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 8:1–9
A great God worthy of praise, who created the magnificent cosmos and all it contains, and whose dominion is boundless, demonstrates his mindfulness and care of humans by bestowing them with his glory and splendor, and delegating to them dominion over all nature.
Psalm 8 is carefully structured, and it centers upon humanity’s meekness and greatness 8:4, 5)
A “Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic ….” (8:1a)
“heavens”; “babes and sucklings” (8:1b–2a)
Psalm 7:1–17
Facing false accusations, a violent hounding by enemies, the righteous trust in God, the righteous Judge and their protector and deliverer, to vindicate them and to take appropriate action against those enemies.
The psalm commences with a plea in 7:1–2. The songwriter’s foes “pursue” him (7:1) like a “lion” capable of “rending” and “dismembering” (7:2). But, what is worse, there is no help in sight, at least not from any human source!
In 7:3–5, the
Another Interview
Here is an interview that aired on Right Theology Forum in India a few months ago ….
Psalm 6:1–10
Stricken with frailty and debility, terrified by impending mortality, dissolved by grief, and assailed by opportunists and opponents, the child of God makes bold to beseech God in persistent prayer for the gracious intervention of his lovingkindness, with the confidence that God will hear and take action.
In Psalm 6, there is evidence of divine wrath (“anger,” “rebuke, “fury,” and “chasten” in 6:1), of physical infirmity (“frail,” “heal me,” and “bones”
Psalm 5:1–12
The righteous, in a personal relationship with their God that involves reverential awe—having the assurance of access to God, of their prayers of distress being heard, and of being ultimately protected by God—rejoice in him forever as blessed ones, unlike the wicked who, with their evil words and deeds, are loathed by God, found guilty, and ultimately destroyed for their anti-God rebellion.
Strikingly, this psalm is entirely addressed to God, except for 5:6b, that has
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”
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.