Songs of Life

Last weekend I had the incredible joy to return to Waco, Texas. Kadie and I moved away from Waco around six years ago and we loved returning to our old stomping grounds. What brought us back was the opportunity to participate in a joint symposium on the Psalms by Baylor University and Truett Theological seminary. The conference lasted from Thursday through Saturday evening.

The Book of Psalms is the most compelling book in the Bible (and yes I am biased here). I have studied, preached and written on these prayers of the Hebrew community for years. I love them. John Calvin once wrote that “there is not a single emotion known to man that is not somewhere expressed in one of the psalms.” This prayer book offers a voice for all of our experiences in life. The psalms explore the joyful heights of praise to God, the craggy depths of communal lament to the blasphemous questioning times of our lives when we even wonder if God exists at all.

This symposium was a wonderful time of absorbing and discussing papers on the use and importance of psalms in the life of the Christian community today by some of the top scholars from around the world today. The depth of knowledge of these women and men are absolutely amazing. What was refreshing (in a day when Academia is largely unconcerned about anything other than itself) was their passion for the use of this scripture in the church.

Plus we got to eat a lot of great Tex-Mex food that we do not get in our state.

Interspersed into the next few weeks of blogs will be some of my thoughts and opinions triggered by the conference.

It is good to be back!