Psalms of imprecation, a subset of the larger category of lament, are psalms in which the speaker speaks a curse on the enemies of God. Pastor Sean McGowan in his book Psalms That Curse: A Brief Primer points out that these psalms often make the modern church uncomfortable—and none more than Psalm 137, which we’ve been singing these last five…
Last week Pastor Jamie reminded us that we as Christians have a glory that is weightier than any of the sufferings we face now on this earth. C.S. Lewis once said, “The suffering in this world is not the failure of God’s love for us; it is that love in action for believe me, this world that seems to us…
Here vouchsafe to all Thy servants as they ask of Thee to gain; What they gain from Thee forever and Thy blessed rest retain… —Anonymous 7th century hymn After focusing on the certainty of trials in the Christian life last week, this morning’s service is filled with words of comfort. Paul reminds us in the sermon text that the difficulties…
In Matthew 16 Jesus tells His disciples, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” The Christian walk is not easy —as Paul writes to the Corinthians, we are afflicted in every way, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down. The Christian life requires us to continually lay down our lives in…
This Sunday marks the beginning of the Lenten season, which is traditionally a time of prayer, fasting, and repentance leading up to Easter, observed by Christians since the days of the early church. Several elements of the service have been adjusted to fit the character of this season. We will begin each Sunday by singing What Wondrous Love Is This…
In this morning’s sermon text, Paul continues his contrast between the Old and New Covenants. Because of Jesus’s coming, the veil that Moses used to hide the evidence of God’s glory is removed (v. 16), and we can behold the glory face to face (v. 18). But we don’t merely see it, we are transformed to be like it. This…
At the beginning of 2 Corinthians 3, Paul presents a series of contrasts: stone and human hearts (vs. 3), the ministry of death and the ministry of the Spirit (vss. 7-8), the ministry of condemnation and the ministry of righteousness (vs. 9), that which is coming to an end and that which is permanent (vs. 11). If the former of…
In his autobiography Confessions, St. Augustine recounts how his heart was hard and the things of the Lord were despicable to him. Before he understood the beauty of the Gospel, Christ’s work was a stench to him. But when the Lord softened his heart to His voice, Augustine says, “You were radiant and resplendent. You put to flight my blindness.…
Presbyterian minister Henry van Dyke wrote Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee, an ecstatic celebration of Christian unity, in 1907. He intended the poem to be sung to the melody of the final movement of Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9 in D minor, which was itself a setting of an earlier poem by Friedrich Schiller called “Ode to Joy.” The Ode uses…
He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it. —1 Thessalonians 5:24 This morning, the Scriptures we read and the psalms and hymns we sing point us to the reliability of God’s promises— we can trust that He is faithful to do what He says. The service opens with a Call to Worship from Psalm 111 that declares,…