06/25/2017
Psalm 8
Chris Breslin
“Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid.” -Frederick Buechner
“There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play.” -C.S. Lewis
“In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world…
This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud…I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now that I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.” -Thomas Merton
Scripture:
Songs for Today’s Worship Gathering:
Psalm 121 by Sandra McCracken
O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing by Wesley/Gläser
We Will Feast in the House of Zion by McCracken
Let Them Praise the Name of the Lord by Harris/Crawford
Rest by Maher/Cockrell
Your Love, Oh Lord by Avery/Carr/Powell/Anderson/Lee
Doxology
Go further in the Psalms:
The Book of Psalms: A Translation by Robert Alter
Psalms: the Prayerbook of the Bible by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Seeing the Psalms by William Brown
Praying the Psalms by Walter Brueggemann
Reflections on the Psalms by C.S. Lewis
Praying the Psalms by Thomas Merton
A Long Obedience in the Same Direction by Eugene Peterson
Praying With the Psalms by Eugene Peterson
The Case for the Psalms by N.T. Wright
