January 2017 Sermon Series

“Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing” (Psalm 100:1-2).

Summer is a time of sun, fun and celebration, so it’s fitting that we take some time to explore the Psalms, after all they are the original songbook of Israel. So for the 6 weeks from the first Sunday in January until school returns we will have a short series from the Psalms.
The Psalms are like fertile soil: rich in theology, prayers, wisdom, and emotion. They are filled with moments of awe, anger, doubt, sadness, hope, and joy.

Through them we gain insight into God’s greatness and glory and the way he relates to us.

C.S. Lewis wrote “most emphatically the Psalms must be read as poems; as lyrics, with all the licenses and all the formalities, the hyperboles, the emotional rather than logical connections, which are proper to lyric poetry.”

John Calvin wrote, “I have been accustomed to call this book, I think not inappropriately, “An Anatomy of all the Parts of the Soul;” for there is not an emotion of which any one can be conscious that is not here represented as in a mirror. Or rather, the Holy Spirit has here drawn to the life all the griefs, sorrows, fears, doubts, hopes, cares, perplexities…”

No doubt for many of us we have found ourselves opening our Bibles to read something and it falls open in the middle at Psalms. We read one or two of them, feel encouraged and move on. It is not very often that we stop to study them. This summer we will take time to look at a small collection of them.

Click HERE for an interesting clip with Bono talking to Eugene Peterson about the Psalms.