Congregation at Prayer

Catechesis Notes for the Week —Psalm 101—The King’s Coronation Psalm—Every psalm ultimately finds its fulfillment in Christ. Psalm 101 is a coronation psalm for the king. Verses 1-4 are the promises that the king makes. How fitting they are in the mouth of our Lord. He sings of mercy and justice. He behaves wisely. He walks with integrity and a perfect heart. He renounces all evil and does not set it before his eyes. He turns away from wickedness. Verses 5-8 are the King’s pledge of how He will govern His people. He will govern them with truth. All slander, falsehood, and arrogance will be put away. He will protect the faithful of the land who walk in integrity and uprightness. The liar shall not continue in the presence of the Lord. He will destroy the wicked of the land and every evil doer will be cut off from the city of the Lord. At the heart of such evil is the dishonesty of an impenitent heart. In the kingdom of Christ, truth is manifest in the honesty of a humble and contrite heart that confesses sin and confesses the truth of God’s Word in a salvation that we do not deserve but which is wholly provided for us by the King. To Him belongs everlasting allegiance and faithfulness, for there is salvation in no one else.

CP201129

Catechesis Notes for the Week —Psalm 100—A Psalm of Thanksgiving to the Lord—Psalm 100 is a brief psalm of thanksgiving that calls upon all people to praise and give thanks to the Lord for He alone is God, we are the sheep of His pasture, He is good, and His mercy and truth is from everlasting. The familiar hymn, “All People That on Earth Do Dwell” is a devotional hymnic paraphrase of Psalm 100. It receives its hymn name from the psalm itself, “Old Hundredth.” Stanza 2 confesses the truth of our creation and salvation in Christ: “Know that the Lord is God indeed; / Without our aid He did us make. / We are His folk, He doth us feed, / And for His sheep He doth us take” and the final stanza adds a hymnic version of the Gloria Patri: “To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, / The God whom heav’n and earth adore, / From us and from the angel host / Be praise and glory evermore.”

CP201122

Catechesis Notes for the Week —Psalm 99—A Prayer to Trust that the Lord Reigns in the Earth—It is difficult to believe that the Lord reigns over all the earth especially when the world in which we lives seems so chaotic and the rule of Law and civil justice are turned upside down. The psalmist declares what might appear contrary to human reason: “The Lord reigns; Let the peoples tremble!” God reigns in the civil realm, but not necessarily in the way that we might think is good. Civil authorities may use the power that God grants them for good or evil purposes. Why would He permit injustice and evil? Could it be that the nations of the earth are to suffer the consequences of their godlessness and rebellion against God? Could it be that when the kingdoms of this world oppress the truth, that God raises up His Church to give hope and comfort to the afflicted that the world cannot give? Could it be that when the Church suffers in this world that she is most like her Lord whose suffering and death procured the world’s salvation? Could it be that oppression, persecution, and suffering reveal who is faithful to the Lord and who is not? In the Old Testament, Moses, Aaron, and Samuel were faithful in the face of hostility and opposition both from civil authorities and from false brethren within the Old Testament Church. Throughout their ministries the Lord dwelt between the Cherubim of the Tabernacle for the salvation of His people, and when they called upon Him, He kept His promises and delivered them. There was no civil realm that could overpower them, nor did He ever withhold salvation from them when they called upon Him in repentant faith. They also learned through what they suffered that He was for them the “God-Who-Forgives” and to respond to the evils of their age by worshipping at His holy hill.

CP201115

Catechesis Notes for the Week —Psalm 98 — A Psalm of Rejoicing in Christ’s Salvation—Psalm 98 is a psalm that rejoices in Christ’s salvation. Jesus is the Father’s “right hand” and “holy arm”! He gained the victory over sin, death, and the power of Satan by His suffering and death upon the cross. In the preaching of the Gospel, “the Lord has made known His salvation” and the “righteousness” of Christ He proclaims to the nations for their salvation. By the death, resurrection, and preaching of the Gospel of Christ, the Lord openly shows His salvation to the nations and proclaims this salvation to the ends of the earth. Psalm 98 overflows with the expression of joy, singing, and joyful music in praise of the Lord whose salvation moves the earth. Even the creation is involved in the proclamation of the Gospel and in anticipation of the future coming of our Lord Jesus Christ who will “judge the earth” according to the “righteousness of His cross.”

CP201108