Author page: Henry Haffner

Over the last eight weeks, we’ve had a great opportunity to dive deeply into the Scripture by reading and singing the psalms. We’ll conclude the series this Sunday with Psalm 8 preached and sung, along with four other complete psalm settings (100, 29, 21, and 110), excerpts from 3 others (118, 95, 51), and a reading of another (111). If…

Most of the psalms, hymns, and readings in this morning’s service could be summed up in a single word: “Help!” We ask the Lord to rescue us from a foreign throng (Blest Be The Lord, My Rock, My Might—Psalm 144), and we cry out “Save your servant! preserve my life!” (Turn Your Ear And Answer—Psalm 86). We are warned to…

This morning’s sermon text from Psalm 6 is a cry of desperation, an escalation of the prayers for relief and salvation David has prayed in Psalms 3-5. The psalmist is brought to the end of himself, terrified of God’s anger (vs. 1) and weeping over his own weakness (vs. 2, 6-7)—though he concludes with the assurance that the Lord accepts…

Isn’t it fascinating to see the connections between these first few psalms in the psalter? After David declares that he will “lay down and sleep” in the midst of his enemies in Psalm 3, the image of “sleep” comes again in Psalm 4. Here we see David giving thanks for relief amid distress, then sleeping “in peace” (vs. 8). Many…

Since we were first planted, Parish has been a church that has prioritized singing the psalms. The section of our worship service called “God speaks to His people through His Word” always includes at least one psalm (this week it’s a setting of Psalm 149, which is also our Call to Worship), and often we’ll sing several more psalms throughout…