A useful prayer, this psalm of despondency, because the life of faith is not a sustained, uninterrupted series of triumphs. –Patrick Henry Reardon on Psalm 44 in Christ in the Psalms
Tagged: Patrick Henry Reardon, Psalm 44, Psalms
Portions of this are adapted from Patrick Henry Reardon’s phenomenal Christ in the Psalms. Except the part on forensic and infused righteousness. He’s entirely wrong on that. Tonight’s psalm is traditionally to be prayed by the Pastor as he is washing his hands to prepare for Communion, on account of the verse, “I wash my hands in innocence and go around your altar, O LORD.” Because the only innocent man to have lived is the Son of God, our Lord JESUS Christ, we can understand this psalm, like all the preceeding, as Christological. But is it not also true that as we are in Christ because we are joined to Him in Baptism, that we also are called to innocency of life? That is…
Tagged: Patrick Henry Reardon, Psalm 26, Psalms
Tonight we resumed our midweek series on the Psalms. Tonight’s Psalm, Ps. 20, has been used as a morning psalm appointed for Matins: by it, Christians have prayed for the coming day of their brothers and sisters in Christ, that God would remember them during the day’s troubles and afflictions. However, if we look deeper in this psalm we can see once again our Lord Jesus at the center.
Tagged: Patrick Henry Reardon, Psalm 20, Psalms
Psalm 20 (reminiscent of Ps. 147, which Luther uses in the Small Catechism for the prayer returning thanks after a meal) contrasts trusting in horses with trusting in God: “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.” Patrick Henry Reardon, in his magnificent Christ in the Psalms, notes how the horses in which men trust will turn on men, bringing destruction in the great tribulation: These “horses,” in which men put their trust, represent the designs of the worldly and powerful, but they are profoundly vain. Holy Scripture will finally describe these horses as white and carrying a conqueror, as red and bearing a warrior, as black and transporting famine, as pale and…
Tagged: Horses, Luther, Patrick Henry Reardon, Psalm 147, Psalm 20, Psalms, Small Catechism
As always, I am indebted to Patrick Henry Reardon’s Christ in the Psalms for some of the themes and expression in this series on the Psalms. My wife Kassie has dubbed this the “Psalms Are Not for Sissies” sermon. It cannot be repeated often enough: Christ is the content of the Psalms. The Psalms apply to us as we see Christ in them, Christ in us, and us in Christ. Tonight’s Psalm, the long Ps. 18, is no exception.
Tagged: Patrick Henry Reardon, Psalms