Sing in unison to the Most High, our strength; shout for joy and join the celebration!
Raise a song, sound the great bells, the full and the harp.
Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, and on all the feast days.
Sing in gratitude to the Great Hunter, to the one who seeks out all hearts.
Give thanks in the congregations that the Good News may be heard throughout the land.
I hear a Voice I have come to know:
“I relieve your shoulder of the burden; your spirit is free to create.
In distress when you call, I come to you;
I answer you in the secret place of your heart; I invite you to the grace of forgiveness.
Hear, O my people, while I caution you! O, dear friends, if you would but listen!
Do not make of riches and ambition a powerful god;
do not become puffed up with price and arrogance.
I am your very breath; I have been with you from the beginning.
Open your heart wide, and I shall fill it.”
Who among you will listen to the voice of the Beloved?
How many will open their heart?
All you too stubborn to hear, who follow your own counsel, will know fear and loneliness.
“Oh that my people would listen, that, as friends, you would walk in my ways!
Your fears would soon flee and your hearts would overflow.
You, who turn your back on Love, will know only momentary pleasure,
your reward will soon be spent.
I would satisfy your hunger, and, with streams of Living Water,
you would live in the joy of heaven here on earth!”
Nan C. Merrill Psalms for Praying
Reflection:
Sometimes I intentionally listen for God’s voice. Sometimes I don’t. But I am comforted knowing that God is always inviting me to listen again. Centering prayer is difficult but has been helpful for me seasonally, especially in those times when I don’t quite know what to do next. Sitting in silence and letting go of the intrusive thoughts helps me to stay preset in the moment. And not just the moment when I’m sitting in silence, but in other moments too. The practice seeps into life and I remember to pause and let go of the intrusive thought and focus on the present moment. Repeating the same intrusive thoughts or rehashing things passed that I can’t change isn’t helpful for discernment, so by practicing letting those things pass, when I’m triggered in a moment, I can (sometimes) let go and focus my attention on what matters.
Discernment (like grief, like healing, like all processes) is not linear. Visiting and revisiting mindfulness and meditation practices; learning, and relearning; knowing, and yet finding something new in the psalms I’ve read and reread is part of the faith journey. Sometimes, I’m frustrated by the discernment process because it seems to take much longer than I thought it would. Didn’t I already learn this lesson? Haven’t I been down this path before? And yet, there is still something new to learn and to see. There is always a second chance to listen to God’s voice. Allowing myself the opportunity to practice silence again, to listen again, to discern again without judging my “progress” is an invitation to hear God’s voice again. I’m glad that God continues in steadfast love even when I’m impatient and imperfect. God is always inviting me to put down whatever burden I’m holding and be open for renewal.
Check out other psalm reflections in the links below or find more of my writing published in Presbyterian Outlook or listen to my experiments in podcasting on the Period Pastor Podcast. Follow me @periodpastor
I began writing Psalm reflections during Lent of 2020. Shortly after, we decided to close the church building, work from home, and worship via zoom. Many churches use the Revised Common Lectionary (RLC) that rotates scripture on a three-year cycle (A, B, and C). Starting in Advent 2019, the church decided to worship with the texts from Year D, which is still not circulated as are years A, B, and C. Year D was created with the goal of including scriptures that were left out or not used as frequently as others. While we were using Psalms in year D, most other lectionary followers were using Year A. In Advent of 2020 we rejoined those who use the lectionary in year B. Advent of 2021 year C. When we returned to in person worship, we took the psalm reflections out of the order of worship. I continued to write them for the blog. Advent of 2022 year A. I left church work in July of 2023 but continued the practice of writing psalm reflections. Advent of 2023 year B.
I use the Vanderbilt Divinity Library’s resource for lectionary readings to make text selections.
1st Sunday in Advent Psalm 25, 2nd Sunday in Advent instead of a Psalm the lectionary gives Luke 1:68-79, 3rd Sunday in Advent instead of a Psalm the lectionary gives Isaiah 12:2-6, 4th Sunday in Advent Luke 1:46b-55 or Psalm 80, Christmas Eve or Christmas Day Psalm 96, Psalm 97, Psalm 98, 1st Sunday after Christmas, Psalm 148, New Year’s Day Psalm 8, 2nd Sunday after Christmas Psalm 147, Epiphany Psalm 72, 1st Sunday after Epiphany Psalm 29, 2nd Sunday after Epiphany Psalm 36, 3rd Sunday after Epiphany Psalm 19, 4th Sunday after Epiphany Psalm 71, 5th Sunday after Epiphany Psalm 138, 6th Sunday after Epiphany Psalm 1, 7th Sunday after Epiphany Psalm 37, Transfiguration Sunday (Sunday before Lent) Psalm 99
Lent: Ash Wednesday Psalm 51, 1st Sunday in Lent Psalm 91, 2nd Sunday in Lent Psalm 27, 3rd Sunday in Lent Psalm 63, 4th Sunday in Lent Psalm 32, 5th Sunday in Lent Psalm 126, 6th Sunday in Lent (Palm or Passion Sunday) Psalm 118 or 31
Easter: Easter Psalm 118 or Psalm 114, 2nd Sunday of Easter Psalm 118 or Psalm 150, 3rd Sunday of Easter Psalm 30, 4th Sunday of Easter Psalm 23 or 114, 5th Sunday of Easter Psalm 148, 6th Sunday of Easter Psalm 67 or 109, Ascension Psalm 47 or Psalm 93, 7th Sunday of Easter Psalm 97 or Psalm 2, Day of Pentecost Psalm 104
Season After Pentecost (Ordinary Time): 1st Sunday after Pentecost (Trinity Sunday) Psalm 8, 2nd Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 42 and Psalm 43 or Psalm 22, 3rd Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 77 or Psalm 16, 4th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 30 or Psalm 66, 5th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 82 or Psalm 25, 6th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 52 or Psalm 15, 7th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 85 or Psalm 138, 8th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 107 or Psalm 49, 9th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 50 or Psalm 33, 10th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 80 or Psalm 82, 11th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 71or Psalm 103, 12th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 81 or Psalm 112, 13th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 139 or Psalm 1, 14th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 14 or Psalm 51, 15th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 79 or Psalm 113, 16th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 91 or Psalm 146, 17th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 137 or Psalm 37, 18th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 66 or Psalm 111, 19th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 119 or Psalm 121, 20th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 65 or Psalm 84, 21st Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 119 or Psalm 32, 22nd Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 145 or Psalm 98 or Psalm 17, 23rdSunday after Pentecost Psalm 98, 24th Sunday after Pentecost Psalm 46.
Sources and notes:
“Psalm 81 begins with the praise of God and then turns quickly to preaching. The sermon is delivered as the voice of God! Its text is the first commandment. the pathos of the sermon is the yearning for God for a people whose faithfulness answers his choice of them.” Mays p. 265
“The unifying theme of the speech is clearly “Listen to me/to my voice.” God in his deeds for Israel sought to create a listening people; that Israel should listen to God is the essential of their identity as the people of God (v.8). But Israel did not listen (v. 11). In the encounter created by the address, everything depends on Israel’s listening (v. 13).” Mays pp. 265-266
“The psalm convokes a festival whose observance, it claims, was established by divine decree in the era of the exodus (vv. 4-6). The citation of sacral law probably refers to the tradition recorded in Numbers 29 and Leviticus 23:23ff. concerning the institution of the Festival of Booths or Tabernacles. This festival was one of three annual festivals celebrated by all Israel. Its duration of two weeks would account for the psalm’s reference to both new moon and full moon (v. 3, Lev. 23:23,34). The psalm could well have been composed for performance at the opening convocation of the festival (Lev. 23:24). The speech confronts the assembling people with an address from the God who founded the festival by his work and ordinance.” Mays p. 266
“The speech tells the congregation what the true significance of the festival is. It is not mere celebration, not simply music and liturgy; it is an occasion where the congregation can become again a listening people of God. In its structure of liturgical introduction and divine saying and in many of its features, Psalm 81 is similar to Psalms 50 and 96; they must have been all composed for he same kind of use and setting.” Mays p. 266
“Psalm 81 is thus a paradigm for what should happen in every religious festival. Festivals are times when the people of God consider the story of God’s way with them and their way with God, times to face the appeal of the LORD, “O that my people would listen to me.”” Mays p. 268
“Unlike Psalm 80, which blames God’s unfaithfulness of Israel’s current suffering, Psalm 81 focuses on Israel’s inability to “Listen” to God as the cause of its situation. Such are the conflicted prayers of a people traumatized by exile or by some other disaster in the history of Israel. Yet the first three verses of Psalm 81 seem far removed from any trauma since they point to a liturgical setting of celebration. Multiple imperatives spoken by the psalmist in the hymnic introduction urge Israel to “sing around,” “shout for joy,” “raise a song” (cp. Exod 15:2), play the tambourine, lyre, and harp, and “blow the trumpet” on this “festal day,” which was appointed by God (vv. 4-5). This language, along with the mention of “new moon” (v. 3), suggests a setting during one of the major festivals in the seventh month (see Lev 23:23-26; Num 29:1-39), perhaps Tabernacles, also called the feast of Booths or Sukkoth.” W p. 299
“Like the other liturgical psalms, Psalm 81 contains within its quotation a reference to the Decalogue; if offers in v. 9 the most direct reference to the first commandment: “you shall have no other gods before me” (Exod 20:3; Debt 5:7). God’s self-identification follows in v. 9b-“I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt” – known as the prologue to he Decalogue in the Christian tradition; it is the first commandment in the Jewish tradition. These references illuminate another function of the God quotation: “to connect the liturgical and ethical dimensions of life” by drawing on God’s words communicated in the past in the Decalogue.” W pp. 300-301 referencing Rolf A Jacobson “Many Are Saying”
“The story of Huldah the prophet in 2 Kings 22:11-20 (2 Chr 34:22-28) suggests itself as inter text for Psalm 81. Huldah “is the only woman prophet of the royal era known by name,” appearing in a book that often treats foreign women with hostility and concerns itself with other women only in their capacities as mothers.” W p. 302 referencing Kyung Sook Lee “Books of Kings: Images of Women without Women’s Reality
“In addition, Huldah’s word from God mentions that the people have “abandoned” God and “have made offerings to other gods” (v. 17), which connects to Psalm 81:9 and its restatement of the first commandment. the adjectives modifying “gods” (in kgs 22:17 and in Ps 81:9) are not the same buy synonymous.” W p. 305
“Diana Edelman argues that Huldah was a prophet of Asherah, God’s consort. Asherah, like many female deities, had a role as intercessor in patriarchal pantheons, which made her a logical deity to consult in 2 Kings 22 to avoid the risk of angering God by asking God directly about the ignored “book of the torah.” As Asherah’s prophet, Huldah would be the logical one to authenticate the scroll and diffuse God’s anger. She may have been co-opted by a later editor who wrote Asherah and other gods and goddesses out of the national religion of Israel (see 2kgs 23:4-6). Whether she was God’s or Asherah’s prophet, it may be that Huldah interrupted the people’s festal celebration in the temple or in a local sanctuary by praying Psalm 81 during the time of chaos following Josiah’s death. Second Kings does not say what happened to Huldah after she authenticated the scroll brought to her, but she helps us to imagine a diffract superscription of Psalm 81: “According to the Gittith. Of Huldah, after good king Josiah was killed.” W p. 305 referencing Diana Edelman “Huldah the Prophet,” 231, 247-48
Wisdom Commentary on pp. 303-304 article “Critiquing the Norm from the Periphery” by Yolanda Marie Norton: “If we read 2 Kings 22 and the story of Huldah as inter text with Psalm 81 we must first understand the potential importance of Huldah’s presence in the Bible to black women. Regardless of her social status as court prophet, Huldah is still peripheral because of her gender. her presence in the text is functional. the narrative is not overwhelmingly concerned with her history but only with her role in the ideological evolution of Israel. Huldah stands counter to most women in the text, however, because she is able to cultivate social importance that is not wrapped up in maternal identity. The Israelite community actively engages her for wisdom in the midst of transition. Huldah stands apart from Ruth and Hagar, how are acknowledged for their wombs. She is different from Jezebel who is evaluated as violent, aggressive, and sexualized. Huldah, the outsider, is important because of her insights. We do not know much about Huldah’s story, but we can imagine that her position as outsider would have come with some isolation, and yet she finds herself in a moment in history in which she has serious influence on the theological course of Israel. She is the new voice for God and thus offers new potential for the importance of foreign women in the biblical narrative and black women in the contemporary society. Emilie Townes suggests that to understand da womanist perspective on suffering we must realize that living and working “though pain acknowledges our human ability to effect change in individual lives a the lives of others. We must learn to move from the reactive position of suffering to that of the transforming power of pain, to use it as a critical stance and refuse to accept the ‘facts’ handed to us… Pain allows the victim to examine her or his situation and make a pan for a healthy future. (Emilie Townes Living in the New Jerusalem). Consequently, the previous struggle and trauma of black women is not to be viewed as a positive; our suffering is not an enactment of God’s diving plan. Instead, these experiences become the backdrop for our ability to listen and to alter the norms of value and wisdom. Stereotypes perpetuated of black women as welfare queens and mannies do not limit our possibilities in society, and these wounds of subjugation and relegation to the periphery should not be uplifted as salvific honors. Instead, we understand that these moments and realities in which we have been relegated to the periphery provide a historical backdrop from which we offer a critique of normative values an allow our epistemological privilege to give us language to change societal norms and influence the future.”
“In a rather precise way Psalm 81 articulated the entire pattern of orientation-disorientation-new orientation. The old saving deeds (vv. 6-10) indicate a memory of well-being. In verses 11-12, we have the disorientation, and in verses 13-16, an anticipation of what is yet to be given. Each o the three is marked by the verb (hear): a) Hear, O my people (v. 8). b) But my people did not listen (v. 11). c) O that my people would listen (v. 13). The speech of God here comprehends the whole way of Israel with Yahweh. In considering the lament psalms, we have suggested the notion that the disorientation is laid at the door of Yahweh. In considering 50 and 81, a counterargument is made that the disorientation is due to Israel. Both judgements are biblical, and both need to be heard. But I do not suggest by placing them in the sequence I have, that the second argument (in Psalms 50 and 81) is the better argument and supersedes the argument of the laments. That would be to return to the argument of the psalms of orientation, that trouble is only because of disobedience, we could as well have presented these psalms in the opposite sequence. The pivotal observation is that both arguments are made. Biblical faith must not be forced in one direction only. A sensitive pastoral use of the Psalms requires deciding which articulation is personally and theologically faithful in any given circumstance. The “second option” is not always correct. Sometimes the first opinion needs to be held to tenaciously.” Brueggemann The Message of the Psalms p. 94
Alter, Robert. 2007. The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary New York: W. W. Norton & Company
WBC Allen, Leslie C. 1983. Word Biblical Commentary: Psalms 101-150. Vol. 21. Waco, TX: Word Books, Publisher.
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. 1974. Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible. 8th ed. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Press.
Bourgeault, C. (2006). Chanting the psalms: A practical guide Audio Book. New Seeds.
Brueggemann, Walter. 2007. Praying the Psalms: Engaging Scripture and the Life of the Spirit. 2nd ed. Eugene, OR: Cascade.
Brueggemann, Walter. 2014. From Whom No Secrets Are Hid: Introducing the Psalms. Edited by Brent A. Strawn. 1st ed. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.
Brueggemann, Walter. Davis Hanskins, Editor. 2022. Our Hearts Wait: Worshiping Through Praise and Lament in the Psalms Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville KY.
Brueggemann, Walter. (2002). Spirituality of the psalms. Augsburg Pub. House.
Brueggemann, Walter. (1984). The Message of the Psalms: A Theological Commentary. Minneapolis: Augsburg.
Chilson, Richard, ed. You Shall Not Want: A Spiritual Journey Based on the Psalms. Ave Maria Press, 2009.
Chittister, Joan. (2011). Songs of the heart: reflections on the psalms. John Garratt Publishing.
Cudjoe-Wilkes, G., Wilkes, A. J., & Moss, O. (2022). Psalms for black lives: Reflections for the work of Liberation. Upper Room Books.
WBC Craigie, Peter C. 1983. Psalms 1-50–Word Biblical Commentary. Vol. 19. Waco, TX: Word Books.
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DAFLER, J. (2021). PSOBRIETY: A journey of recovery through the psalms. Louisville, KY: WESTMINSTER JOHN KNOX.
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Green, Barbara. 1997. Like a Tree Planted: An Exploration of Psalms and Parables Through Metaphor. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press.
W Hopkins, Denise Dombkowski. WISDOM COMMENTARY: Psalms Bks. 2-3. Edited by Barbara E. Reid. Vol. 21. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical, 2016.
NIB Keck, Leander E. 2015. The New Interpreters Bible Commentary. Vol. 3. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press.
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McCann, J. C. (1993). A theological introduction to the book of Psalms: The Psalms as Torah. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press.
McCann, J. C., & Howell, J. C. 2001. Preaching the Psalms. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press.
Merrill, N. C. (2020). Psalms for praying an invitation to wholeness (10th Anniversary Edition ed.). London, England: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Miller, Patrick D. 1986. Interpreting the Psalms. Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press.
Morgan, Michael. 2010. The Psalter for Christian Worship Revised Edition. Westminster John Knox Press.
Schlimm, Matthew Richard. 2018. 70 Hebrew Words Every Christian Should Know. Nashville, TN: Abington Press.
Spong, M. (Ed.). (2020). The words of her mouth: Psalms for the struggle. Cleveland, OH: The Pilgrim Press.
WBC Tate, Marvin E. 1990. Word Biblical Commentary: Psalms 51-100. Edited by David Allan. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker. Vol. 20. Waco, TX: Word.
Weems, Ann. 1995. Psalm of Lament. Westminster John Knox Pres
OTL Weiser, Artur. 1998. Old Testament Library: Psalms. Translated by Herbert Hartwell. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Manchester University Press.
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