Psalm 17 Hymns

Psalms for All Seasons

Psalm 17 is another bonus Psalm. We didn’t cover it during our Psalms for All Seasons class, but I looked over the handful of Psalm 17 settings in CRC hymnals while planning last week’s service.

One thing I’m starting to pay more attention to is what Old Testament readings the Psalms are paired with. (The RCL selects the psalms as responses to the OT readings, which isn’t how we typical use them during our services.) Psalm 17 is a prayer for protection and vindication that ends with the psalmist’s belief that “I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake I shall be satisfied, beholding your likeness.”

Last week (Year A, July 31-Aug. 6) Psalm 17 was paired with the weird and wonderful story of Jacob wrestling with God. (Says Jacob: “I saw God face to face and yet my life was spared.”) The other OT passage paired with Psalm 17 in the RCL ( Year C, Nov. 6-12, alternate stream) is Job 19:23-27a, which includes Job’s declaration that “I know that my redeemer lives… I myself will see him with my own eyes.”

The contemporary CRC hymnals include only two Psalm 17 hymns. “LORD, Listen to My Righteous Plea” (PFAS #17C/LUYH #888/PH87 #17) was versified for the gray Psalter Hymnal by Helen Otte and set to ROSALIE MCMILLAN. A sample is here.

The Psalter Hymnal version is a succinct versification of the entire Psalm. Here is stanza 1, which versifies vv. 1-5:

LORD, listen to my righteous plea;
you will not find deceit in me
as my prayers rise.
Examine me and probe my heart
to see that I have kept apart
from ways of sin.

The version of the hymn in Lift Up Your Hearts and Psalms for All Seasons is just three stanzas. The first and final stanzas are the same; the middle stanza combines the second half of the original stanza 2 with the first half of the original stanza 3. The lines about enemies pursuing the psalmist have been dropped.

The other Psalm 17 setting in PFAS is “Lord, Bend Your Ear” (PFAS #17B) by Jeffrey Honoré.  Here is a sample. The song, which is probably works better as a choral piece than a congregational hymn, is based on vv. 1, 8 & 15. According to the PFAS performance notes these are “the traditional verses recited in the service of night prayer. It is appropriate to sing and meditate on these verses at times when we must put our trust in God. In fact, each night when we go to sleep we place our lives in God’s care, confident that we will awaken in God’s presence, whether in this world or another.”

The PFAS responsorial setting, “Lord, Bend Your Ear” (PFAS #17A) uses the stanza (“Lord, bend your ear and hear my prayer”) of Honoré’s hymn.

The Psalm 17 setting in the red & blue Psalter Hymnals is “Lord, Hear the Right” (PH57 #24/PH34 #24), which appeared in the 1912 Psalter and is set to LONGFELLOW. Psalm 17 is another example of the creators of the gray Psalter Hymnal replacing a catchy psalm setting with an original one set to a more difficult tune. Here is the seventh and final stanza:

When I in righteousness at last
Thy glorious face shall see,
When all the weary night is past,
And I awake with Thee
To view the glories that abide,
Then, then I shall be satisfied.

(This is the 27th post in my continuing series on the Psalms for All Seasons Sunday school class I co-teach with Andrew Friend. Each week we sing psalm settings from Psalms for All Seasons, Lift Up Your Hearts, and other CRC hymnals. Previous posts is the series focused on Psalm 121, Psalm 122, Psalms 2/99, Psalm 72, Psalm 95, Psalm 147,  Psalm 112,  Psalm 29,  Psalm 40, Psalm 23, Psalm 27, Psalm 130, Psalm 15, Psalm 51,  Psalm 6, Psalm 32,  Psalm 143,  Psalms 38/102, Psalm 31, Psalm 116, Psalm 16, Psalm 22, Psalm 118, Psalms 47/93, Psalm 66, Psalm 45, and Psalm 104.)

Psalm 104 Hymns

Psalms for All Seasons

We looked at 34 psalms during this past year’s Psalms for All Seasons Sunday school class. I’ve blogged about 28 of them so far. I hope to cover the remaining six before our next class starts this fall. I’m teaming up with Andrew Friend again to explore music in CRC hymnals. This time we plan on using some classes to look at psalms (as we did last year) and some to look at sections of Lift Up Your Hearts.

We covered Psalm 104 in class on April 27. Psalm 104 is song of praise for God’s creation and sustenance of the natural world. The lectionary assigns the second half of the psalm to Pentecost Sunday all three years.

Psalms for All Seasons includes five hymns based on Psalm 104, four of them using traditional hymn tunes.

“O Worship the King” (PFAS #104F/LUYH #2/PH87 #428/PH57 #315), by far the most well-known of the Psalm 104 hymns, is described by the Psalter Hymnal Handbook as “a meditation on the creation theme of Psalm 104. Stanzas 1-3, which allude to Psalm 104:1-6, focus on God’s creation as a testimony to his ‘measureless Might.’ More personal in tone, stanzas 4 and 5 confess the compassion of God toward his creatures and affirm with apocalyptic vision that the ‘ransomed creation, with glory ablaze’ will join with angels to hymn its praise to God.” The song, which is one of the perennial hymns that appear in all four main CRC hymnals, is set to LYONS.

“My Soul, Praise the LORD!” (PFAS #104E/PH87 #104/PH57 #206), set to the similar (to LYONS) sounding HANOVER, is a versification of the entire psalm that appeared (in some form) in three Psalter Hymnals but is not in Lift Up Your Hearts. [HANOVER is the tune of “You Servants of God, Your Master Proclaim” (LYUH #582/PH87 #477) and also an alternative tune for “O Worship the King.”]

The lyrics—twelve stanzas and a refrain—are derived from three songs in the 1912 Psalter: “My Soul, Bless the Lord” (#285), “He Waters the Hills” (#286) and “Thy Spirit, O Lord” (#287), each versifying part of the psalm for a total of 13 stanzas. The 1934 & 1957 Psalter Hymnals turned these 13 stanzas into two hymns of eight and seven stanzas (two stanzas are repeated). These hymns are “My Soul, Bless the Lord!” (which is set to HOUGHTON) (PH57 #206) and “The Seasons are Fixed by Wisdom Divine” (PH57 #207).

The gray Psalter Hymnal combines these two hymns into “Your Spirit, O Lord, Makes Life to Abound” (PH87 #104) (also set to HOUGHTON), moving the stanza based on vv. 30-31 to the beginning of the hymn (and suggesting it be repeated three times) but putting the others in order.

Psalms for All Seasons turns the “Your Spirit, O Lord…” stanza into the refrain of the song.  According to the performance notes: “This versification leaves nothing out. Groups of stanzas can be selected to create shorter hymns of praise for creation and God’s providential care. The optional refrain is inserted at several points to suggest stanza groupings. (When following the text of the psalm, the refrain text should come only after st. 10.) When preaching or teaching about creation, select stanzas that correspond to the particular facets of creation.”

Your Spirit, O LORD, makes life to abound.
The earth is renewed, and fruitful the ground.
To God be all glory and wisdom and might.
May God in his creatures forever delight.

“We Worship You, Whose Splendor Dwarfs the Cosmos” (PFAS #104C/LUYH #11) is set to TIDINGS with lyrics by Martin Leckebusch that, as the titles suggests, modernize some of the images from the psalm. Instead of setting the earth on its foundations, God “made the earth, determining its orbit.”

We worship you, whose splendor dwarfs the cosmos,
whose very clothes are robes of dazzling light;
on wind and cloud you ride across the heavens;
your word bids fiery angels soar in flight.
Lord, God, our voices gladly we raise,
joining creation’s unending hymn of praise.

[TIDINGS is also the tune for the perennial Psalm 103 setting, “O Come, My Soul, Sing Praise to God” (PFAS #103B/LUYH #672/PH87 #297/PH57 #204), but “O, Christians Haste” (PH87 #525), AKA “Publish Glad Tidings” is one of the notable mid-19th Century hymns not included in LUYH.]

“The Mountains Stand in Awe” (LUYH #104B) has lyrics by Ken Bible set to LEONI, tune of “The God of Abraham Praise” (LUYH #39/PH87 #621).

The mountains stand in awe.
The thunder speaks your name.
Creation waits to serve its God with wind and flame.
The heavens know your power.
None question what you do.
The oceans riot unrestrained but bow to you.

The fifth song in Psalms for All Seasons, “Send Forth Your Spirit, O Lord” (PFAS #104D), is a modern hymn with a short refrain based on verse 30 (“Send forth your Spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth” X 2) and three short stanzas based on vv. 1-2, v. 24 & vv. 27-28.

Bless the Lord, O my soul!
Lord God, how great you are,
wrapped in a garment of glory and might,
clothed in light as in a robe.

The responsorial settings in Psalms for All Seasons is “Lord, Send Out Your Spirit” (PFAS #104G), which is based on verse 30 and includes the text of vv. 1-9, 24-34 and 35b.

Psalms for All Seasons also includes “A Litany of Praise” (PFAS #104A) based on the psalm.

Although it isn’t designated as a Psalm 104 setting, David Haas’ hymn “Send Us Your Spirit” (LUYH #228/SNC #163) has a chorus derived from verse 30 (“Come, Lord Jesus, send us your Spirit; renew the face of the earth” X 2) with three stanzas that build on the theme of receiving God’s Spirit. The refrain is used in Sing! A New Creation as a responsorial setting (SNC #174). (We used this responsorial setting in our Pentecost service.)

The blue Psalter Hymnal includes three settings of Psalm 104, two of which were described above. The third is “O Lord, How Manifold the Works” (PH57 #208).

(This is the 26th post in my continuing series on the Psalms for All Seasons Sunday school class I co-teach with Andrew Friend. Each week we sing psalm settings from Psalms for All Seasons, Lift Up Your Hearts, and other CRC hymnals. Previous posts is the series focused on Psalm 121, Psalm 122, Psalms 2/99, Psalm 72, Psalm 95, Psalm 147,  Psalm 112,  Psalm 29,  Psalm 40, Psalm 23, Psalm 27, Psalm 130, Psalm 15, Psalm 51,  Psalm 6, Psalm 32,  Psalm 143,  Psalms 38/102, Psalm 31, Psalm 116, Psalm 16, Psalm 22, Psalm 118, Psalms 47/93, Psalm 66, and Psalm 45.)

Minor Prophets Art: Zechariah

Minor Prophets, Sunday School Art

In Simply Jesus, N.T. Wright places Zechariah, one of three post-exilic minor prophets, with Isaiah and Daniel as the three books most important for Jesus as he worked out his vocation. Zechariah is the source of the oracle about a king arriving on a donkey (9:9-10) that Jesus enacted during the triumphal entry; that oracle is followed by a promise of the Lord coming to save his people (9:11-17) and warnings about false teachers.

“Putting together this strange, apparently jerky and disjointed set of oracles, we begin to see a pattern emerging,” writes Wright. “Israel’s exile is to be reversed under the rule of the anointed king, who will end up ruling the world world. The pagan nations will do their worst, but God himself will come to fight against them, but he will be king over all the earth.”

zechariah

The passages discussed by Wright are all from the second half of the book. The first half contains a series of visions, many of which Naomi used in her drawing. These include the man among the myrtle trees (1:7-17), the man with the measuring line (2:1-13), clean garments for Joshua the high priest (3:1-10), the gold lampstand and two olive trees (4:1-14), the flying scroll (5:1-11), and the four horses—red, black, white and dappled (6:1-8). These are mostly hopeful messages for the remnant living in Palestine.

The drawing is unfinished; I believe the space in the upper left was reserved for the prophet himself. As with all the other drawings in this series, Naomi drew it during our hour-long Sunday school class with input from class members.

This is the eighth (and penultimate) post of Naomi’s art from our Minor Prophets Sunday school class. Previous posts were on Jonah, Amos, Hosea, Zephaniah and Nahum & Obadiah, Habakkuk and Haggai. Naomi’s professional art is available at naomifriend.com. 

Minor Prophets Commentaries

Book Review, Minor Prophets

If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably thought about leading a minor prophets Sunday school class. If so, step one is finding an artist to create a series of minor prophets-themed pieces of art. Step two is getting some good commentaries. These are the four I used for my class.

The only commentary I bought myself, Exploring The Minor Prophets (1998) by John Phillips, was the weakest. (The remaining commentaries were all borrowed from my pastors.)  Philips has some useful things to say, but he interprets the books from a dispensationalist perspective. When you least expect it, he starts in on Russia and the anti-Christ. I don’t recommend it.

The Hebrew Prophets (1984) by James D. Newsome Jr. is  an excellent overview for a general audience of all the writing prophets (major and minor) albeit one with mainline assumptions about issues like authorship (with chapters on three Isaiahs and two Zechariahs).

Micah-Malachi (Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 32) (1984) by Ralph L. Smith is another standout volume in the Word Biblical Commentary series, which is written from an evangelical perspective and at an academic-level. (I’ve read six volumes now. The two volumes on Genesis by Gordon Wenham were two of the best commentaries I’ve ever read. I also liked the three volumes on the Psalms, which I’ll review separately. On the other hand, Simon DeVries’ commentary on First Kings was a disappointment.) Each entry in one of these commentaries includes a bibliography, an original translation followed by translation notes, a discussion of “form/structure/context,” a “comment” discussing the passage verse by verse, and an “explanation” that gets right to the heart of the Scripture. Smith’s Micah-Malachi commentary was the most useful commentary for leading my class. If I taught the class again, I’d also get the Hosea-Jonah volume.

Minor Prophet Commentaries

Finally, I used The Minor Prophets: A Exegetical & Expository Commentary, an  insanely detailed, three-volume, 1,400-page commentary, written by nine authors and edited by Thomas Edward McComiskey. The series proved useful in class because it addresses just about any question about the text a class member could pose. On the other hand, it can be a tough read. The most annoying feature was that the entire thing is written in two parallel sections (exegesis & exposition) separated by a horizontal line running across each page (but at varying heights). The authors didn’t use these sections consistently. For some books, the top (exegesis) section is mostly over questions about the meaning of the Hebrew text and is best skipped by a lay reader. However, some of the authors included a lot of useful information there. The bottom (exposition) section read like other scholarly commentaries, but was much longer.

Minor Prophets Art: Haggai

Minor Prophets, Sunday School Art

With the Book of Haggai we begin the post-exilic prophets, who looked forward to the coming of Christ even as they struggled with the messy reality of life among the remnant who returned to Jerusalem.

When Haggai received his first oracle from the Lord, work on rebuilding the Temple had been on pause for almost two decades. “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?” Haggai asked.

In what seems like an all-too-rare prophetic success story, Haggai got results. Zerubbabel the governor, Joshua the high priest and “the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord” (v. 12).

Naomi’s Haggai drawing is as straightforward as his message. The prophet stands before the temple his hands full of building tools—hammer, chisel and nails.

Haggai

 

In the second half of the book, Haggai receives three more messages from the Lord promising good things for the obedient people, chief among them: “The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,” a prophecy we believe was fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

This is the seventh post of Naomi’s art from our Minor Prophets Sunday school class. Previous posts were on Jonah, Amos, Hosea, Zephaniah and Nahum & Obadiah and Habakkuk. Naomi’s professional art is available at naomifriend.com. 

“Make Way for Christ the King!” Advent Candle-Lighting Liturgy Series

Liturgy

This is a series of five Advent (and Christmas Eve) Candle-Lighting Litanies Naomi Friend and I wrote for use with Graham Kendrick’s hymn “Make Way.” Kendrick’s full version has four stanzas; a two-stanza version of the song, which we used, can be found in Sing! A New Creation (#98). We sang the hymn as a response to each litany. Each week’s litany is based on the Bible readings from the Revised Common Lectionary Year A so it is especially appropriate for that liturgical year.

“Make Way for Christ the King!”

Advent Candle Lighting Liturgy for use with
Graham Kendrick’s “Make Way” (Sing! A New Creation #98)
For RCL Year A

First Sunday of Advent

Leader: Fling wide the gates and welcome Jesus into your lives! Make way for Christ the King!

People: How can we prepare for the arrival of the King?

Leader: The night is nearly over; the day is almost near! Put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light! Clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ!

People: Praise the Lord! Make way for Christ the King!

Lighting of the Advent Candle

Leader: The candle we light today reminds us to prepare for Christ’s coming by putting aside the darkness that so easily entangles us and seeking the true Light of the World!

People: We fling wide the gates and welcome Jesus into our lives! Make way for Christ the King!

Hymn of Response: “Make Way”

Second Sunday of Advent

Leader:  Fling wide the gates and welcome Jesus into your lives! Make way for Christ the King!

People: How can we prepare for the arrival of the King?

Leader: Repent and prepare your heart for the coming of the Lord! Put on a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accept one another just as Christ accepted you in order to bring praise to God!

People: Praise the Lord! Make way for Christ the King!

Lighting of the Advent Candle

Leader: The candle we light today reminds us to accept one another and become servants to each other just as Christ became a servant on behalf of God’s truth.

People: We fling wide the gates and welcome Jesus into our lives! Make way for Christ the King!

Hymn of Response: “Make Way”

Third Sunday of Advent

Leader:  Fling wide the gates and welcome Jesus into your lives! Make way for Christ the King!

People: How can we prepare for the arrival of the King?

Leader: Be patient until the Lord’s coming! Stand firm with your brothers and sisters in the face of suffering as God’s Kingdom is made real in this world!

People: Praise the Lord! Make way for Christ the King!

Lighting of the Advent Candle

Leader: The candle we light today reminds us to patiently wait for the Coming of Christ who will end all suffering and wipe away all our tears.

People: We fling wide the gates and welcome Jesus into our lives! Make way for Christ the King!

Hymn of Response: “Make Way”

Fourth Sunday of Advent

Leader:  Fling wide the gates and welcome Jesus into your lives! Make way for Christ the King!

People: How can we prepare for the arrival of the King?

Leader: Be careful, be calm and don’t be afraid. Don’t lose heart, but trust in the Lord for his promises are sure. His Kingdom is near! Jesus will come to save his people from their sins!

People: Praise the Lord! Make way for Christ the King!

Lighting of the Advent Candle

Leader: The candle we light today reminds us to cast aside fear and trust in God’s promises—even when they seem impossible.

People: We fling wide the gates and welcome Jesus into our lives! Make way for Christ the King!

Hymn of Response: “Make Way”

Christmas Eve

Leader:  Fling wide the gates and welcome Jesus into your lives! Make way for Christ the King!

People: How can we prepare for the arrival of the King?

Leader: Burst into songs of joy together for the Lord has comforted and redeemed his people. Receive the King into your lives and believe on his name.

People: Praise the Lord! Make way for Christ the King!

Lighting of the Advent Candle

Leader: The candle we light tonight reminds us that the true light that gives light to everyone has come into the world. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

People: We fling wide the gates and welcome Jesus into our lives! Make way for Christ the King!

Hymn of Response: “Make Way”

— Naomi Friend and David Schweingruber

 

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Simply Jesus by N.T. Wright

Book Review

Simply Jesus: A New Vision of Who He Was, What He Did, and Why He Matters (2011) was the focus of our summer book club at Trinity CRC and the second N.T. Wright book we’ve read. In 2008, our book was Surprised by Hope.

simplyjesus

Both books are part of a succession of N.T. Wright books aimed at a popular audience and published in the U.S. by HarperOne over the past eight years. The first four—Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense (2006), Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection and the MIssion of the Church (2006), After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters (2010) and Scripture and the Authority of God: How to Read the Bible Today (2011; an updated version of 2005’s The Last Word)—together form a fantastic overview of the Christian faith.

 

Wright’s next two books (with a different cover design from Simply Christian tetralogy)—Simply Jesus and How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels (2012)—are Wright’s popularization of his scholarship on Jesus, found especially in Jesus and the Victory of God (1996), probably my favorite of his books, but updated to reflect another 18 years of study.

(Wright has already published two more books with HarperOne—The Case for the Psalms: Why They Are Essential (2013), which I found disappointing, and Surprised by Scripture: Engaging Contemporary Issues (2014), which was just released.)

Eleven observations about Simply Jesus, which I’ve now read twice:

1. Wright frames Simply Jesus as an attempt to explain what Jesus was up to in historical context as a corrective to both contemporary skepticism and contemporary conservative Christianity. Since he ends up, quite expectedly, with a version of orthodox Christianity, I’m not sure how effective this framing device would be for a contemporary skeptic.

2. Regarding the skeptics, Wright pokes holes in their alternative accounts of how Christianity got started and how the stories of Jesus developed. Wright’s corrective to the conservatives is to insist that Jesus’ ministry had significance beyond accomplishing “atonement” so Christians could “go to heaven when they die.” In other words, Wright is concerned with how Jesus’ ministry was understood by his early followers and Jesus himself and not just how he fits into orthodox theology. (Wright repeats his objections to the “rapture” and “going to heaven when we die” found in Surprised by Hope, but he doesn’t address his claims about justification that have generated some controversy among evangelicals.)

3. Wright’s love of extended metaphors is on display here in the meteorological realm. Skepticism and conservatism are “two violent winds” resulting in a “perfect storm.” The challenge of writing history about Jesus is a “tropical storm.” Another “perfect storm” in the First Century was the result of “the Gale of Rome,” “the high-pressure system of Jewish hopes,” and the “wind of God.” And so on. (Paul and the Faithfulness of God, which I’m reading now, does the same with bird metaphors.)

4. Most of the book is an historical investigation of the significance of Jesus’ ministry in the context of Jewish religion and history, particularly the Jews’ subjugation to Rome and how this was experienced as another captivity in need of an Exodus so that God’s rule could be made evident. Major events in Jesus’ ministry are put into this context—his Temptation, the “Nazareth Manifesto,” Jesus forgiving the sins of the woman who anointed his feet, John the Baptist’s conflict with Herod, Cleansing the Temple, several key parables (The Rich Man and Lazarus, The Sower, The Wicked Tenants).

5. Wright also does a nice job of interpreting parts of the Jesus story through both Jewish and Roman lenses. For instance, the Ascension is both an enthronement à la Daniel’s Son of Man and an upstaging of the purported apotheosis of Julius Caesar.

6. One of Wright’s arguments in Jesus and the Victory of God is that Jesus took important symbols of Jewish identity—Sabbath, Temple, family, Taroh, land, food—and redefined them around himself. Traces of this can be found here, but it’s been repackaged as a discussion of “Space, Time, and Matter” (which he developed earlier in Surprised by Hope). I think I like the earlier version better.

7. One of my favorite insights from Jesus and the Victory of God, repeated here, is that Jesus worked out his vocation through engagement with Scripture. The traditional evangelical understanding of Old Testament prophetic passages referring to Jesus is that these passages are remarkable predictions that demonstrate the accuracy of the Bible and Jesus’ divinity. However, this understanding results in a Jesus who is just going through the motions, performing a series of preordained actions. Wright’s version has Jesus studying the Scriptures and creatively developing his vocation by bringing together passages in new ways. In particular, Wright sees Jesus drawing upon Isaiah 40-66’s Suffering Servant, Daniel’s Son of Man and Zechariah’s King, as well as the Psalms. This is a much more human Jesus and one that we can seek to emulate, working out our own vocation through interaction with Scripture.

8. One of the pleasures of reading Wright is encountering his fresh insights about familiar Scripture passages. For instance, on p. 180 Wright connects the Crucifixion to the Sermon on the Mount:

This would usher in the new era of blessing announced in the Sermon on the Mount and achieved by the same means that was explained on that occasion. Jesus, as the servant, turned the other cheek; Jesus, carrying his cross, went the extra mile at the behest of his Roman executioners; Jesus, finally, ended up enthroned, set on a hill, unable to be hidden, the light of the world shining out at the darkest moment in history.

The book is worth reading for these insights alone.

9. The last two chapters, which are two of the most dense, are about how Jesus’ resurrection brought about a new world in which God is King and the implications of this for the Church. How God Became King, which serves as a sequel to Simply Jesus, is an expansion and further explication of this idea.

10. Although the subtitles of Simply Jesus and How God Became King suggest this insight is either “new” or at least “forgotten,” his thesis seems broadly compatible with Reformed theology. This was the topic a blog post, “Kings, Creeds, and the Canon: Musing on N.T. Wright” by Jamie Smith, to which Wright responded in the comments. It’s worth reading.

11. Of special interest to me, Wright includes a great discussion of the “Centrality of Worship” for doing Kingdom work (p. 217):

All kingdom work is rooted in worship. Or, to put it the other way around, worshipping the God we see at work in Jesus is the most politically charged act we can ever perform. Christian worship declares that Jesus is Lord and therefore, by strong implication, nobody else is.… It commits the worshipper to allegiance, to following this Jesus, to being shaped and directed by him. Worshipping the God we see in Jesus orients our whole being, our imagination, our will, our hopes, and our fears away from the world where Mars, Mammon, and Aphrodite (violence, money, and sex) make absolute demands and punish anyone who resists. It orients us instead to a world in which love is stronger than death, the poor are promised the kingdom, and chastity (whether married or single) reflects the holiness and faithfulness of God himself.… Worship creates—or should create, if it is allowed to be truly itself—a community that marches to a different beat, that keeps in step with a different Lord.

 Highly recommended

Minor Prophets Art: Habakkuk

Minor Prophets, Sunday School Art

The book of Habakkuk is a great lesson in being careful what you ask for. When the prophet complains to God about the violence, evil and injustice rampant in Judah, God responds that he’ll raise up the Babylonians to punish Judah.

God’s answer to Habakkuk’s second complaint—about the Babylonians, of course—includes one of Paul’s favorite quotes and provides the material for Naomi’s drawing.

Naomi puts the prophet at the center questioning God and has God’s famous answer—“The Righteous Live by Faith” (2:4)—appearing above him. 

Habakkuk

From left to right are illustrations of the “five woes”: (1) “Woe to him who piles up stolen goods and makes himself wealthy by extortion” (2:6). (2) “Woe to him who builds his house by unjust gain” (2:9). (3) “Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by injustice” (2:12). (4) “Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors, pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk” (2:15). (5) “Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Come to life!’ Or to lifeless stone, ‘Wake up’” (2:19).

This is the sixth post of Naomi’s art from our Minor Prophets Sunday school class. Previous posts were on Jonah, Amos, Hosea, Zephaniah and Nahum & Obadiah. Naomi’s professional art is available at naomifriend.com. 

Psalm 45 Hymns

Psalms for All Seasons

Psalm 45 is a royal wedding song, the only one in the Psalter. (It is unknown for which king it may have been composed, but the reference to the bride’s origin in Tyre has led to the suggestion that the couple was Ahab and Jezebel.)

The first half of the psalm (vv. 1-9) is in praise of the king. The second half (vv. 10-17) focuses on his bride. It was interpreted Christologically as early as the book of Hebrews, which quotes vv. 6-7:

Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever;
a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.
You love righteousness and hate wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions
by anointing you with the oil of joy.

There are also obvious correspondences with the wedding feast of the Lamb in Revelation.

The lectionary assigns the entire Psalm to the Annunciation of the Lord in each year. It is also used twice on Lord’s Days, including this past Sunday (Year A between July 3-9), where the second half of the psalm (only vv. 10-17 are assigned) serves as a response to the story of Isaac and Rebekah. I looked over different settings of the psalm in preparation for planning the service. (Unlike the other psalms in this series, we didn’t study it during our Psalms for All Seasons Sunday school class. Andrew and I went through all the settings one evening after summer book club.)

There are only four Psalm 45 hymns in CRC hymnals and just one in the new hymnals: “For the Honor of Our King” (PFAS #45A/LUYH #221), which is the best of the four and the one we sang at yesterday’s service.

It is a very loose, explicitly Christological version of the psalm with each stanza ending with “our royal Savior.” Stanzas 1-3 are in praise of the king. Stanza four introduces the bride:

See the splendor of Christ’s bride
led in honor to his side—
chosen, loved, and beautified
by her royal Savior.

Stanza 5 captures the psalm’s ending by promising “one unending song of praise to our royal Savior.”

The lyrics are by Martin Leckebusch; the tune is MONKLAND, which is also used for “For the Glories of God’s Grace” (LUYH #677/PH87 #223) and the John Milton Psalm 136 setting “Let Us with Gladsome Mind” (PFAS #136A/PH87 #136).

The gray Psalter Hymnal’s only Psalm 45 setting is “I Praise the King with All My Verses” (PH87 #45). It’s a much more literal versification by Marie Post and Bert Polman. It is set to O DASS ICH TAUSEND ZUNGEN HÄTTE; while not a Genevan tune, like many of the original psalm settings in the Psalter Hymnal, it is similarly irregular and not intuitively singable.

 I praise the king with all my verses;
with blessings on my tongue I sing.
Your grace and beauty show God’s favor;
God’s richest gifts are for our king.
Gird on your sword, ride forth with might;
defend the cause of truth and right.

The blue Psalter Hymnal includes two Psalm 45 settings. “A Godly Theme is Mine” (PH57 #82) is a seven verse versification set to FAIRFIELD. “O Royal Bride, Give Heed” (PH57 #83), from the 1912 Psalter, is a Christological translation of the second half of the psalm set to GERAR.

Psalms for All Seasons includes two responsorial settings (both for vv. 1-2, 6-17): “The Throne of God Is Righteousness” (PFAS #45B) and “Take, O Take Me As I Am” (PFAS #45B-alt), which uses the entire song (also found in LUYH #741/SNC #215/SWM #227) as the response.

(This is the 25th post in my continuing series on the Psalms for All Seasons Sunday school class I co-teach with Andrew Friend. Each week we sing psalm settings from Psalms for All Seasons, Lift Up Your Hearts, and other CRC hymnals. Previous posts is the series focused on Psalm 121, Psalm 122, Psalms 2/99, Psalm 72, Psalm 95, Psalm 147,  Psalm 112,  Psalm 29,  Psalm 40, Psalm 23, Psalm 27, Psalm 130, Psalm 15, Psalm 51,  Psalm 6, Psalm 32,  Psalm 143,  Psalms 38/102, Psalm 31, Psalm 116, Psalm 16, Psalm 22, Psalm 118, Psalms 47/93, and Psalm 66.)

Minor Prophets Art: Nahum & Obadiah

Minor Prophets, Sunday School Art

Nahum and Obadiah are single-minded minor prophets, each predicting the destruction of one of  Israel’s enemies.

Nahum is a three-chapter oracle about the destruction of Nineveh, capital of Assyria. It’s all bad news for Nineveh—“the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims” (3:1-2)—from beginning to end without the happy postscript some of the minor prophets include.

Here’s the conclusion:

Nothing can heal you;
your wound is fatal.
All who hear the news about you
clap their hands at your fall,
for who has not felt
your endless cruelty?

The inhabitants of both Israel and Judah had good reason to despise the Assyrians. The Assyrian Empire under Tiglath-Pileser III (ruled 745–727 BC) subjugated much of the Middle East. Tiglath-Pileser III shows up in 2 Kings invading Israel and demanding tribute during the reign of  Menahem (2 Kings 15:19-20) and then conquering part Israel during the reign of Pekah (2 Kings 15:29). The final king of Israel, Hoshea, was an Assyrian vassal whose rebellion and attempted alliance with Egypt resulted in an invasion by Tiglath-Pileser’s son and heir Shalmaneser V. The Assyrians besieged Samaria for three years before capturing it around 720 BC, deporting many of the Israelites (the “ten lost tribes”) and resettling it with people from other conquered nations. The Assyrians under Sennacherib (ruled 705 – 681 BC) captured much of Judah and besieged Jerusalem under Hezekiah as recounted in 2 Kings 18-19. Nineveh finally fell around 612 BC to an alliance of its former vassals and was razed.

Here is the (unfinished) Nahum drawing our Sunday School artist-in-residence, Naomi Friend, produced:

nahum

The drawing depicts both the military  invasion of the city and “overwhelming flood [the LORD will use to] make an end to Nineveh.” (Nahum 1:8).

I missed this class, but Naomi tells me she was attempting to reproduce the style of two-dimensional ancient Egyptian art. This is how far she got during our hour-long class.

Obadiah is the most minor of the minor prophets and the shortest book in the Old Testament—he uses just 21 verses to prophecy the destruction of Edom, Israel’s neighbor and kin (said to consist of the descendants of Jacob’s brother Esau).

Edom is condemned for standing “aloof while strangers carried off [Israel’s] wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them” (v. 11). This may refer either to the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzer in 586 BC (see Psalm 137) or some earlier event.

obadiah

We covered Obadiah and Habakkuk (another one-chapter prophet) during one hour so Naomi spent just 15 minutes on this drawing, which shows the ancient city of Petra, which was in Edom. Verses 3-4 make a suitable caption:

The pride of your heart has deceived you,
you who live in the clefts of the rocks
and make your home on the heights,
you who say to yourself,
‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’
Though you soar like the eagle
and make your nest among the stars,
from there I will bring you down,”
declares the Lord.

I’ll post Naomi’s Habakkuk drawing in my next post.

This is the fifth post of Naomi’s art from our Minor Prophets Sunday school class. Previous posts were on Jonah, Amos, Hosea and Zephaniah. Naomi’s professional art is available at naomifriend.com.