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Creative Doorways into a Psalm and Sermon (Part 1)

It takes imagination, not just analysis, to recreate the impact of a Psalm.

Jeffrey Arthurs

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This is part one in a three-part series.
Part one
Part two
Part three

How can we preach psalms in a way that recreates some of the meditative, emotional, imaginative, and collaborative effects the poets built into their hymns?

Preachers need look no further than the communication strategies of the text. Some of those strategies can be incorporated directly into our sermons.

The goal is not to mimic the exact form of the text but to reproduce the impact of the text. If the text is meditative, we would do well to prompt meditation since this is the Author's intent. If the text prompts emotion, we should too. If the text rebukes, we should rebuke.

In this series of articles, I present nine ideas on how to preach psalms. The ideas gradually move toward innovative strategies implied but not found explicitly in the text but which help us herald the text faithfully.

1. When preparing, meditate.

Poetry is a language of images and emotions that the reader must experience. This is how the psalms work, and ...