Dying well
Many thanks to you who have chosen to support my writing financially! When I write every-other-month only for paid subscribers, I imagine that the focus will be on a facet of my current theological ponderings.
My hope is that you will find yourself reflecting and growing and doxologising with me.
I have recently returned to Cambridge from two weeks of teaching the book of Job east of Athens at the Greek Bible College. What glory! During my second week, I had the opportunity to speak in chapel for the school community, pausing after (or mid) each sentence for a modern Greek translation. The text I chose was Psalm 105:1–27, and I will share below part of my talk, which largely emerged from my own wrestling in prayer and lived discipleship over this past summer.
Psalm 105 catechises the Israelites in identity formation. They are meant to form their corporate identity by looking upward and backward (not, contra current Western culture, by looking inward), as it were: becoming a trustingly obedient covenant people by recounting who God has been for his people in the saving events of the exodus. As I surveyed the historical tour furnished by this psalm (and the related OT narratives), I was struck by a pattern of descents and ascents and its implications for the contours of the Christian life.