Next week I am the guest speaker at the 70th (I think) anniversary of one of the local women's meetings. I had to give them the reading today - and settled on Psalm 71. When I rang it through, the woman's husband, a retired minister, answered and agreed to take a message. When I said the reading was Pslam 71, his reply was, "What? All of it?" Granted, compared to Psalm 23 it is quite long but it isn't Psalm 119 or one of the bashing heads against rocks ones either.
Why is it that we want our Bible reading to be so short? Why do we settle for a few feel good verses?
Psalm 71 is a great hymn for third agers, it has lots of honesty and struggle as well as certain hope in a faithful God.
I will enjoy playing with it - all of it - and hope that it speaks to these folk as they remember the past and look ahead to the future.
Comments
Good job they don't worship where I do..Psalm 71 is only 24 verses..the minister here makes us listen to whole chapters sometimes and two readings as a minimum!
She seems to think scripture might speak to us as well as the sermon. As someone once said: 'I like scripture to be read in large portions in worship as its the only time I KNOW God will speak'!
Have fun!