John Goldingay

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Psalms for Everyone - Who Can I Turn To?

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Who Can I Turn To? Psalm 4 We were at the farmer’s market (in Britain one would call it a street market). I really wanted new potatoes, which the New York Times had assured me should be available, but I was not surprised that East Coast information on such matters does not necess…

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Psalms for Everyone - You Are Not Alone

by SPCK - John Goldingay

You Are Not Alone Psalm 3 When I watch a thriller such as one from The Bourne Identity trilogy, I wonder what it would be like to have everyone against me and not be able to trust anyone. Then I come out of the story at the end and realize that it’s just a story. But last night w…

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Psalms for Everyone - God Laughs on His People's Behalf

by SPCK - John Goldingay

God Laughs on His People’s Behalf Psalm 2 We watched Independence Day fireworks last night, and I recalled how people sometimes ask me, “Do you celebrate Independence Day in Britain?” I say, “Yes, of course: parents are glad when their kids grow up and take control of their own l…

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Psalms for Everyone - You Have a Choice

by SPCK - John Goldingay

You Have a Choice Psalm 1 It’s Independence Day today in the United States, and our visiting preacher on Sunday more than once referred to our freedom to make choices as a reason for rejoicing. I imagine that as well as the freedom not to have one’s destiny shaped by guys the oth…

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Psalms for Everyone - 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…

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Psalms for Everyone - Acknowledgments

by SPCK - John Goldingay

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The translation at the beginning of each chapter (and in other biblical quotations) is my own. I have already translated the Psalms in an earlier commentary (Psalms, three volumes, published by Baker Academic in 2006–2008); although I started from scratch for this…

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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - GLOSSARY

by SPCK - John Goldingay

GLOSSARY aide A supernatural agent through whom God appears and works in the world. Standard English translations call them “angels,” but this term suggests ethereal figures with wings, wearing diaphanous white dresses. Aides are humanlike figures; hence it is possible to give th…

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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - How David Got His Grandfather

by SPCK - John Goldingay

How David Got His Grandfather RUTH 4:11-22 I was talking to a friend yesterday who has long been interested in researching into her family history, and she told me how she had discovered some time ago that both her parents had been divorced twice before they married each other. A…

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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - They All Did What was Right in Their Own Eyes

by SPCK - John Goldingay

They All Did What Was Right in Their Own Eyes JUDGES 17:1-13 I am an Episcopalian/Anglican priest, but I don’t really believe in priesthood. One of the first things God pointed out at Sinai was that the whole people of God is a priesthood (see Exodus 19), and the New Testament re…

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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - The Man Who Would be King

by SPCK - John Goldingay

The Man Who Would Be King JUDGES 9: 1-57 In connection with Joshua 20, I mentioned a woman in my class who apparently had a brain tumor. In an e-mail a couple of weeks ago, she talked about ways God had been speaking to her through classes she had taken over the summer and fall a…

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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - I'm Not the Hero; the Hero Is God

by SPCK - John Goldingay

I’m Not the Hero; the Hero is God JUDGES 8: 1-35 One of my fond memories of our sons’ childhood is of reading Bible stories to them at bedtime, stories that had been rewritten and illustrated for children; I have now passed on the set of books to the son who has children of his o…

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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - How to Increase the Odds against Yourself

by SPCK - John Goldingay

How to Increase the Odds against Yourself JUDGES 7: 1-25 Two weeks ago a man tried to blow up a plane going from Amsterdam to Detroit, and one week ago when I came back from London to Los Angeles after Christmas, it took two hours to board the plane rather than the usual half hou…

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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - How to Be a Mixed-up Person

by SPCK - John Goldingay

How to Be a Mixed-up Person JUDGES 6:25- 40 This week I asked a group of students what impressions their Christian background had given them about prayer. One of the recurrent themes was that we need to be a bit careful how we talk to God. You don’t complain to God, question God,…

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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - On the Unimportance of Spiritual Insight

by SPCK - John Goldingay

On the Unimportance of Spiritual Insight JUDGES 5:31b- 6: 24 I have just been talking to a couple I have not seen for a year or two, exchanging news about our children and their marriages and their families. This other couple has several daughters. The last of these was almost th…

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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Three Strong Women and Three Feeble Men (II)

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Three Strong Woman and Three Feeble Men(II) JUDGES 5:1- 31a The other Sunday we sang the hymn “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” whose second verse begins, “Here I raise my Ebenezer.” I asked if anyone knew what this referred to, and hardly anyone did. (The answer is in 1 Samue…

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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Three Strong Women and Three Feeble Men (I)

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Three Strong Woman and Three Feeble Men(I) JUDGES 4:1- 24 Men can have mixed feelings about strong women, though for me strong women are not as worrying as strong men. Before my wife became disabled, she was quite capable of standing up to me; in my head I can still hear her sayi…

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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Unlikely Saviors

by SPCK - John Goldingay

Unlikely Saviors JUDGES 3:5- 31 My father was a machine minder in a printing works, and my mother was a seamstress. I was the first person in my extended family to stay at school beyond the age of fourteen. I have more than thirty cousins; only one other has been to college. I am…

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Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - The Power of Forgetting

by SPCK - John Goldingay

The Power of Forgetting JUDGES 2:1- 3: 4 Last night I went to the first performance in Los Angeles of the musical version of The Color Purple, a fabulous concoction of music, dance, and drama vividly bringing to life the tough reality of many women’s experience (and not just in t…

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