For those who want a change from the Gospel Easter 4 – Psalm 23 Oh my goodness – the 23rd Psalm is set for this week – what on earth am I going to find to say about it? Everyone knows it – indeed for many it might be the only bit of the Bible they do know. We all know that it is both lovely but also about funerals, and of course we all know how to sing it to Crimond. So what was it actually about, and why is it set for liturgical use during the Easter period? Let’s try to forget for a moment what we think we know about it, and see if any new insights come as we look at it afresh. One interest ..read more

For those who want a change from the Gospel Easter 3 – Psalm 4 I can remember a Churchwarden moaning about her troubled church, although the phrase is much more widely applicable, by saying ‘We don’t lament here, we just grizzle!’ She was absolutely right about the difference between the two. Lament form is a particular genre in the Psalms, and I’m sure we will get to one before long, which, like any good liturgy, takes people on a journey, in this case from bringing to God their troubles, and their feelings about them, but ending in a place of confidence and hope. Without that journey, and i ..read more

For those who want a change from the Gospel Easter 2 – Low Sunday – Psalm 133 For many years it was our custom as a family to go each Easter to the Spring Harvest Festival, first in Prestatyn and later in Minehead or Skegness. This was a greatly anticipated week, and as time went by more and more people from our churches would form a party and make the journey. The teaching and worship were great, but equally exciting were the journeys to and from the holiday camps. Me driving our car with the family soon became me driving a minibus, and eventually us hiring a coach. The journeys would consis ..read more

For those who want a change from the Gospel Easter Sunday – Psalm 114 For some reason the Psalm set for the main Easter Sunday service is the same as that for Palm Sunday last week, so I could have told you simply to go back and reread last week’s blog. However that feels like cheating, so instead I have chosen an alternative Easter Day Psalm, Ps 114. In many versions, including the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible known as the Septuagint, Psalms 114 and 155 form a single text, but the subject matter suggests little in the way of a connection, so it is probably correct to think of each o ..read more

For those who want a change from the Gospel Palm Sunday – Psalm 118 We have become familiar with the idea that the book of Psalms as we have it contains some different collections – we explored, for example, the ‘Songs of Ascents’ here. Today’s Psalm is the final one of another group, Ps 113-118, known collectively as the ‘Egyptian Hallel’. Hallel means ‘praise’ (as in ‘Hallelu – Jah’ – ‘Praise the Lord’, and the Egyptian bit is about a remembrance and celebration of the rescue from Egypt, the exodus. This is particularly clear in Ps 114, but it is not a big stretch to see the others in this ..read more

For those who want a change from the Gospel Passion Sunday/Lent 5 – Psalm 51:1-13 Psalm 51 is one of the most famous, and one of the most powerful, in the Psalter. It is one of a group of seven penitential Psalms, which form a subdivision of the Lament Psalms, in which the lament is not about some affliction threatening from the outside, but rather about an internal sense of sin. It is not surprising that the Psalm became attached to the archetypal sin and guilt of David coveting, stealing and committing adultery with Bathsheba, and subsequently murdering her husband, which is quite a few com ..read more

For those who want a change from the Gospel Mothering Sunday – Psalm 127 Now that we’re all woke up it has become almost a cliché to say that Mothers’ Day can be a very difficult day for many people, so while some of us are busy celebrating mums who love us, of course others will be missing those who have died, or grieving for difficult or even estranged relationships, or desperately wishing that they could become mums themselves. Today really is a minefield, and our thoughts and prayers need to be sensitive to whose who have different things to say to God. I have chosen from the options Psal ..read more

For those who want a change from the Gospel Lent 2 – Psalm 22 Far be it from me to claim to be a real OT scholar, but when I read my usual commentary on this Psalm I found myself disagreeing with most of the suggestions which were given as to its origins and meaning. Part of the problem is that it falls into two very contrasting halves (only the second of which is set in our lectionary). So first of all there is the inevitable suggestion that two different Psalms, a lament and a song of praise, have at some stage been bunged together into one. While some psalms show evidence that this might h ..read more

For those who want a change from the Gospel Lent 1 – Psalm 25 Well, didn’t I get told last week! Apologies for my sloppy exegesis of the Wheat and Tares parable – you deserve better from revjohnleachblog. I would just say in my defence, though, that I was actually writing about the Psalm, not the parable, and the fact is that we do live in churches which contain all sorts of different people, there for all sorts of reasons, pure and impure. Anyway, I hope to do better this week as we enter Lent and look at one of my fave Psalms, and one of my fave songs by Graham Kendrick based on it, which y ..read more

For those who want a change from the Gospel Sunday before Lent – Psalm 50 To go with our Gospel reading about the Transfiguration, we have today a Psalm about God appearing. As we are on the edge of the season of Lent, we are reminded that our hope is about more than losing weight due to abstention from chocolate or alcohol: it is about changing gear and taking time so that we might encounter God anew, as he comes to us in this holy season. The Psalm looks as though it comes from the Jerusalem Temple (v.2), and it has been suggested that it might date from the times of great reforms and renew ..read more