West End Umc Video Podcast Audio Podcast

A Psalm for Our Worst Days – In our summer look at psalms, today we are considering Psalm 22, and tenor, Scott Brons, chants the reading of the psalm with the congregation singing a response, and the Rev. Stacey Harwell-Dye, our Pastor of Mercy and Justice Ministries, delivers the sermon. Sometimes the words of scripture are desperate, expressed by someone being utterly alone, misunderstood, surrounded by enemies, and this psalm is a prime example. According to two of the Gospels, lines from this psalm were quoted by Jesus from the cross, which makes it very familiar for us. Stacey preached a sermon on Psalm 22 a year ago in her prison ministry to prisoners who may be feeling more pain than most of us. In this psalm the psalmist expresses: Where is God’s care when I need it most? I have a problem with those around me. I am experiencing impending death. It is clear how this would have been on the mind of Jesus on the cross. And it’s also clear that this psalm expresses one’s feelings in the midst of th