Readings—Week beginning 30th Aug 2021 Aug 30 Ps 126 Prov. 25:1-14 Aug 31 Ps 135 Prov. 25:15-end Sep 1 Ps 119153-end Prov. 26:12-end Sep 2 Ps 143 Prov. 27:1-22 Sep 3 Ps 144 Prov. 30:1-9, 24-31 Sep 4 Ps 147 Prov. 31:10-end A few notes on the readings are at the end. On a Saturday any of the previous Songs of Praise (Canticles ) may be used. Seven times a day I praise you Our Readings this week… … ... for your righteous ordinances. 153-end Great peace have those who love your law; Psalms: 126, 132, 119 , 143, 144, 147 nothing can make them stumble. The great liturgical initiation of worship ‘O Lord, open thou our lips’, with its eager response ‘and our mouth shall proclaim thy praise’ suits well the cluster of five ’hymns’ that conclude the book of Psalms—they all start with the cry to praise the Lord (Hebrew=‘Hallelujah’). Ps147 is the second of these, and in its three stanzas (1-6, 7-11, 12-20), each with its reminder to worship, gives good reasons to praise God, for his character, for what he does, and for who he is for his people. The first stanza reminds us that the God who makes the stars and whose understanding and power is beyond measure, cares for and protects all who are unfortunate. At the heart of the middle stanza is wonderful picture of young nestling ravens crying out—in the midst of the wonder of the creation of the earth the tiniest and most fragile matter to God, and so calls all to put their hope in his steadfast love. And the third stanza encourages his people Jerusalem/Jacob/Israel to remember all God has done to safeguard them and bring them peace. Awesome in creative power nevertheless he chose them, gave them a new way to live distinctively as a blessing to the nations, - ‘Praise the Lord’! I wonder how we would write such a hymn of praise today even in our hearts as we worship— who are the unfortunates at the heart of our compas- sion and concern? - who in the midst of all today’s pressures and vagaries are the most fragile and vulnerable? - what can we do as his people of faith here to live in his distinctive way in love and service bringing God’s compassion, blessing and life to others? What are we ready to be surprised by, challenged by, and invited to as co-workers when we joyfully make our request ‘O Lord, open our lips’ in his world today? From PROVERBS 25-31 Chs25-29 contain the fifth collection of proverbs within the book—and these chapters seem to be a collection written down by the court officials of King Hezekiah. Hezekiah was the 13th King of Judah (the southern Kingdom), many generations after Solomon and at the time the northern kingdom, Israel, was being destroyed and overrun by the Assyrians. The many biblical reports of Hezekiah was that he was a good and righteous king unlike many before and after - ‘He trusted in the LORD the God of Israel; so that there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah after him, or among those who were before him. For he held fast to the LORD; he did not depart from following him but kept the commandments that the LORD commanded Moses. (2 Kings 18:5-6)’. As he surveyed with fear what was happen- ing to Israel a few miles away it is not surprising that he would look back to the wisdom and words of the time of Solomon when the country was at the peak of its glory and unity. Since then he nation had wandered far from God and Hezekiah strove to restore the sole worship of Yahweh at the Temple in Jersualem—these were difficult days during which Isaiah and Micah spoke much of God’s heart to his people. Chapters 25-27 is chiefly a collection of comparative and contrasting sayings and metaphors, often using imagery form the natural world. The first few verses (25:2-7) address the role of kingship in ancient Israel, establishing the king subservient to God (in case they thought otherwise!), whilst vv7c-10 deal with disputes with neigh- bours and bringing such to court, and vv11-14 deals with using language and spoken and heard words with care and caution. Ch26:12-16 centres on the theme of laziness—and presents the wonderful excuse ‘As wise as Solomon’ that something could not be done because there was a lion in the way!, followed The story of Solomon’s judgement over two by some wonderful images of sloth. Next, vv17-28, is a set of proverbs unified by mothers claiming mothership of a particular the theme of styles of speech, not necessarily of what is being said but how speech child (recorded in 1 Kings 3:16-18) is seen as an is being used (i.e. entering other’s arguments, deceiving, whispering, quarrelling, ancient archetypal piece of profound wisdom— lying, smooth words covering other thoughts etc.). and is presented as the epitome of the wisdom of Solomon. This story is a development of Ch27 employs the literary device of opposite or contradictory ideas to make the many similar stories circulating in the ancient various points. Vv1-22 is a collection of various thoughts of wisdom covering a world. variety of aspects of behaviour and attitude. Stomer’s painting gives us a very youthful- Ch30 begins by informing us that these are a collection of the ‘words of Agur, son looking Solomon compared to most other of Jakeh’. We do not really know who Agur is, but possibly his name means he paintings of the subject. This story, with its life- who is in pursuit of wisdom. However these first verses of Proverbs 30 are threatening drama, was beloved by painters amongst the most disputed in translation in the Hebrew Bible! But we go with the who often vividly portrayed a more brutal in- translation we have and vv3-4 echoes a more familiar passage in Isaiah 40:12-14. terpretation of the scene. Stomer’s image is more compassionate and thoughtful for what is The theme running through this chapter is that of the sin of arrogance, and self- happening—the sword horizontally divides the exalted pride. We have three sections each beginning with a numerical content: space between life and death—one mother v7 ‘three things…’, v24 ‘four things….’, v29 ‘three things…’, which seems to be looks to Solomon for his word, the other pro- stylistic character of the whole chapter. tective of the child looks anxiously to the We end our journey through Proverbs with the final (eighth) sub-collection in the swordsman already grasping its leg. book, which is an acrostic poem about the ideal wise woman. As we found in Also interesting in this picture is the anachro- earlier chapters this poem presents an incarnation of wisdom in female form and nistic portrayal of an elderly man wearing spec- one in ‘fear of Yahweh’ - wisdom is described in terms of a woman of a signifi- tacles, the iconography of which usually repre- cantly well-off family, with great ability in the caring management of others and sents intelligence and scholastic characteristics. their needs, including the poor and less fortunate. Her achievements, here in this This makes strong contrast in how the young poems centred around the basic community unit of the household, are founded in Solomon and his wisdom are set above and ‘The Judgement of Solomon’, c1640, by Thomas Stomer, a C17th Dutch beyond human-bound knowledge and intelli- the universal acknowledgement that ‘that the fear of God is the beginning of wis- artist, who lived for a considerable period of his life in Sicily, and was strongly influ- gence, and thus placed highest in the picture. dom’. Here is a practical summary of wisdom for all. enced by Caravaggio (as may be observed in the form and light of this picture). Week starting 30 Aug 2021 .