Author: Administrador

Psalm 22 has been described rather glibly as “the fifth passion narrative” for the imagery it has contributed to the evangelists’ depictions of the closing events of Good Friday. While this description does wrench the psalm out of its original context and ignore the plight of the psalmist who is seriously ill and either abandoned … Continue reading “Psalm 22 Commentary by Mark Throntveit”

I remember the conversation well, though it took place a number of years ago, in Germany. My wife and I were renting an apartment from a retired couple who became not only our landlords, but also our friends. Each evening after coming back on the bus from the University of Tuebingen, I would stop upstairs … Continue reading “Psalm 22 Commentary by James Limburg”

Psalm 22 is a prayer of complaint that, perhaps more than any psalm, serves as a link between the Old Testament and the story of Jesus’ passion. 1 Indeed, this psalm is an appropriate lectionary reading for Good Friday because the Gospels cite and allude to it at least five times in the crucifixion account. … Continue reading “Psalm 22 Commentary by Jerome Creach”

Borne out of a gut-wrenching anguish, Psalm 22 is the cry of one who knows what it is to be bullied by his enemies, rejected by his community, and abandoned by God. The threat for the psalmist is imminent as a “company of evildoers” surrounds him like bulls ready to attack and lions eager to … Continue reading “Psalm 22 Commentary by Amanda Benckhuysen”

The lectionary tries to steal this psalm from us, but we don’t need to let it. We lose verses 1-6 in the prescribed reading, which makes Psalm 19 an altogether different psalm. To be sure, Psalm 19 shows up in its entirety more than once in the Revised Common Lectionary (once earlier this year, on … Continue reading “Psalm 19:7-14 Commentary by Fred Gaiser”

C. S. Lewis called Psalm 19 “the greatest poem in the Psalter and one of the greatest lyrics in the world.”1 The song employs beautiful imagery, playful poetry, and elegant prayer-petitions. For the pastor who opts to preach on the psalm this week, most of the challenge will be to get out of the way … Continue reading “Psalm 19:7-14 Commentary by Rolf Jacobson”

As a college professor of biblical studies, I consistently find that the most important question for the course is: What kind of book is the Bible? Ironically, our general education course is designed more for understanding the story of the Bible than it is for exploring the nature of its revelation. Nevertheless, there is almost … Continue reading “Psalm 19:7-14 Commentary by James K. Mead”

Preaching on a text about preaching is no small task. This is complicated further when it is not a human doing the preaching, but God’s natural creation. Because Psalm 19 tells us more about how to preach than what to preach, the following comments focus on what the preacher can learn from the way nature … Continue reading “Psalm 19 Commentary by Shauna Hannan”

Psalm 19 offers plenty of useful avenues of engagement. Indeed, it presents the interpreter with an embarrassment of options. The Psalm touches on a number of major biblical themes — creation, law, sin, forgiveness, and ethical conduct among them — and also offers a rich set of imagery and well-known language on which to draw. … Continue reading “Psalm 19 Commentary by Matthew Stith”

Some scholars rather rashly declare Psalm 19 to be not one but two distinct Psalms, one on the glory of creation, the second on the goodness of the Torah. If they were ever two, their joining would be like the happiest marriage you have ever known, or the bonding of hydrogen and oxygen to form … Continue reading “Psalm 19 Commentary by James Howell”