Welcome to the weekend, Seeds of Faith community!
Because this is a reflection on scripture using the SOAP method (Scripture-Observation-Application-Prayer), part of the purpose is sharing an example of what you might practice in your own scripture reading. So, the weekend invitation is to practice your own SOAP reflection.
Each weekend, I share a passage of scripture to work from. If you’re up for sharing in the comments, I’d love to see what you come up with. This week the prompt is Psalm 150, which you’ll find below. If you share, please copy and paste the sentence or phrase you are reflecting on.
Brief guidelines for a good practice:
The Basic Method. Pick a sentence or phrase in the scripture passage that stands out to you. Write down something you observe going on in that sentence or phrase. Reflect on how that observation gives insight that might apply to your faith and life. Write a short prayer about that.
Observe Well. Think about what the sentences and phrases are saying and not saying. Take care also not to extrapolate more than is there.
Stay Balanced. Focus on the particular scripture while keeping the whole witness of scripture (as well as you know it) in mind. Isolating a verse or passage from the whole can lead us to heresies, but reading each verse or passage deeply and well makes for a robust understanding of the whole. This is one purpose of the early creeds (Apostles’ and Nicene)—they summarize the major points of Christian scripture and doctrine so as to help us read individual biblical passages faithfully.
Psalm 150
1 Praise the Lord.
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens.
2 Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness.
3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,
4 praise him with timbrel and dancing,
praise him with the strings and pipe,
5 praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.
6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord.
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
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SCRIPTURE:
2 Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness.
OBSERVATION: We should praise God for this reason; his acts of power and His greatness. I think of the creation....the might of the creation. This Psalm is powerful and hard not to look at the whole. It tells us where to praise our Father, why we should praise him, how to praise Him (music, yes!) and who should praise Him (every creature). He is a mighty God!
APPLICATION: We should praise God joyfully and yes, loudly for all He has created and for what He does for us.
PRAYER: Great and mighty God, may music, thankfulness and joy reach the heavens as we praise you! Amen