Pastor's Ponderings: Old Testament bible study of Psalm 41:13 (December 18, 2025)

December 18, 2025:  Thursday Bible Study on Psalm 41:13

For my dear friends in Christ as we approach the end of the season of Advent at the beginning of the Church Year and move quickly on to Christmas and its 12 days of celebration that you know all about God's love for you.   I know that all too often, commercial TV and Radio act as if Christmas ends at midnight on December 25. You will find it hard, even in some churches, to sing carols any longer than Christmas Eve, or Christmas Day worship. I promise that we will be singing carols on the first Sunday after Christmas too. Please remember that I will not be doing Bible Studies during the week of Christmas, nor during the following week when we celebrate the new year. I will be there to lead music and preach on Sundays even though I will be on vacation right after Christmas. I will still be in town. Melody and I are planning some special food and special outings for our sons during that time. The Bell Choir is getting their music put together, the Gospel Group will lead our closing Christmas Eve Carol, and we will have organ for most hymns, and, of course, candlelight and the traditional singing of Silent Night. We will even have a soloist or two singing specials during the service. Please remember to keep our home bound and ill members and friends in your prayers every day, and above all, give thanks to God for the celebration of His Son's birthday. Don't miss this opportunity to take part in the joy of this year's celebrations. Of course, we will be offering the Sacrament of the Altar too. Service is at 7PM.

I know that you are saying that today's reading seems to be short. You are right. After reading of the confidence of the poor, ill, and disadvantaged in chapter 41, we come to its end with this one verse of praise of God in the face of all things that might cause our faith and confidence in God to falter.  But there is another reason for this seeming break which could have been at the end of 40 as well. The Torah, the body of Jewish Law is divided into five sections, and to keep the Psalms in line with that, we have the end of 41 as the end of the first of the five sections in the Psalms. I suppose it might be considered arbitrary, but it is important to the faith traditions of the Jews. Five (5) is a prime number, and that makes it perfect for the dividing of the Law and the Songs in the Hebrew Canon of Scripture which we call the Old Testament. (or the old covenant or contract with God) As we read through this old agreement with God, we come to see God in ways that take us beyond Jewish Law. Indeed, we see God as the God who is constantly acting on behalf of his children, saving them from their stupidity (like in the garden), or setting them free from their imprisonment in Egypt as Moses brings the wrath of God down on the Egyptian people, ultimately forcing them to let the Hebrews go to head off to the promised land.  Even when the wandering Hebrews build an idol to worship when Moses is on Mt Sinai receiving the 10 commandments, God offers a way for them to be saved from the bites of the adders that have come into the midst to harm them for their sin of idol worship.  In the years after the Hebrews are driven out of their land, and imprisoned as slaved in other lands, God ultimately brings his saving grace through the building up of the faith community by the teaching and actions of Cyrus the king to set them free with his blessings.

So here we are now at this division in the Book of Songs (Psalms). After the holidays we will continue into the second section of the Psalms. I want to wish you a very Merry and Holy Christmas for you and your family. May God bless us all in this holiest of times as we celebrate our Lord's birthday in Bethlehem.

I hope that I get to see you at church during the Christmas season, so that we might hold one another dear and precious, sharing our love of Jesus Christ, and rejoicing with the hosts of heaven and singing with the angels of God's Heavenly Kingdom.

With Love in Christ Jesus our Lord, Pastor Kim