The Book of Psalms

Our Summer Bible Series is an opportunity for adults and young adults who want to renew or expand their understanding of Scripture. The series is presented by highly qualified scripture scholars but is appropriate for participants with little or limited understanding of the Bible.

Description

In this four-week series, Dr. William Mulcahey will guide participants through the Book of Psalms, seeking, as the Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann suggested, to liberate these ancient prayers for more moving and faithful use by uncovering the imaginative vision which inspired their authors.  Using Dr. Brueggemann's insights, this study will help participants examine the deeper fabric of our lives today -- those events which drive us to the edge of humanness where we discover the surprising intrusion of God iin our lives -- so that we might raise our voices to God in the words of the ancient Psalmist.

Dr. Mulcahey writes:  What if we had a prayer book that could help us speak our own words to God in every season of our lives? What if we had a meditative resource that could bring our voices together with those of our sisters and brothers who live on the margin? What if we had holy words that can cry out to God even in the midst of our anger, that even demand that God take action against enemies, near and far, seen and unseen? What if we are scandalized by our own storm-tossed emotions or are fearful to own up to our own retaliatory prayers and the speech of vengeance that assumes that the God whom we address shares our venom and will act on it? What if we had holy word-pictures that speak to our contentment about life, to our disrupted existence, and to our renewed, hope-filled journey on a course where we can carry on an honest dialogue of trustful confidence in the God who ever goes before us in holy mystery?
The surprise is that we do have such a treasure -- the 150 Psalms of the Old Testament or the “Psalter,” as it is known in Christian prayer.

Weekly Readings

• Week One
Random psalms to get us started: Psalms 24; 12; 51; 137
Shape of the Hebrew Psalter: Psalms 1-2; 146-150
Example of Seasons of Life:  Job 1:1-5; 30:16-31; 42:10-17
• Week Two
(Read 1 or 2 psalms from each of the following categories.)
Songs of Creation: Psalms 145; 104; 33; 8
Psalms of Trust or for Occasions of Well-being: Psalms 133; 131; 11; 16; 125
Songs for a Well Ordered and Reliable World: Psalms 1; 32; 34; 39; 112; 119; 128
Royal Psalms: Psalms 2; 18; 20-21; 45; 72; 101;110;132
Songs of Retribution: Psalms 111;112
• Week Three
(Read 1 or 2 psalms from each of the following categories.)
Individual Laments: The Seven Penitential Psalms: 6; 32; 38; 51; 102; 130; 143
Psalms 10; 13; 17; 86; 35
Communal Laments: 74; 79; 137
Problem Psalms: 88; 109
• Week Four
(Read 1 or 2 psalms from each of the following categories.)
Individual Thanksgiving: Psalms 9; 103; 40; 116; 118; 138
Communal Thanksgiving: Psalms 65-67; 92; 118; 124
Thanksgiving Songs of the Community: Psalms 65-67; 92; 118; 124
Songs of God’s Victory: Psalms 29; 47; 96; 93; 97; 98; 99
More Generalized Songs of Confidence and Thanksgiving
--Individual: Psalms 11; 23; 27; 62-63; 91; 121
--Communal: Psalms 115; 125; 129
Hymns of Praise: Psalms 103; 113; 117; 146; 148; 149; 150

Audience

This program is appropriate for adults and young adults who know a lot about the bible and for those who are just learning. 
It is particularly appropriate for adults and young adults in thresholds 3, 4, 5 and 6 of faith development.
> Click here to learn more about the thresholds of faith develoment.

Take-Away

Adults and young adults who participate in this opportunity will:
• Understand the world and the vision of the authors who wrote the psalms.
• Identify how the vision of the psalmists intersects with our own lived experience in the modern world.
• Learn to pray the psalms in a way which arises from our own personal experience.

About the Presenter

Dr. Bill Mulcahey is retired Director of Campus Ministry and professor at Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids. Bill received his Licentiate in Sacred Scripture (S.S.L.) from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. He served for fifteen years in basic Christian communities and higher education in Latin America, and for 12 years as Director of Campus Ministry and professor in the Philosophy, Religious Studies, and Campus Ministry Department at Mount Mercy. Bill also serves as an instructor for the Archdiocese of Dubuque's Lay Formation and Hispanic Diaconate Formation Programs. Bill and his wife Damaris reside in Cedar Rapids and are members of St. Matthew Parish.

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Registration

• By phone: call 319-233-0498.
• By email: dbqwcaf@dbqarch.org
• Online: Click here to register online

Last Update: 05.17.18