Psalm 125 Back to Psalms, to close out our reading for the year. Continuing with the “Songs of Ascents” that began with Psalm 120 – psalms that the pilgrims sang or prayed as they journeyed to Jerusalem for the annual feasts. As we think back to these earlier psalms and even in these first two …
Category Archives: RTB 2022 – Psalms and Wisdom Literature
December 2022 Readings
Date Reading(s) Verses 01-Dec Psalm 125 5 02-Dec Psalm 126 6 03-Dec Psalm 127 5 04-Dec Psalm 128 6 05-Dec Psalm 129 8 06-Dec Psalm 130 8 07-Dec Psalm 131 3 08-Dec Psalm 132:1-10 10 09-Dec Psalm 132:11-18 8 10-Dec Psalm 133-134 6 11-Dec Psalm 135:1-12 12 12-Dec Psalm 135:13-21 9 13-Dec Psalm 136:1-12 12 …
November 30 / Song of Songs 8
Song of Songs 8 The last chapter of Song of Songs ends in several different sections. Song 8:1-4 begins with her longing to have her Lover to herself, commenting that she could be with him without social disgrace if he were her brother. She desires to give him all the delights of her love, but …
November 29 / Song of Songs 7
Song of Songs 7 We are on the penultimate chapter of the Song, and things are getting “steamy”: if we hadn’t read anything we considered erotic yet, this chapter can definitely break that illusion. In previous chapters, the Lover’s descriptions have started with her facial features, and mostly stayed there. Here we start in Song …
November 28 / Song of Songs 6
Song of Songs 6 Chapter 6 begins with a group of friends asking the woman, “Where has your beloved gone, O most beautiful among women? …” They offer to help seek him. She answers that he has gone to his garden, to “graze” and gather lilies. If you have ever been in a really beautiful, …
November 27 / Song of Songs 5
Song of Songs 5 At the end of Song 4, the Beloved has invited her Lover into her garden to “taste its choice fruit”, and he is extolling her spices, honey, and wine as Song 5 begins. And at this point Friends chime in, urging them to “Eat, O friends, and drink; drink your fill, …
November 26 / Song of Songs 4
Song of Songs 4 The first 15 verses of this chapter are the Beloved extolling the beauty of his lover: her eyes, her hair, her teeth, her lips, … (I find the description of her teeth most amusing, but in a culture where there were no toothbrushes, I guess a newly shorn sheep was one …
November 25 / Song of Songs 3
Song of Songs 3 Today’s chapter has two parts. In Song 3:1-5 the woman, the Lover, is alone and longs for her Beloved. She searches all night through the streets of the town, finally finding him and bringing him back to home. Then she watches over him, making sure he is safely sleeping and not …
November 24 / Song of Songs 2:8-17
Song of Songs 2:8-17 I am enchanted by the beauty of the scene described in Song 2:8-14. The Beloved comes and calls for her: “Come away! … The winter is past … Come away!” Spring has come and the birds are singing. It is time to delight in each other. Exclusively. Relationships can be difficult …
November 23 / Song of Songs 2:1-7
Song of Songs 2:1-7 The first two verses of this chapter are poetic descriptions of the Lover using flowers. She is like a Rose of Sharon and a Lily of the Valley, an especially fragrant flower. He exclaims she is like a lily. But more importantly, he describes her as a lily among thorns. And …