aBeLOG
Welcome to the aBeLOG, a series of (hopefully!) fortnightly posts on all matters homiletical. I intend to touch on whatever grabs my attention regarding preaching—issues contemporary and ancient, ideas hermeneutical and rhetorical, personalities conservative and liberal, publications antiquarian and avant-garde. Essentially, I’m going to follow my own homiletical olfactory instincts up rabbit trails and after red herrings. Comments are always invited and appreciated.
Psalm 4:1–8
God’s people in distress, when facing detractors who malign their faith, continue to trust God without wavering, seeking to redirect those carpers towards God, and looking only for the joy God provides, not for material abundance, for with that attitude of heart, they rest in peace and safety.
What exactly the psalmist wants God to do is to relieve him from his “distress” (4:1). The psalmist is in “distress” (literally, “narrowness”) and needs “relieving”
Psalm 3:1–8
Almost in a holy war, God’s people are often in danger of being annihilated by the myriad of their enemies, but their confidence in God is unbounded, their proximity to God unquestionable, and God’s might is unchallengeable, his deliverance inevitable, and his blessing incontrovertible.
Perhaps it is reflection of real life that the beatitude-laden and triumphal opening psalms of the Psalter (Psalms 1–2) are followed by a whole series of laments (Psalms 3–7). Life
Psalm 2:1–12
The refusal of rebelling, conspiring, or opposing rulers anywhere to submit reverentially to divine rule, the scope and extent of which has no bounds, meets with an appropriate response—dismissive, dreadful, and destructive—from God and his personally appointed Son-King with whom he is closely identified.
Psalm 2 is carefully structured with four stanzas of three verses each. Remarkably, there are also four specific references to deity’s representative, once in each
Psalm 1:1–6
The fertile stasis of the righteous—constant, affective intercourse with divine revelation, the outcome of which is fruitfulness—results in the blessing of divine care of their ways; but the futile kinesis of the wicked, the outcome of which is fruitlessness, results in divine judgment, the destruction of their ways.
The Psalter is a book of songs, but Psalm 1 is hardly a representative of that genre. Rather, it is a composition commenting on how life works in God’s
Titus 3:1–15
Behavior in society involves submission to authority, and utmost consideration for all people, avoiding all ungody and fractious behavior (and persons), as believers engage in good works, demonstrating the same kindness and love for mankind that God had for them.
In this text, “good works” (3:1, 8, 14; and when examined across the New Testament they include “works” of thought, work, and deed) deals with behavior in society. So Christians are to live a godly life
Titus 2:1–15
God’s people of irrespective of age, gender, and social standing, demonstrate exemplary godliness within community in word and in deed—grounded in the work of God in Christ redeeming people for his own—for the enhancement of the reputation of God and the furtherance of his economy.
“But you” (2:1)—an emphatic construction—signals a contrast between what the false teachers have been doing (1:10–16) and what Titus is to do (2:1–10, 15). After labeling the
Titus 1:1–16
Godly, blameless stewards of the church, who hold firmly the word God in their lives and their teaching, exhort and reprove rebellious false teachers in the church who, engaging in deceptive teaching and upset households, are detestable in God’s eyes.
Titus 1:1–4, is a single sentence: sixty-five words in the Greek text. “Faith” and “truth [for godliness]” seem to be the focus of this salutation, appropriate for a letter to Cretan Christians who are going to
Abe Kuruvilla is the Carl E. Bates Professor of Christian Preaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY), and a dermatologist in private practice. His passion is to explore, explain, and exemplify preaching. 