Dignoscentia

The tone here is more subdued, more humble than in Psalm 79. That’s good. Still, this psalm is short on repentance and big on requests. Give us this, give us that, restore us, why did you leave us — the whole thing goes on like this. The only acknowledgment of guilt is in verse 18: […]

This psalm reminds me of Psalm 74. We hear the same cries for justice, for revenge, for restoration, and again, I can’t help thinking they did something to deserve it.
Oh, I have nothing against prayers for forgiveness — but this psalm isn’t one of them. In all 13 verses and hundreds of words, there are […]

Psalm 78 is one of the longer psalms of the Bible. I waver when I consider its nature. It could be either pompous or poetic. Today, I tend to think it’s a bit on the pompous side. It recounts the history of Israel, and concentrates on the escape from Egypt and the trek to the […]

I have a deep mistrust of TV evangelists. So many of them are all flash and no substance. I can see through their masks to the shallowness of their faith and morals. It comes as no surprise to me to learn that my intuition is correct on this. ABC News has a great article on […]

This short psalm records a self-professed “poor and needy” man’s cry to God. From the looks of it, he appears to be in a serious situation, where others may demand his life. And yet others mock him for his “misfortunes”. It’s interesting how many of the psalms, including this one, demand retribution for the behavior […]

This psalm showcases the amazing variety you’ll find in the Book of Psalms. Like no other book in the Bible, the Psalms are written by many different authors, and when we examine them, we get to hear these different voices, and see the way they prayed to God. Sure, we may not agree with their […]

This psalm is rightly called a “harvest song”. It is a prayer of thanks, that once again calls our attention to the complete dependence of Israel’s agrarian society and economy upon God. More on this in my comments on Psalm 65. But here, in Psalm 67, we see the results of those pre-harvest prayers: “The […]