“But I, O LORD, cry out to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you.” Psalm 88:13The above quote is from one of the lament Psalms that are in our Bible. Laments tell of the grief and pain either a person or the ancient nation of Israel happen to be going through. Every lament is honest in what is unfolding and each one tells God the truth and asks for help or some kind of deliverance from oppression. And every one, except…
When I was growing up as a member of St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin (“Tosa” to those in the know), I found the Psalms to be exceptionally boring. There was so much repetition from Psalm to Psalm; the language and topics were archaic; there were no good stories, only a bunch of little verses that didn’t seem to fit together. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve found the Book of Psalms to be among the most meaningful parts of scripture. I…
This story was shared with me several years ago. On November 18, 1995, Itzhak Perlman, the violinist, came on stage to give a concert at the Lincoln Center in New York City. If you have ever been to a Perlman concert, you know that getting on stage was no small achievement for him. He was stricken with polio as a child and has braces on both legs and walks with the aid of two crutches. To see him walk across the stage one…
Lent is an appropriate time for reflection and self examination and there is no better place to ground our thinking than with the Psalms. This is a book that is actually made up of several books and inside each we can find songs that reflect many ways of describing our relationship with our God. There about nine major types of Psalms and most contain more than one manner of expression. For Lent however, I wish to focus on the Penitential, the Laments and…
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