According to the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship (ILCW) Lectionary (1973), as contained in the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978) and Lutheran Worship (1982)

Above:  Pentecost Dove

Image Scanned from a Church Bulletin

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Ezekiel 37:1-14

Psalm 104:25-34 (LBW) or Psalm 143 (LW) or Veni Creator Spiritus

Acts 2:1-21

John 7:37-39a

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God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

as you sent upon the disciples the promised gift of the Holy Spirit,

look upon your Church and open our hearts to the power of the Spirit. 

Kindle in us the fire of your love,

and strengthen our lives for service in your kingdom;

through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.  Amen.

OR

God our creator, earth has many languages,

but your Gospel announces your love

to all nations in one heavenly speech. 

Make us messengers of the good news that,

through the power of your Spirit,

everyone everywhere may unite in one song of praise;

through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.  Amen.

—Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), 23

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O God, on this day you once taught the hearts of your faithful people

by sending them the light of your Holy Spirit. 

Grant us in our day the same Spirit

to have a right understanding in all things

and evermore to rejoice in his holy consolation;

through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you in communion with the Holy Spirit,

now and forever.  Amen.

—Lutheran Worship (1982), 59

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VENI CREATOR SPIRITUS

Come, Holy Spirit; 

send down from heaven’s heigh

your radiant light.

Come, lamp of every heart,

come, parent of the poor,

all gifts ar yours.

Comforter beyond all comforting,

sweet unexpected guest,

sweetly refresh.

Rest in hard labour;

coolness in heavy heat,

hurt souls’ relief.

Refill the secret hearts 

of your faithful,

O most blessed light.

Without your holy power

nothing can bear your light,

nothing is free from sin.

Wash all that is filthy,

water all that is parched,

heal what is hurt within.

Bend all that is rigid,

warm all that has frozen hard,

lead back the lost.

Give to your faithful ones,

who come in simple trust,

your sevenfold mystery.

Give virtue its reward,

give, in the end, salvation

and joy that has no end.

–Original Latin text by Rabanus Maurus, 800s C.E.; translation courtesy of The Church of England, Common Worship:  Daily Prayer (2005), 642

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I will not try to make sense of the Trinity, for doing so has led to the creation, repetition, and perpetuation of major heresies.  Anyway, my growing mysticism makes me increasingly comfortable with not explaining the unexplainable, in human terms.  Therefore, I choose to focus on a prominent theme:  We all depend entirely on God.  A corollary is that the Holy Spirit (part of the Trinity, however that works) bestows renewed vigor and life to communities, peoples, and individuals.

John 7:38 provides a quote of uncertain origin–certainly not from the Hebrew Bible:

Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.

—Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition

The Greek text can mean that the heart is Christ’s heart or the believer’s heart.  I prefer a theocentric interpretation, for God, not people or human experience, belongs at the center of theology.  The Holy Spirit flows from the heart of Jesus.  This passage, in context, is primarily about God, not people.  And, consistent with the Gospel of John, Jesus is the ultimate source of living water.

What may this living water gushing out of Christ’s heart perform through you, O reader, for the glory of God and the benefit of others?  What may the Holy Spirit work through various groups and organizations for the same purposes?  To play with the metaphor of living water, many people, peoples, and places are thirsty for such water.  They need the living water of the Holy Spirit for restoration to occur.  They require this living water to achieve their destiny, which God defines.  How may you and various groups and organizations function as vehicles of the living water of the Holy Spirit?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MARCH 25, 2023 COMMON ERA

THE TWENTY-EIGHTH DAY OF LENT

THE FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST

THE FEAST OF SAINT DISMAS, PENITENT BANDIT

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Adapted from this post

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Advertisement

I covered 150 psalms in 82 posts.

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READING THE BOOK OF PSALMS

Above:  Rose Dhu Cemetery, Vidette, Georgia

Image Source = Google Earth

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PART LXXX

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Psalms 143 and 144

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Sometimes in the Hebrew Psalter, identifying the singular voice can be challenging.  The psalms are poetry (Duh!), and personification is a poetic device.  So, the singular voice, seemingly of a person, may be the personified voice of the Jewish exiles or former exiles, for example.  This may be the case in Psalm 144, in which the singular pronouns give way to plural pronouns.  Alternatively, Psalm 144 may be an edited and re-edited text.  Or both hypotheses may be accurate.

As we approach the conclusion of the Book of Psalms, we continue to encounter motifs common in the Psalter.  The dead, in Sheol, cannot praise God.  Preserve my life, please, O God.  Save me from my enemies, O YHWH.  Destroy my foes, too.  Human beings are transitory; God is forever.  These are motifs I have addressed in previous posts in this series.

These psalms acknowledge the contrast between divine righteousness and human righteousness.  Hesed–steadfast love–is a defining characteristic of God.  Psalms keep referring to hesed.  It delivers the faithful from enemies.  Hesed guides the people of God, too.  Hesed forgives.  Then there are people.  Regardless of how pious many of them are, human beings are still like a breath–or, as Psalm 103 tells us, “dust.”  Our days are like a passing shadow (Psalm 144:4).

I have walked in old cemeteries and read headstones.  Reading some of these headstones has proven difficult because of the toll the elements have taken on grave markers.  The people buried in many of these graves lived so long ago that no living person remembers them.  In one sense, these deceased persons are as if they had never lived.

Eventually, O reader, you and I will join them in that status.  Our days are like passing shadows.  Yet our righteousness matters; it is faithful response to God.  And our lives matter, for we affect people we meet and many others whom we will never encounter.  As I ponder my family tree, I understand how two great-grandfathers I never met and one grandfather who died when I was three years old contributed to shaping my character, for both good and ill.  Our days are like passing shadows, butour shadows linger after we die.

So, O reader, make you contribution as positive as possible.  You can succeed, by grace.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

FEBRUARY 23, 2023 COMMON ERA

THE SECOND DAY OF LENT

THE FEAST OF SAINTS IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH, POLYCARP OF SMYRNA, AND IRENAEUS OF LYONS, BISHOPS AND MARTYRS, 107/115, 155/156, AND CIRCA 202

THE FEAST OF SANT ALEXANDER AKIMETES ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT

THE FEAST OF AUSTIN CARROLL (MARGARET ANNE CARROLL), IRISH-AMERICAN ROMAN CATHOLIC NUN, AUTHOR, AND EDUCATOR

THE FEAST OF SAMUEL WOLCOTT, U.S. CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER, MISSIONARY, AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF SAINT STEFAN WICENTY FRELICHOWSKI, POLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR, 1945

THE FEAST OF SAINT WILLIGIS, ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF MAINZ; AND SAINT BERNWARD, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF HILDESHEIM

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a very carefully edited, essentially Christianized (or de-Judaized) version of Genesis 17.

Above:  Image of COVID-19, by the Centers for Disease Control

Image in the Public Domain

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Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:

Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,

that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of life,

which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ,  who lives and reigns

with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

—The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 236

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Genesis 17:1-22 or Ruth 4:1-17

Psalm 143

Revelation 21:1-6a

John 15:1-17

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The Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) includes part of Genesis 17 only one–on the Second Sunday in Lent, Year B.  The RCL guts the chapter, though.  The RCL assigns only verses 1-7 and 15-16.  As Matthew Thiessen observes in Jesus and the Forces of Death:  The Gospels’ Portrayal of Ritual Impurity Within First-Century Judaism (2020), the RCL avoids the verses that talk about circumcision.  One who hears a RCL-based sermon on Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 hears

–2

The Humes lectionary, in contrast, fills the hole the RCL creates.

Without chasing a proverbial rabbit, I repeat here what I have written elsewhere, in another lectionary-based devotion, recently:  Within Judaism, over time, as reflected in the Bible and in non-canonical Jewish texts, a range of opinions regarding circumcision existed.  Judaism has never been a monolithic religion, despite what you, O reader, may have heard or read.

Circumcision was a common practice in many cultures in the area of antiquity.  In the case of the Jews, it was significant for more than one reason.  Hygiene was one reason for circumcision.  The practice was also a fertility rite, a ritual of initiation into the covenant people, and an act of ritual purification.  The practice, perhaps most importantly, functioned as a marker of identity in God and the divine covenant.

Circumcision is a sign–a covenant I believe remains in effect.  I, as a Gentile, function under a second covenant.

Wholeness and restoration–collectively and individually–are possible only in God, via a covenant.  As in Ruth 4, God frequently acts through people to create wholeness and restoration.  God also acts directly often.

…there will be no more death, and no more mourning or sadness.  The world of the past has gone.

–Revelation 21:4b, The Jerusalem Bible (1966)

The “world of the past” in Revelation 21:4b remains the world of the present.  The COVID-19 pandemic continues to claim and damage lives and livelihoods.  Tears, death, mourning, and sadness remain, in a heightened reality, the cruel companions of victims of the pandemic.  One point of Revelation is the imperative of keeping faith and focusing on the light while the darkness threatens to overwhelm with despair and hopelessness.

One joins a covenant by grace.  One drops out of a covenant by works of darkness.  That is classical Jewish Covenantal Nomism.  In other words, remain faithful to God, who is faithful.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu told a story about a Jew in a Nazi death camp.  A guard was mocking a pious Jew, forced to perform the degrading, unpleasant, and disgusting task of cleaning the toilet.  The guard asked, 

Where is your God now?

The Jew answered,

He is beside me, here in the muck.

Where is God during the COVID-19 pandemic?  God is sitting beside the beds of patients.  God is walking beside essential workers.  God is grieving with those who mourn.  God is present with those working to develop or to distribute vaccines.  God is with us, here in the muck.

God is faithful.  May we be faithful, too.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 29, 2021 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINTS LYDIA, DORCAS, AND PHOEBE, COWORKERS OF SAINT PAUL THE APOSTLE

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Adapted from this post:

https://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2021/01/29/devotion-for-proper-25-year-d-humes/

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Above:  Parable of the Lost Coin

Image in the Public Domain

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For the Second Sunday in Lent, Year 2

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Lectionary from A Book of Worship for Free Churches (The General Council of the Congregational Christian Churches in the United States, 1948)

Collect from The Book of Worship (Evangelical and Reformed Church, 1947)

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Almighty God, who seest the helpless misery of our fallen life;

vouchsafe unto us, we humbly beseech thee, both the outward and inward defense of thy guardian care;

that we may be shielded from the evils which assault the body,

and be kept pure from all thoughts that harm and pollute the soul;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

—The Book of Worship (1947), 148

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Exodus 14:13-31

Psalm 143

2 Corinthians 3:1-18

Luke 15:1-10

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2 Corinthians 3:5 reminds us that God qualifies the called, that God does not call the qualified.  God’s choices are an old topic in Jewish and Christian theology.  God’s choices favorable to any person or group are pure grace.  The covenant with the Jews is pure grace, as Judaism recognizes.  And the acceptance of grace requires ethical obligations, as Covenantal Nomism acknowledges.

People are precious to God.  Luke 15 contains parables about the lost and the found.  Livestock are financial assets in real life.  A small amount of money is extremely valuable to one who is poor.  The first two parables in Luke 15 conclude the same way:  God is rejoicing because of one sinner repenting.

One sinner is precious in the sight of God because God says so.  Repentance is cause for a party in Heaven because God says so.

People are precious in the sight of God.  All people are precious in the sight of God.  Are they precious in my sight?  Are they precious in your sightl O reader?  If not, there is another reason to repent.

To make my point more plainly, I move deeper into Luke 15.  The responsible, older brother did not consider his penitent young brother precious.  At the end of that parable, who was really lost?  We all have reasons to repent.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 6, 2021 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF THE EPIPHANY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST

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READING 1-2 SAMUEL, 1 KINGS, 2 KINGS 1-21, 1 CHRONICLES, AND 2 CHRONICLES 1-33

Above:  Saul and the Witch of Endor, by Edward Henry Corbould

Image in the Public Domain

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PART XXVII

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1 Samuel 28:3-25

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My spirit faints within me;

my heart within me is desolate.

–Psalm 143:4, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)

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Consistent chronology is not the organizing principle of 1 Samuel.  Chronologically, the correct order at the end of the book is:

1. 27:1-28:2
2. 29:1-11
3. 30:1-11
4. 28:3-25
5. 31:1-13

Just in case we had forgotten that Samuel had died (1 Samuel 25:1a), 1 Samuel 28:3 reminds us.

The Philistine war mentioned in 28:1-2 had started.  King Saul, greatly concerned, inquired of God, who was silent.  The monarch, who had outlawed necromancy, disguised himself to consult a necromancer.  The disguise did not work for long.

Samuel, in popular belief, was in Sheol, an early notion of the afterlife in the Bible.  Sheol was the underworld, without reward or punishment.  Sheol was “the Pit,” slimy and mucky.  Sheol was a mire.

Samuel was irritated, Saul was in a terrible spiritual and emotional state, and the necromancer was concerned for the monarch’s well-being.

The focus in this reading is the depth to which Saul, rejected by God, had fallen.  One should contrast Saul with David, on the ascendancy and favored by God, the germane texts tell us.

I wish that those (especially despots) not on God’s side would meet with more frustrations.  Yet I know the past too well to believe that they do not succeed, at least for a time.  Genocidal dictators are not strictly figures of the past.  Those who transform republics into dictatorships are also figures of current events.  Such people explain much of the appeal of belief in reward and punishment in the afterlife.  Sheol proves unsatisfactory.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 23, 2020 COMMON ERA

PROPER 16:  THE TWELFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, YEAR A

THE FEAST OF SAINTS MARTIN DE PORRES AND JUAN MACIAS, HUMANITARIANS AND DOMINICAN LAY BROTHERS; SAINT ROSE OF LIMA, HUMANITARIAN AND DOMINICAN SISTER; AND SAINT TURIBIUS OF MOGROVEJO, ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF LIMA

THE FEAST OF THEODORE O. WEDEL, EPISCOPAL PRIEST AND BIBLICAL SCHOLAR; AND CYNTHIA CLARK WEDEL, U.S. PSYCHOLOGIST AND EPISCOPAL ECUMENIST

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The light of Christ,

Above:  Icon of the Resurrection

Image Scanned by Kenneth Randolph Taylor

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The Collect:

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:

Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,

that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of life,

which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ,  who lives and reigns

with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

—The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 236

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The Assigned Readings:

At least three of the following sets:

Genesis 1:1-2:4a and Psalm 136:1-9, 23-26

Genesis 7:1-5, 11-18; 8:6-18; 9:8-13 and Psalm 46

Genesis 22:1-18 and Psalm 16

Exodus 14:10-31; 15:20-21 and Exodus 15:1b-13, 17-18

Isaiah 55:1-11 and Isaiah 12:2-6

Ezekiel 20:1-24 and Psalm 19

Ezekiel 36:24-28 and Psalms 42 and 43

Ezekiel 37:1-14 and Psalm 143

Zephaniah 3:14-20 and Psalm 98

Then:

Romans 6:3-11

Psalm 114

Matthew 28:1-10

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The history of the Great Vigil of Easter is interesting.  We do not know when the service began, but we do know that it was already well-established in the second century C.E.  We also know that the Great Vigil was originally a preparation for baptism.  Reading the history of the Easter Vigil reveals the elaboration of the rite during ensuing centuries, to the point that it lasted all night and was the Easter liturgy by the fourth century.  One can also read of the separation of the Easter Vigil and the Easter Sunday service in the sixth century.  As one continues to read, one learns of the vigil becoming a minor afternoon ritual in the Roman missal of 1570.  Then one learns of the revival of the Easter Vigil in Holy Mother Church in the 1950s then, in North America, in The Episcopal Church and mainline Lutheranism during the liturgical renewal of the 1960s and 1970s.  Furthermore, if one consults the U.S. Presbyterian Book of Common Worship (1993) and The United Methodist Book of Worship (1992), on finds the ritual for the Great Vigil of Easter in those volumes.

The early readings for the Easter Vigil trace the history of God’s salvific work, from creation to the end of the Babylonian Exile.  The two great Hebrew Biblical themes of exile and exodus are prominent.  Then the literal darkness ends, the lights come up, and the priest announces the resurrection of Jesus.  The eucharistic service continues and, if there are any candidates for baptism, that sacrament occurs.

One of the chants for the Easter Vigil is

to which the congregation chants in response,

Thanks be to God.

St. Paul the Apostle, writing in Romans, reminds us down the corridors of time that the light of Christ ought to shine in our lives.  May that light shine brightly through us, by grace, that we may glorify God every day we are on this side of Heaven.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MAY 29, 2018 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF PERCY DEARMER, ANGLICAN CANON AND TRANSLATOR AND AUTHOR OF HYMNS

THE FEAST OF SAINT BONA OF PISA, ROMAN CATHOLIC MYSTIC AND PILGRIM

THE FEAST OF JIRI TRANOVSKY, LUTHER OF THE SLAVS AND FOUNDER OF SLOVAK HYMNODY

THE FEAST OF JOACHIM NEANDER, GERMAN REFORMED MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER

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Adapted from this post:

https://lenteaster.wordpress.com/2018/05/29/devotion-for-the-great-vigil-of-easter-years-a-b-c-and-d-humes/

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Above:  Jonah Preaching to the Ninevites

Image in the Public Domain

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The Collect:

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:

Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,

that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of life,

which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ,  who lives and reigns

with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

—The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 236

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The Assigned Readings:

Jonah 3

Psalm 143

Philippians 3:7-21

Matthew 26:57-68

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The reading from Matthew 26 depicts a scene of perfidy.  Religious leaders, in violation of the Law of Moses, seek false testimony (a capital offense, at least theoretically) to send Jesus to his execution, we read.  Their charge against him is blasphemy, a capital offense, according to Leviticus 24:16.

These men were really defending their power base as they committed a great sin.  Yet God used their actions to work abundant grace, culminated, in a few days, in the resurrection.  Those religious leaders must have had some interesting private discussions about that.

Divine grace is so abundant that it falls upon individuals as well as groups, and believers as well as heathens.  Grace calls us to repentance.  We all need to repent–to turn our backs to sin–daily.

Each of us has an inner Jonah.  We rejoice when God extends mercy to us and people similar to ourselves, but we, like some of the psalmists, want God to smite our enemies.  God loves them too, however.  God rejoices when they repent; so should we.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MAY 24, 2018 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF NICOLAUS SELNECKER, GERMAN LUTHERAN MINISTER, THEOLOGIAN, AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF JACKSON KEMPER, EPISCOPAL MISSIONARY BISHOP

THE FEAST OF SAINT EDITH MARY MELLISH (A.K.A. MOTHER EDITH), FOUNDRESS OF THE COMMUNITY OF THE SACRED NAME

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Adapted from this post:

https://lenteaster.wordpress.com/2018/05/24/devotion-for-the-fourth-sunday-in-lent-year-a-humes/

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Book One: Psalms 1-41

Scan by Kenneth Randolph Taylor

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The psalter of the Septuagint contains 151 psalms.

I have written based on all of them, in numerical order.  I have retained the Hebrew numbering system, not that of the Septuagint.

Although I have no theological reticence to venture into textual territory that, according the United Methodism of my youth, is apocryphal, I do have limits.  They reside in the realm of Orthodoxy, with its range of scriptural canons.  Beyond that one finds the Pseudipigrapha.  Psalm 151 concludes the Book of Psalms in The Orthodox Study Bible (2008); so be it.

The Hebrew psalter concludes with Psalm 150.  In other psalters, however, the count is higher.  In certain editions of the Septuagint, for example, Psalm 151 is an appendix to the Book of Psalms.  In other editions of the Septuagint, however, Psalm 151 is an integrated part of the psalter.  There is also the matter of the Syraic psalter, which goes as high as Psalm 155.  I have no immediate plans to ponder Psalms 152-155, however.  Neither do I plan to read and write about Psalms 156-160 any time soon, if ever.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 23, 2017 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINTS MARTIN DE PORRES AND JUAN MACIAS, HUMANITARIANS AND DOMINICAN LAY BROTHERS; SAINT ROSE OF LIMA, HUMANITARIAN AND DOMINICAN SISTER; AND SAINT TURIBIUS OF MOGROVEJO, ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF LIMA

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM JOHN COPELAND, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN TRANSLATOR

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Book Two:  Psalms 42-72

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Book Three:  Psalms 73-89

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Book Four:  Psalms 90-106

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106

Book Five:  Psalms 107-150

107

108

109

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114

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117

118

119:1-32

119:33-72

119:73-104

119:105-144

119:145-176

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150

Also in the Greek:  Psalm 151

151

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but the wicked He will destroy.

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POST LIX OF LX

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The Book of Common Prayer (1979) includes a plan for reading the Book of Psalms in morning and evening installments for 30 days.  I am therefore blogging through the Psalms in 60 posts.

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Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:

Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,

that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life,

which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ;

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

—The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 226

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The theme of praising God unites Psalms 144, 145, and 146.

Psalm 144, with linguistic singularities to the other psalms (mainly 18 and 143), might not be original, but neither are many other psalms.  The fact that some of them quote, plagiarize, or echo other entries in the psalter ought not to surprise one.  Neither should it trouble one.  Psalm 144, a royal psalm attributed to David yet certainly not from his pen, acknowledges human inadequacy before God.  The text states that military victory is impossible without divine aid.  The psalm, in the context of a military threat, envisions an ideal society, one in which prosperity will be widespread and access to good food will be ubiquitous.  These will be signs of grace.

Psalm 145 contains unstinting praise of God.  We read that God is, for example, gracious, compassionate, majestic, kingly, beneficent, and protective of the faithful.  We also read,

–Psalm 145:20b, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures (1985)

This may be true, but does God not desire that the wicked confess their sins and repent instead?  What does the psalmist desire?

Psalm 146 begins the doxology of the Hebrew psalter.  Psalms 146-150 begin and end with the same word:

Hallelujah.

Thematically Psalm 146 is similar to Psalm 144; both emphasize the transient nature of people, in contrast to God.  And, like Psalm 145, Psalm 146 stresses that God cares actively and effectively for the vulnerable.  In Psalm 146 God protects the strangers, but the author of Psalm 144 prays for the protection from foreigners.  True, they are lying aliens who swear falsely.  In that regard that petition from Psalm 144 is similar to the descriptions of the fates of the wicked in Psalms 145 and 146.

Our journey through the Hebrew psalter is nearly complete, O reader.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 23, 2017 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINTS MARTIN DE PORRES AND JUAN MACIAS, HUMANITARIANS AND DOMINICAN LAY BROTHERS; SAINT ROSE OF LIMA, HUMANITARIAN AND DOMINICAN SISTER; AND SAINT TURIBIUS OF MOGROVEJO, ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF LIMA

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM JOHN COPELAND, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN TRANSLATOR

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