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Post by Dr. Robert Gotcher on Apr 29, 2021 1:53:11 GMT
What is your favorite Psalm? Why?
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Post by Tom Brefka on Apr 27, 2023 13:45:43 GMT
Psalm 33
1 Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous;
it is fitting for the upright to praise him.
2 Praise the Lord with the harp;
make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre.
3 Sing to him a new song;
play skillfully, and shout for joy.
Every time I sit down to play the piano or get ready to sing, I think of God and wonderful gifts He has blessed up with.
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Post by dylanmchugh on May 2, 2023 1:13:28 GMT
Psalm 127
"Unless the Lord build the house,
they labor in vain who build.
Unless the Lord guard the city,
in vain does the guard keep watch.
It is vain for you to rise early
and put off your rest at night,
To eat bread earned by hard toil-
all this God gives to his beloved in sleep" (Psalm 127:1-2)
Psalm 127 is my favorite psalm because it urges me to be humble. The message God is sending through his Word is that unless our human endeavors are built upon His foundation, the effort is futile. We are utterly dependent on God. This Psalm comes up a lot in the Liturgy of the Hours and it strikes me to the heart every time. As I go about my day, it's a good reminder that my role as father and husband, my role as teacher, and my role as aspirant all point to the same end. I am "building a house" every day with my life, so to speak. That house is the corner of God's Kingdom that I am called to build up on a daily basis. If I think for one moment that I am the means and ends of the construction, the foundation of my daily house will crumble. Only with God's grace can I build the house properly. "Unless the Lord guard the city" reminds me to remain vigilant in prayer. Building my house for the Lord requires me to be in constant communication with the master architect, lest I misplace some load-bearing walls. Getting up early in the morning and going to bed later can be useful practices in life. However, the psalm cautions against stretching our human limits solely to advance our own human achievements. God can much more than our capacity with much less the effort, Therefore, exert yourself if you must, be always keep in mind who the labor is for, given you've dedicated each task to the greater glory of God and common good of his people.
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Post by steveheun on May 5, 2023 18:28:54 GMT
Psalm 23: 1-4
The Lord in my shepherd, there is nothing I lack.
In green pastures he makes me lie down;
to still waters he leads me
he restores my soul.
He guides me along right paths
for the sake of his name.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me;
Your rod and your staff comfort me.
I know that it is one of the most popular Psalms, however, it provides such rich imagery for me that I think about it often. The image of the Lord as the shepherd protecting and leading his flock is referenced throughout the Old Testament (e.g Isaiah 40:11) and New Testament (e.g. John 10:11) as well as many teachings of the Church. It is referenced with David as the shepherd of Israel and ultimately as Christ as the shepherd for his people and the Church. A cross which I wear depicts Jesus with a lamb around his neck bringing the ewe back to the flock. I pray on it daily. God is ominipresent in our lives as our protector and guide. He gives us great blessings and rejuvenates us when we are in dark places. He brings light into our world and gives us the strength and courage to follow him and engage in the spiritual warfare which we encounter daily in our world. He provides an oasis for tranquility as we surrender to his great power and support of us. This psalm reminds me that I am to trust that God is in control, and I am not. I need to re-learn this lesson often.
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Post by John Schroeder on May 9, 2023 12:35:01 GMT
The invitatory psalm: Psalm 100:
Cry out with joy to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before him, singing for joy.
Know that he, the Lord, is God. He made us, we belong to him, we are his people, the sheep of his flock.
Go within his gates, giving thanks. Enter his courts with songs of praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name.
Indeed how good is the Lord, eternal his merciful love. He is faithful from age to age.
During some difficult moments in life, this prayer was pivotal. It helped me realize that some things will happen in life that though we work our hardest and do our best, divine providence has a different plan. God does have a better plan and this psalm reminds all of us to wake up and give thanks for ALL circumstances. In doing so, we give thanks for the joyful and the difficult moments God provides (we give him thanks in the good moments, but why not for the difficult ones??). The suffering God ordains is meant for our good as well is the bottom line. This psalm showed me the balance I longed for and my imbalance at expecting only good things from God. It showed me there is a reason to wake up with joy every day. Gratitude is an important virtue to cultivate even when the storm is unrelenting. Gratitude provides hope and creates an expectation that God wants us to learn about his ways/designs. Gratitude is a tremendous counter-balance when things are rough. This psalm reminds us that heaven is our eternal destination because we are so privileged to be the sheep of his flock. And it is true- he is faithful from age to age. There hasn't been a single instance he's abandoned myself or my family despite my unworthiness.
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Post by johnvanhecke on May 16, 2023 2:14:20 GMT
Psalm 42.
As the deer longs for the flowing stream so my soul longs for you.
As Aristotle famously said about his zoo animals "I learn from the things which do not know how to lie". There is no guile, no lie, no duplicity when that deer, after running and running (it's their only defense) so hot and thirsty finds the cool clear running water. I can totally picture that deer. And I can totally picture being that deer. That's the way I want to long for the Lord. 100%.
The psalm goes on and on with more great stuff. But the first line is the most for me.
Now one of the reasons I have been able to ponder it over and over is because it's also been set to my favorite music of all time - polyphony. It was the first song I learned in my college choir and still in the list of top favorites of all time to hear and to sing.
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Post by Rich Fedor on May 18, 2023 15:51:45 GMT
I honestly had never given this too much thought. My knee jerk reaction would have been Psalm 23. Being a hospice nurse, I hear this Psalm often at the bedside of someone who has just died. It is a beautiful Psalm, but I would have chosen it as my favorite more because it is the one I am most familiar with.
I decided to peruse the book of Psalms. There are many that I recognized from the LOH. I had never really read through the Psalms. While I didn't read every Psalm, I did scan most of them for something that jumped out at me. As I did this, Psalm 131 really hit me. This was not because it is one of the shortest Psalms. The title of the Psalm is "Humble Trust in God" (NABRE) or "Song of Quiet Trust" (RSV-CE) and that is what initially caught my eye.
I enjoyed the wording in the RSV-CE Bible most:
O Lord, my heart is not lifted up,
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a child quieted at its
mother's breast;
like a child that is quieted is my soul.
O Israel, hope in the Lord
from this time forth and for evermore.
To me this serves as a reminder to be happy and content with what God has provided. God provides what I need, no more, and no less. I should not compare what I have been given to what anyone else receives. I need to trust that He has given me what I need to what He wills me to do and will provide anything else necessary when, and if it is required.
This is especially helpful to remember as I discern the possibility of being ordained as a deacon. My human tendency, as we have discussed in servant leadership, is toward competition. There will likely be times that I may see what another deacon is doing as something better than what I may be doing. Maybe it would be something that is interesting to me and I would wonder why I am not called to it. However, this Psalm would be a helpful reminder to trust that God has me right where I need to be in that moment and to be happy and content in that.
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