by Mark Hamilton | Jun 20, 2011 | Uncategorized
Longing for the absent lover — this is the stuff of romance. Memories of the smells and sounds of the lost relationship, memories of times shared together, memories of the last moment of touch all cascade through the mind of the one who longs for the return of...
by Mark Hamilton | Jun 8, 2011 | Uncategorized
With Psalm 41, we come to the end of the first book of the Psalter. When the collectors of the Psalms, working sometime in the 4th-2nd centuries BCE with older hymns and collections of hymns, put the finishing touches on their work, they divided it into five...
by Mark Hamilton | May 31, 2011 | Uncategorized
It’s interesting how things converge in your brain. Impressions, ideas, and reflections on both stream through seeking to stick together before something else roots them out. Yesterday, I spent time working on a survey instrument for David Miller of Princeton...
by Mark Hamilton | May 20, 2011 | Uncategorized
Psalm 39 continues the theme of repentance begun in Psalm 38 by reporting the remorseful sinner’s internal thoughts: “I said [to myself], let me keep my ways from sinning by means of my tongue; let me keep my mouth from violence [emending the Hebrew from...
by Mark Hamilton | May 11, 2011 | Uncategorized
Repentance — such an old-fashioned, churchy word, so reminiscent of unctuous preaching and Elmer Gantry hucksters. Or so some of us think. Yet, even if the word has fallen on hard times, the idea of change, of renouncing bad habits and poor commitments, of...
