone - Sometimes God Speaks

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Sometimes God Speaks Psalm 12 Before coming to the United States to resume being an ordinary professor, I was principal of a theological college in England, a position that is a cross between being president, provost, and dean of a U.S. seminary, but on a much smaller scale. I ha…

Written
1 credit

Psalms for Everyone - Flee or Stay?

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Flee or Stay? Psalm 11 In this first week after South Sudan declared its independence, the president of northern Sudan has spoken before the national assembly as his reduced country starts a new phase of its life. He has described it as the “second republic” that will affirm the …

Written
1 credit

Psalms for Everyone - The Wretched of the Earth

by SPCK - John Goldingay

The Wretched of the Earth Psalm 9: 19- 10: 18 My stepdaughter and her husband spend their lives seeking to make known the plight of Darfuri refugees in Chad; they make dangerous visits there from time to time. They tell horrifying stories about the way the Sudanese government tre…

Written
1 credit

Psalms for Everyone - Praise and Thanksgiving as a Key to Prayer-I

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Praise and Thanksgiving as a Key to Prayer-I Psalm 9: 1-18 Yesterday a pastor in Florida invited me to look at his blog, where he had written about God’s renewing the church. When God renewed the church (as happened with the emergence of Pentecostalism a century ago, for instance…

Written
1 credit

Psalms for Everyone - Thus Far and No Further

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Thus Far and No Further Psalm 8 The crying of babies and sucklings is hard to listen to yet hard to avoid. In the area that is now South Sudan, one in seven children dies before his or her fifth birthday. In Darfur, countless young girls have been raped and abducted. The media re…

Written
1 credit

Psalms for Everyone - The Judge is on Your Side

by SPCK - John Goldingay

The Judge Is on Your Side Psalm 7 If you are an Orthodox Jew in Brooklyn and are accused of some wrongdoing, you can hire an Orthodox private eye who wears a black frock coat and a fedora—though when he goes undercover, he confines himself to a skullcap and fringed prayer shawl t…

Written
1 credit

Psalms for Everyone - The Way Prayer Makes a Difference

by SPCK - John Goldingay

The Way Prayer Makes a Difference Psalm 6 Two of my friends are celebrating their golden wedding anniversary, and I have been asked to contribute to the greetings book that will be presented to them at the celebratory party. So I wrote that my first wife, Ann, sat up in her cot i…

Written
1 credit

Psalms for Everyone - On Pleading with the King

by SPCK - John Goldingay

On Pleading with the King Psalm 5 Tomorrow, South Sudan becomes a separate country, independent of northern Sudan. No one knows what the future will bring for it, but if you belong to South Sudan, you hope that it means an end to the conflict between the south and the north and t…

Advanced Search

How to use Advanced Search

Lectionary Search