Practicing Resilience with the Psalms
The psalms are a rich resource for our human experience of emotions, community, and connection to God. We will practice activities based on the truth of the psalms and on psychology to strengthen our capacity for navigating suffering with grace and resilience.
Watch videoTiempo ordinario, mes de junio
Los salmos para este mes de primer tiempo ordinario, a la luz de la resurrección y de la victoria del Dios de la vida sobre los poderes de la muerte, ponen de relieve su cuidado y amor profundos e intensos sobre nuestro diario andar en el mundo. Estos se manifiestan en su inescrutable e íntimo conocimiento de nuestro ser y vida (Salmo 139); su reinado como creador del universo y su fidelidad y justicia a favor de las y los oprimidos nos llaman a imitarlo en su amor a los desposeídos (Salmo 146). Además, contamos con su bendición diaria y la intercesión de su pueblo que nos sostienen en el camino de la vida (Salmo 20). Y, al ser testigos de la barbarie y la aniquilación que se han impuesto en nuestro mundo, rogamos que el Señor intervenga de una vez por todas y detenga el derramamiento de sangre inocente que presenciamos hoy (Salmo 9). Así, experimentamos el poder de la resurrección del Señor y participamos de sus sufrimientos (Filipenses 3:10) al transitar los caminos de la vida.
Preaching and Teaching the Psalms: A Conversation with Pastor-Theologians
A panel discussion in which Amanda Benckhuysen, Karen Campbell, G. Sujin Pak, and moderator Kathy Smith ponder the challenges and opportunities in preaching and teaching from the psalms. Are there incomplete or incorrect assumptions about the psalms that sermons and lectures can tackle? How do we handle the imprecatory psalms when we have a Savior who told us to love and forgive the very enemies many psalms talk about? The panel will consider these and other vital questions for preachers and teachers in today’s church.
Being Shaped by the Psalms: Lessons in Trust, Hope, and Love
The psalms reflect our deepest emotions as people of faith. In their expressions of thanksgiving, trust, lament, anger, joy, doubt, and praise, these ancient prayers seem to peer right into our souls and put words to our thoughts and experiences. But the psalms are more than human words to God. Embedded as they are in the scriptures, they are now also God’s word to us.
Lamenting in Polarized Times
Eight churches in Birmingham, Alabama, took part in a worship renewal grant on using lament in worship. Three years later, leaders from some of those churches talked about how hard it is to practice lament during divided times. Their advice may help your church bring real suffering to God with honesty, protest, petition, and trust.
Recovering the “Lost Art of Lament” in Worship
Worship that is faithful to the whole Bible must include lament. A worship renewal grant on making lament a normal part of worship brought together eight churches in metro Birmingham, Alabama. It yielded ideas and practices that can be adapted to any church tradition and context.
Local Psalm Festivals
As part of the Dwelling in the Psalms year, the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship has provided resources to support Psalm festivals around Canada and the United States. These events are open to the public and many will be livestreamed.
Surprised by the Psalms
Anneke Kaai studied fine art and painting in the Netherlands at secular schools in the 1960s and ’70s. That experience compelled her to express her Christian faith through her art. She has painted many works based on scripture, including three series of paintings on the psalms, which she sees as a bountiful resource of imagery for the full range of human feelings in relation to God.
Karen Campbell on Considering Lament: Psalms of Protest, Pain and Hope
Technically, the Troubles in Northern Ireland ended in 1998. But just as trauma didn’t end after the passage of the US Civil Rights Act or the work of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, pain still lingers in Northern Ireland. Karen and David Campbell composed a new set of lament songs to help Christians voice protest, pain, and hope during worship.
Psalmody in Black: The Psalter as Human Expression
This workshop explores the deep connection between the psalms and the breadth of human emotion through musical settings by Black composers. Interwoven with reflections on the history and function of the Psalter, this program reveals how these timeless texts continue to speak to the spiritual, emotional, and cultural experiences of our shared humanity.
Customizable Template for a Vocational Commissioning Service
Most of us spend more time at work than in corporate worship services. Imagine how meaningful it might be to attend a worship service that blesses your vocational field! It would commission you to renew before God and one another your commitment to serve and love neighbors through your work.
Experiencing God’s Presence Within Our Work
Mission Chattanooga, an Anglican church in Tennessee, did a grant project that helped workers narrate their experiences in prayers and liturgy. Gathering with people from their vocational fields helped them tune their hearts to experience God in the workplace. You can use and adapt their curriculum to your context.
Nancy L. deClaissé-Walford on the Shape and Shaping of the Psalter
Old Testament scholar Nancy deClaissé-Walford has spent her career studying the ordering of the Psalter. Most of the psalms, she says, are not tied to a particular situation, allowing us to sing and pray them honestly in our own contexts.