Tag: Psalms

Readings for Sunday March 1

Genesis 17: 1-7 and 15-16

1   When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. 2 And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, 4 “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. 7 I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.

Gen 17:15   God said to Abraham, “As for Sarah your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16 I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”

Psalm 22: 23- 31

23 You who fear the LORD, praise him!
All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him;
stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
24 For he did not despise or abhor
the affliction of the afflicted;
he did not hide his face from me,
but heard when I cried to him.

25    From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
my vows I will pay before those who fear him.
26 The poor shall eat and be satisfied;
those who seek him shall praise the LORD.
May your hearts live forever!

27    All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the LORD;
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before him.
28 For dominion belongs to the LORD,
and he rules over the nations.

29    To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
and I shall live for him.
30 Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord,
31 and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn,
saying that he has done it.

Romans 4: 13 – 25

  1. For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.

Rom 4:16   For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, 17 as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”)—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. 18 Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “So numerous shall your descendants be.” 19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. 20 No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 Therefore his faith “was reckoned to him as righteousness.” 23 Now the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.

Mark 8 : 31-38

31   Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

34   He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

An update, a preview and an invitation…

BirdsFirst, the ‘Update‘:  I’m pretty excited that, as bonus for this blogging project, I’ve added an new bit of hardware— a new ATR2005 USB microphone for voice recording. (Hurray!!)

This device makes a huge difference to the quality of sound, so its something to look forward to if you enjoy listening to the readings. For the readings I posted yesterday, I was using a tiny iPhone microphone, so next week you’ll notice the difference.

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Meanwhile…  here’s a ‘Preview‘ and  an Invitation: The Preview is a reading using the new microphone (below) which also serves as a  preview of something I’m going to invite you to work on with me during the six weeks of Lent— Psalm 145  ( hence ‘The Invitation‘).  This Psalm of thanksgiving offers a way of committing to an additional daily practise as part of Lenten devotions.  I’ll post more about this when Lent begins next week on Ash Wednesday (February 18th). Meanwhile here’s the psalm, and an audio preview using the new microphone. (!)

Psalm 145

A Psalm of Praise: of David

1 I will extol you, my God and King,
and bless your name forever and ever.
2 Every day I will bless you,
and praise your name forever and ever.
3 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised;
his greatness is unsearchable.

4    One generation shall laud your works to another,
and shall declare your mighty acts.
5 On the glorious splendour of your majesty,
and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.
6 The might of your awesome deeds shall be proclaimed,
and I will declare your greatness.
7 They shall celebrate the fame of your abundant goodness,
and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

8    The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 The LORD is good to all,
and his compassion is over all that he has made.

10    All your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD,
and all your faithful shall bless you.
11 They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom,
and tell of your power,
12 to make known to all people your mighty deeds,
and the glorious splendour of your kingdom.
13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures throughout all generations.

The LORD is faithful in all his words,
and gracious in all his deeds.
14 The LORD upholds all who are falling,
and raises up all who are bowed down.
15 The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food in due season.
16 You open your hand,
satisfying the desire of every living thing.
17 The LORD is just in all his ways,
and kind in all his doings.
18 The LORD is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
19 He fulfills the desire of all who fear him;
he also hears their cry, and saves them.
20 The LORD watches over all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy.

21    My mouth will speak the praise of the LORD,
and all flesh will bless his holy name forever and ever.

Launching out… a first post…

oars dripping patterns on waterHere we are on January 26 when I promised I’d launch this blogsite. Today’s blog is a bit of an experiment and I’m wanting to make sure everything (especially the audio snippets) are working properly. So please let me know (in the comments section — thanks.)

As a first post then, I’m making a suggestion about a portion of the lectionary that is fairly rarely the subject of sermons, in fact in many churches its sung and we might forget the Psalms are actually an integral part of the Scriptures given for our learning and growing in faith.

With that pre-amble, here we go! Watch for further posts as I get things up and running this week.

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A suggestion for this week: The Psalm

Psalm 111 is short which lends itself to daily reflection on the psalm as a whole (rather than just one verse or segment). Reciting it daily,  letting its words really sink in—notice how repetition leads to shifts in emphasis and to ‘hearing’ the words differently each time.

In your journal or notebook, you might find yourself wanting to note some of the things that particularly strike you. Writing things down whether on your computer or on paper helps the thinking process.

You can listen to Psalm 111 here. *Note that this is the NIV version (New International Version). In future I will be reading from the New Revised Standard Version, unless otherwise noted.