pSummer in the pSalms - 1

Having fun this summer season - can't believe it's actually the first Sunday in June! - with a saunter through the Psalms.  Could continue the spelling innovations with saying, "a pSaunter through the pSalms"...

Anyway, given the way the summer is so disjointed with so many peoples' travels (my own included), it seemed like a nice way to provide some continuity without a full blown sermon series.  So, for the Sundays for which I'm leading worship and preaching, we'll be looking at a small selection of Psalms beginning this Sunday with two: Psalm 1 and Psalm 150.

As I thought about this, these two psalms form bookends, thematically speaking, for the Psalter.  Psalm 1 is clearly out of the wisdom tradition of the ancient Hebrew people who felt that if you wanted to have a pleasant life, you needed to obey God's law.  If you were going to "live like the devil", then you would reap those ill rewards.  We're going to explore some of that - paying close attention to the fact that it doesn't always work that way, in fact, it often doesn't work that way.  Yet, we're challenged by the Psalmist to accept the sensibility of embracing God's ways, with the word that better translates the Hebrew "Torah" in Psalm 1 being "instruction" or "teaching" rather than "law", in my opinion anyway.

Psalm 150 is an unashamed gushing forth of praise to God.  Clearly the Psalmist is overjoyed with his (or her, I suppose) experience with God and is adamant about getting that across to his (or her) hearers.  In response, the hearers are invited to join the Psalmist in singing heartily of their own praise to God.

As bookends of the Psalter, these two Psalms urge us to consider the pursuit of wisdom and the life of praise as the central dynamics in a life of faith.  Looking forward to a light, yet enriching summer in worship!

Pastor Steve
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