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THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - The Passion of the Community
THE WOMEN'S BIBLE COMMENTARY - The Passion of the Community
by SPCK - Newsom, Ringe and Lapsley
The Passion of the Community (Mark 13) Chapter 13, a speech in the middle of the Gospel’s second half, parallels chapter 4, a speech in the middle of its first half. The parables of the first speech suggest how the realm of God begins to take hold on the earth in the present age.…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - God’s Faithfulness, Not Mine
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - God’s Faithfulness, Not Mine
by SPCK - John Goldingay
God’s Faithfulness, Not Mine Psalm 143 Contrary to the resolve she had announced a few days ago, first thing this morning my wife sat at her computer checking the news. Eventually I asked her what had happened to her resolve to begin the day with her time of devotion, and in horr…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Thine Is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Thine Is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Thine Is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory Psalm 145 A student once asked me why the Lord’s Prayer is so different from the prayers in the Psalms, which characteristically cry out to God and issue protests to God because of people’s urgent needs. I wasn’t sure, but in due cou…
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 - How to Persuade Your Heart
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - How to Persuade Your Heart
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Persuade Your Heart Psalm 103 Some years ago I went through one of those periods when God didn’t seem to be real. I don’t mean I was going through some intellectual questioning, though I have done that at other times, but rather that I didn’t feel that God was there. I wou…
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 - Death Cathches You When You Don't Expect It To
Psalms for Everyone - Death Cathches You When You Don't Expect It To
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Death Catches You When You Don’t Expect It To Psalm 49 We recently buried the second-oldest member of our congregation, who until she faded away quickly at the end had regularly attended church. We drove quite a way to the cemetery, and I wondered why, until I discovered that her…
Psalms for Everyone - Wake Up, God!
Psalms for Everyone - Wake Up, God!
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Wake Up, God! Psalm 44 In connection with Psalm 20 I’ve mentioned that our church has just had to accept that we could no longer afford to pay the salary of a pastor. I mentioned this to one of my sons in England, who expressed surprise that such a thing could happen, surmising t…
Psalms for Everyone - When Suffering Links to Sin
Psalms for Everyone - When Suffering Links to Sin
by SPCK - 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…
Psalms for Everyone - I Am Going to Die
Psalms for Everyone - I Am Going to Die
by SPCK - John Goldingay
I Am Going to Die Psalm 39 I didn’t think much about dying until my grandson was born, and then the thought came to me that I could die now; I had done my job for the human race’s future by fathering a son who had himself fathered a son. I thought about it again three or four yea…
Psalms for Everyone - When Life Continues to Be Darkness
Psalms for Everyone - When Life Continues to Be Darkness
by SPCK - John Goldingay
When Life Continues to Be Darkness Psalm 43 I’ve just been reading a Darfuri refugee’s account of how he came to be in a camp in Chad. As a farmer in Sudan he was tortured by the application of a clothes iron to his back, his legs, his hands, and his head because the members of o…
Psalms for Everyone - Bless Us, and Enable Other People to see for Themselves
Psalms for Everyone - Bless Us, and Enable Other People to see for Themselves
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Bless Us, and Enable Other Peoples to See for Themselves Psalm 67 “God bless America.” The fact that this weekend has been characterized by commemorations of September 11 has made that plea once more resound. Now, the Old Testament is inclined to make a distinction between blessi…
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 - Is This the City?
Psalms for Everyone - Is This the City?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Is This the City? Psalm 48 When my first wife and I moved to the United States, people would ask what I would miss about England, to which I would answer not fish and chips or even Indian food but proximity to France and to Israel. Since the move I haven’t been to Israel, partly …
Psalms for Everyone - I Whistle a Happy Tune
Psalms for Everyone - I Whistle a Happy Tune
by SPCK - John Goldingay
I Whistle a Happy Tune Psalm 56 During the past few days people on the East Coast of the United States have been living through Hurricane Irene, which the media report to be among the top ten most costly disasters in U.S. history. As the Rock River rose on Sunday morning in Willi…
Psalms for Everyone - When the Knock Comes to Your Door
Psalms for Everyone - When the Knock Comes to Your Door
by SPCK - John Goldingay
When the Knock Comes to Your Door Psalm 64 I was just checking the U.S. State Department’s current travel warnings, a list of places where “long-term, protracted conditions that make a country dangerous or unstable lead the State Department to recommend that Americans avoid or co…
Psalms for Everyone - How to Be Codependent
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…
Psalms for Everyone - Sometimes God Speaks