Thursday, February 19, 2009

Psalms Project Update

The Psalms Project got started in a wonderful way with Dr. John Witvliet yesterday. The audio should be available soon (you can check here). Dr. Witvliet made the point that the Psalms teach us the language we need to relate with God much as parents do as we teach oru children to say “Thank you,” “Please,” “Excuse me,” and “I am sorry.” We must learn to say these basic things (and they don’t come naturally!) in order to have decent human relationships. We also need to learn to say these things to God and the Psalms give us language for this. I really encourage you to listen to the audio.

Then, tomorrow, Dr. Craig Blaising will continue the discussion with a talk titled, “The Psalms in Early Christian Worship”. Drawing from his work on the recent Ancient Christian Commentary Series volume on Psalms 1-50 he will discuss how early church leaders taught their people to pray the Psalms.

Update: the Witvliet audio is now available.

3 comments:

Pastor Klay said...

Thanks for the link. I mentioned your Psalms project yesterday in my Scottish Reformation seminar at Erskine Theological Seminary. We begin each class by singing a Psalm. Next week we're dismissing class early so we can all attend a symposium on Congregational Psalm Singing. The professor felt it was substantially congruent with our studies of the Scottish Reformation. :) I'll also look forward to listening to your audio.

Ray Van Neste said...

Hey Klay!
I am actually coming to Erskine for this conference. Are you living in that area now?

Pastor Klay said...

Yes I'm pastoring at FBC Washington, GA about a hour from Erskine. I started there this semester for the Th.M. in Historical Theology. I'll look for you at the conference.