Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study of Psalm 14 (April 10, 2025)

April 10, 2025:  Thursday Bible Study on Psalm 14

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

I am praying that this day is a really wonderful one for you as you join me in studying this 14th Psalm.  This week prayers can be offered for Tricia Don who is recovering from a surgery that will allow her oncologist to begin her radiation treatment for breast cancer.  Sue O'Kelley is recovering from cataract surgery earlier this week, and Gail Tucker has had her bandage removed from her knee replacement, and is doing well.  Continue to pray for Jeff Hovelson and Kandice Kartchner, both of whom are dealing with aggressive forms of cancer. Pray for care that will keep their quality of life as good as possible.  Palm Sunday is this coming Sunday on the 13th of April.  This is the Sunday when we begin our journey into Holy Week in the church.  On Thursday of this week, we will celebrate the mandate of Christ on the eve of His death, to receive and participate in the meal of Holy Communion.  Services that day will be at Noon and 7PM.  The very next day is Good Friday, the day on which we remember and grieve the death of our Savior.  We will have a noon service, and at 7PM we will worship using the traditional Tenebrae service of darkening light helping us to participate at the moment of our Savior's death on the cross.  On Holy Saturday, April 19 at 10AM we will gather to decorate the church for Easter and set up the parish hall for our 8:30AM to 9:45AM Easter Breakfast.  Please bring brunch type food to share by 8:30AM that morning.  Easter Festival worship will be at 10AM with special music by the Bell Choir, The Gospel Group who will support congregational singing, as well as solo music vocally and instrumentally, with both organ and piano supporting our hymn sings.  If you are bringing an Easter Lily for the memorial garden at the altar for Easter, let the office know not later than Maundy Thursday, and lilies need to be at the church not later than Holy Saturday for decorating.  I hope that you will be able to join us for these special High Holy Day celebrations.

Our Psalm for today is 14.  It is not a very long Psalm but it approaches the problems which are faced in Jerusalem and Israel during King David's reign.  It begins with a character who is called the rogue.  In Hebrew that word can mean either fool, or the more likely meaning, scoundrel.  This outsider who is seeing the failing nature of the people of Israel feels that God is an absent landlord, who watches His children, but chooses to no longer be involved in their day to day living, or in their faith lives either.  It would appear that God has, from the perspective of this scoundrel, found no one person of faith in the whole of His elect children.  Their lives are a total mess!  However, there will be recompense by God for the terrible actions of this people He calls His own.  When the people in power and authority, the corrupt ones and many others who are failing in so many ways, there will certainly still be a few who have remained faithful to the LORD, and He will act to defend and carry them in such terrible times.  In the final verses of this Psalm, we are able to see a closing similar to Psalm 12.  This outsider, the rogue, who is, in all likelihood, imposing his will on the people of Israel, knows that Zion (Jerusalem) is the place of the LORD'S stronghold where His children will return to worshiping, and faithfulness in the justice of the LORD, that the LORD will be their defense and stronghold in all things.  This Psalm makes it clear that those who choose to oppress God's elect people will meet with defeat and destruction by the LORD of Israel.  You and I must take a moment to think about how the times of David were filled with turbulence and difficulty.  This Psalm helps us to understand how outsiders might view the weakness of the people, but the strength of the LORD God who defends them!

Please remember that next Thursday there will be no Psalm Study due to the worship services at Noon and 7PM.  I will, however, be providing the Monday and Tuesday studies for each of those mornings during Holy Week.  When you come to church this week, take a few minutes to view and walk by the Stations of the Cross, and then revisit the Resurrection Station on Easter Sunday morning.  Let this be part of your discipline of faith during Holy Week.

With Love in Christ,   Pastor Kim