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Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The Alternative to a Bulletproof Vest
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The Alternative to a Bulletproof Vest
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Alternative to a Bulletproof Vest Psalm 140 Not surprisingly (I recently read in a magazine), the best place to buy a bulletproof vest is Bogotá, Colombia, where two students at the University of the Andes noticed that bodyguards didn’t wear their bulletproof vests because th…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The Appeal of the Lost Sheep
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The Appeal of the Lost Sheep
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Appeal of the Lost Sheep Psalm 119:145-176 A Bedouin herdsman tells of how he was tending a flock of goats in the Judean wilderness near the Dead Sea. Before sleeping, the herdsmen would count their flocks, but for some reason this herdsman failed to do the count for two days…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The Faithful Master
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The Faithful Master
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Faithful Master Psalm 119:121-144 One of my former colleagues used to delight to talk about her first appointment with her boss. His opening words to her were “How can I serve you?” “What can I do for you?” “How can I help you do your job?” In a way the questions seem smarmy …
Psalms for Everyone - The God of Atonement and the God of the Harvest
Psalms for Everyone - The God of Atonement and the God of the Harvest
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The God of Atonement and the God of the Harvest Psalm 65 A lively but respectable-looking student was telling me her life story. She had reacted against a Christian upbringing while she was at college and (among other things) had become involved with drugs and with a guy who was …
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The God of Redress
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The God of Redress
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The God of Redress Psalm 94 As I write, hundreds of people are encamped in a park near Wall Street, their base for protesting the fact that the 1 percent of the U.S. population, of whom Wall Street is a symbol, have a greater net worth than the entire bottom 90 percent, with many…
Psalms for Everyone - The God Present in Jerusalem Is Also Present in the Wilderness
Psalms for Everyone - The God Present in Jerusalem Is Also Present in the Wilderness
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The God Present in Jerusalem Is Also Present in the Wilderness Psalm 63 When I came to the United States, I didn’t know that Jesus is a common Hispanic name, nor did I know that Jesus is pronounced “Heysus” in Spanish, which reduces the confusion. The difference in pronunciation …
Psalms for Everyone - The Judge is on Your Side
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…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The Leadership Challenge
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The Leadership Challenge
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Leadership Challenge Psalm 101 The news yesterday reported that a recent poll indicates that people’s distrust of government in the United States is at its highest level ever, and that people have a deep sense of economic anxiety and doubt about the future. The apparent air o…
Psalms for Everyone - The Lowly Will Inherit the Land
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 …
Psalms for Everyone - The Marriage Challenge
Psalms for Everyone - The Marriage Challenge
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Marriage Challenge Psalm 45 When you’re young and you get married, you have to get your parents’ approval, but when you’re old and you get married, you have to get your children’s approval. So I was nervous about telling my sons that I was getting married again eighteen month…
Psalms for Everyone - The Mystery of Sin
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…
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 - The Outrageous Confession
Psalms for Everyone - The Outrageous Confession
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Outrageous Confession Psalm 47 In church yesterday we made our usual outrageous confessions, such as the declaration that Jesus is Lord. They are outrageous because the day’s news seems to belie them. Dozens of people have died in an attack on a mosque in Pakistan. Car bombs …
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The Praise of God, the Eternal Creator, Is Finished and Completed
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The Praise of God, the Eternal Creator, Is Finished and Completed
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Praise of God, the Eternal Creator, Is Finished and Completed Psalm 150 The heading I have given for this final psalm is the rabbis’ footnote to the Hebrew text of the Psalms. We have come a long way from Psalm 1, where we began with an exhortation to pay heed to Yahweh’s Tea…
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 - The Prosperity Gospel Redefined
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The Prosperity Gospel Redefined
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Prosperity Gospel Redefined Psalm 112 My wife used to work for one of the most successful and wealthy people in the United States (this did not mean she brought a wonderful dowry into our marriage). Her job was to help him do something with his money, and the projects she was…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The Real King of Kings
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - The Real King of Kings
by SPCK - John Goldingay
The Real King of Kings Psalm 97-98 According to news reports, Muammar el-Qaddafi, who had ruled Libya for over forty years, once declared, “I am an international leader, the dean of the Arab rulers, the king of kings of Africa and the imam of Muslims, and my international status …
Psalms for Everyone - The Secret of Life