At The Movies - Week 04 Launch
Welcome
Welcome to Week 4 of the 2023 At the Movies Reading Plan! This reading plan is designed to partner with Compassion Christian Church’s sermon series of the same name. At the heart of the movies we love are often stories of hope, courage, and redemption. This series is focused on highlighting those things and showing how they connect to the heart of God and His plans for our world and your life. This reading plan will be focused on the Book of Psalms, which is a book of poems and songs found in the Old Testament of the Bible. Just like different movies have different styles and genres, so do the psalms. The reading plan will group psalms by genre as we go from week to week.
The songs and poems of Psalms are often directed to God, which is why the Book of Psalms has guided the prayer life of Christians from the very beginning of the church. These psalms, viewed as prayers, are a beautiful guide because they are an example of passion and honesty. Our Father welcomes us to be just and bold in our own prayers. May we all be challenged as we follow this plan together!
Before We Start
This reading plan will focus on the Book of Psalms. We recommend you watch this video to help you understand what the Book of Psalms is, who wrote it, and why they wrote it. Knowing those things will help us better understand the context in which the book was written, which will help us understand what God wants to say to us today.
Welcome to Week 4 of the 2023 At the Movies Reading Plan! This reading plan is designed to partner with Compassion Christian Church’s sermon series of the same name. At the heart of the movies we love are often stories of hope, courage, and redemption. This series is focused on highlighting those things and showing how they connect to the heart of God and His plans for our world and your life. This reading plan will be focused on the Book of Psalms, which is a book of poems and songs found in the Old Testament of the Bible. Just like different movies have different styles and genres, so do the psalms. The reading plan will group psalms by genre as we go from week to week.
The songs and poems of Psalms are often directed to God, which is why the Book of Psalms has guided the prayer life of Christians from the very beginning of the church. These psalms, viewed as prayers, are a beautiful guide because they are an example of passion and honesty. Our Father welcomes us to be just and bold in our own prayers. May we all be challenged as we follow this plan together!
Before We Start
This reading plan will focus on the Book of Psalms. We recommend you watch this video to help you understand what the Book of Psalms is, who wrote it, and why they wrote it. Knowing those things will help us better understand the context in which the book was written, which will help us understand what God wants to say to us today.
Genre Highlight
This week we are going to focus on Imprecatory Psalms. Imprecatory language is another way of saying cursing language. Thus the imprecatory psalms are distinguished by language that calls for divine judgment against the psalmist’s/God’s enemies. As prayers, these psalms reflect the desire of an individual to not just be freed from suffering, but to see their suffering avenged.
As with so many of the psalms we have read, they provide an example to us of what it looks like to pray boldly and honestly. But we should also learn from the faith of the psalmists - they give to God not only their lament about their desperate situation, but also the right to judge the originators of that situation. They leave everything in God’s hands, even feelings of hatred and aggression.
These prayers can be shocking to followers of Jesus because of their violent language, especially in light of Jesus’ teachings to love our enemies. As we read these prayers this week, some context will help us receive the good things that these challenging passages offer to us. The New Testament teaches that there are things that have been revealed to us that were not revealed to the Israelites in the Old Testament. One of those things is relevant to these psalms: we should remember that God chose not to give a clear revelation regarding final judgment of sin to the Israelites. Therefore, the triumph of the wicked in this life seemed to refute the character and control of God. In urging God to bring judgment upon his wicked enemies, therefore, the psalmist wanted the scales of justice balanced in the present life because he was not aware that there would be any other time of judgment. We, however, know that we can rest in the fact that there will be ultimate justice. Beyond that, we understand the grace and mercy of God because we have seen the work of Jesus! Jesus has “[become] a curse for us.” (Gal. 3:13) The full work of the Messiah is now understood. In no way does the Christian ethic diminish the seriousness of sin nor the wrath that it deserves. Rather, we understand that it is not the desire of God that anyone would perish, that anyone would ultimately bear the curse, because he provided his own Son to be a curse for us. The full revelation of God’s justice, mercy, and grace can be celebrated as we study these Imprecatory Psalms.
This week we are going to focus on Imprecatory Psalms. Imprecatory language is another way of saying cursing language. Thus the imprecatory psalms are distinguished by language that calls for divine judgment against the psalmist’s/God’s enemies. As prayers, these psalms reflect the desire of an individual to not just be freed from suffering, but to see their suffering avenged.
As with so many of the psalms we have read, they provide an example to us of what it looks like to pray boldly and honestly. But we should also learn from the faith of the psalmists - they give to God not only their lament about their desperate situation, but also the right to judge the originators of that situation. They leave everything in God’s hands, even feelings of hatred and aggression.
These prayers can be shocking to followers of Jesus because of their violent language, especially in light of Jesus’ teachings to love our enemies. As we read these prayers this week, some context will help us receive the good things that these challenging passages offer to us. The New Testament teaches that there are things that have been revealed to us that were not revealed to the Israelites in the Old Testament. One of those things is relevant to these psalms: we should remember that God chose not to give a clear revelation regarding final judgment of sin to the Israelites. Therefore, the triumph of the wicked in this life seemed to refute the character and control of God. In urging God to bring judgment upon his wicked enemies, therefore, the psalmist wanted the scales of justice balanced in the present life because he was not aware that there would be any other time of judgment. We, however, know that we can rest in the fact that there will be ultimate justice. Beyond that, we understand the grace and mercy of God because we have seen the work of Jesus! Jesus has “[become] a curse for us.” (Gal. 3:13) The full work of the Messiah is now understood. In no way does the Christian ethic diminish the seriousness of sin nor the wrath that it deserves. Rather, we understand that it is not the desire of God that anyone would perish, that anyone would ultimately bear the curse, because he provided his own Son to be a curse for us. The full revelation of God’s justice, mercy, and grace can be celebrated as we study these Imprecatory Psalms.
Posted in At The Movies