The 15th Day of the month is here, and that means Psalm 78 dominates the landscape of Evening Prayer tonight. Let’s re-visit this entry from a year and a half ago about how to get through this, second-longest, psalm in the Bible.
Depending upon your mood and state of mind (or heart) we may have a bit of a Tuesday Terror looming at Evening Prayer: the 78th Psalm. Assuming you’re using the 30-day cycle of Psalms by Thomas Cranmer that has adorned every Prayer Book for over 450 years, this evening is when we come to Psalm 78, the second-longest Psalm in the book, and the longest that we pray straight through.
In terms of genre, it covers a few bases. It is a didactic psalm, written with the express purpose of teaching its reader, singer, or pray-er. It is a history psalm, telling stories of the people of Israel throughout their past. It is a parable, according to its opening verses, intending to teach us about divine faithfulness and human unfaithfulness through the medium of story.
Something that can help one get through this Psalm attentively and profitably is…
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The Saint Aelfric Customary 