This past Sunday at our church I taught in our Sunday School on how the Psalms are used in the New Testament (audio). My focus was not on the various ways the Psalms are interpreted but what people (Jesus, the apostles) actually did with the Psalms. I summarized the various uses in 3 categories. They …
Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s little booklet, Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible, is a real gem. After reading it I bought a copy for each of my older boys for them to read and to have their own copy. Much could be said about it, and I may say more in later posts, but here I …
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I have previously mentioned how I have appreciated H. C. Leupold’s Exposition of Psalms. Here are some great quotes from his introduction on the nature and character of the Psalms (all from p. 28): “There does not seem to be any situation in life for which the Psalter does not provide light and guidance.” “They …
I continue to be intrigued by the wide-ranging, deep impact of the Psalms across the centuries. This quote is just one more documenting this impact on the church and the surrounding culture. “The Renaissance was a cultural movement founded on the enterprise of translation …. The Earl of Surrey and Richard Stanyhurst translated Virgil’s Aeneid; …
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The following quote comes T. K. Cheyne’s book, The Christian Use of the Psalms, published in 1900. Cheyne, a critical, Anglican scholar critiques what he sees as a flat, mundane use of the Psalms in Anglican churches. I do not agree with a number of his comments and suggestions. However, I found this section telling …
The Trinity Psalter suggests Psalm 46 be sung to the tune of “America, the Beautiful.” I have no idea what led the editors to suggest this tune (other than that it fits!), but I find it very fitting. Our church is planning to sing Psalm 46 to this tune on Sunday (July 4). On a …
In his book, (which I mentioned previously), Christopher Hall has as useful section on how the church fathers used the Psalms as models for prayer (Craig Blaising spoke on this at the Psalms Project previously). In this excerpt you see the point of the Psalms shaping our affections and guiding us in what we ought …
My purpose in this post is simply to give my own opinion on what resources I found most helpful in preparing to preach Psalm 128. I am not addressing which resources are the best on the Psalms in general. On Psalm 128, the overall most helpful source I found was Spurgeon’s Treasury of David. I …
Yesterday I gave my attempt at preaching Psalm 128, a psalm I have commented on here various times previously. I have also commented previously on the difficulty of finding good resources for preaching on the Psalms. Our commentaries simply do not (and perhaps cannot) give the same sort of detailed exposition of the Psalms as …
“Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord.” (Psalm 128:3-4) “How beautiful to see the gnarled olive, still bearing abundant fruit, surrounded with a little band of sturdy successors, any one …