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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 Part 2 - Is the Earth Vulnerable?
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Is the Earth Vulnerable?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Is the Earth Vulnerable? Psalm 93 I just saw a fabulous picture of the earth taken from above the North Pole. I know in theory that Canada, Greenland, Russia, Norway, and Alaska almost meet in the Arctic, but I am so used to the regular Mercator Projection world map that I don’t …
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - God’s Time and Our Time
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - God’s Time and Our Time
by SPCK - John Goldingay
God’s Time and Our Time Psalm 90 My first mother-in-law used to say that time went faster the older you got, and I used to tell myself that really she was simply afraid of the approach of death. As I have gotten older, I have realized that she was right, and I see that my realiza…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - A Cry from the Grave
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - A Cry from the Grave
by SPCK - John Goldingay
A Cry from the Grave Psalm 88 Last night we watched a movie called Incendies about a family caught in an intracommunity conflict in Lebanon in the 1970s and 1980s. It was a fictional movie, but much of the story could be replicated in factual accounts of what happened to people d…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Has God Changed?
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Has God Changed?
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Has God Changed? Psalm 77 One of our students came to see me to ask me to meet with another student whose life seemed to be falling apart and who was talking about suicide. The woman had been married for twenty years; her first husband had been “the love of her life.” Then he bec…
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 - There Is No God Here
Psalms for Everyone - There Is No God Here
by SPCK - John Goldingay
There Is No God Here Psalm 53 Yesterday, my wife and I walked through crowds of people whose faces seemed to say, “There is no God here.” They were crowds walking up and down the pier at Santa Monica among the stands selling ice cream and sunhats and hotdogs. They should have bee…
Psalms for Everyone - You Are Not Alone
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…
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Don’t Trust in Leaders
Psalms for Everyone Part 2 - Don’t Trust in Leaders
by SPCK - John Goldingay
Don’t Trust in Leaders Psalm 146 I remember the winter’s day when I announced to the students at the theological college in England where I used to be the principal that I would be leaving the coming summer. To my surprise, it aroused a feeling of anxiety among a number of studen…
Psalms for Everyone - The Way Prayer Makes a Difference
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…
Psalms for Everyone - How to Deal with Unfulfilled Promises
Psalms for Everyone - How to Deal with Unfulfilled Promises
by SPCK - John Goldingay
How to Deal with Unfulfilled Promises Psalm 60 Yesterday in church the Gospel reading from Matthew 18 included Jesus’ promise that where two people agree on anything, our heavenly Father will do it for them. Yet lots of people have the experience of God’s not doing something that…
Psalms for Everyone - They Hated Me without a Reason; They Will Treat You the Same
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…
Psalms for Everyone - On Living in Two Different Worlds
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…
Psalms for Everyone - Go On, Look into My Heart
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…
Psalms for Everyone - Flee or Stay?
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 …
Psalms for Everyone - What a Rogue Says to Himself
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…
Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone - Introduction
Joshua, Judges and Ruth 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…
Genesis for Everyone Part 1 - Sunday