1. Hallelujah Psalm
We are reading the book of Psalm from the beginning of this July and today is the last sequence of the series. The book of Psalm contains 150 chapters in total (*1) and the last 5 songs begin and end with ¡ÈHallelujah¡É Today¡Çs reading passage chapter 146 is a very famous one among them. The lyric was taken in a hymn written by D. Herrnschmidt (*2) in 1716, which was translated as the Japanese Baptist hymn 114. Though ¡ÈHallelujah¡É means in Hebrew ¡ÈPraise Yahweh, the Lord,¡É the content is more than a simple praising song of God. (³¤­…)

1. My help comes from God, the Creator

Today¡Çs lecturing part is Psalm 121. The song might be the most popular one among Songs of ascents, or Pilgrim songs of Psalms*1. The lyric in Hebrew is translated into Japanese by Betsho Umenosuke as one of Japanese Baptist hymns. (³¤­…)

1. Prayer of a man cured of fatal illness

The writer of Psalm 103 might be a man who had suffered from grave diseases. But he recovered. So he sings to praise God,the healer ; - Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits - who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases (Psalm103:2-3) (³¤­…)

1. Whom do we serve ?

We are reading the book of Psalm in accordance with the bible study program. Todays¡Ç reading part is Psalm 100, which sings about the joy of worshipping God. To worship God is to come before him. At that moment, we sing aloud for joy to the Lord for ; — It is he who made us, and we are his ; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.(Psalm 100:3) (³¤­…)

1. Alert for Israel

Todays¡Ç lecturing part is Psalm 78, which is a very long poem. Though rather difficult, we will make efforts to reflect on the whole. The verses 1 to 8 are the introduction part and the following verses develop the contexts. The poet overlooked the history of the Jewish people from Exodus till the end of the reign of the king David. Because he thought that the era would determine the persistence of the people in future. (³¤­…)