How can we best use images and symbols in "God's songbook", the Psalms?

The lesson this week comments on judgement themes in Psalm 5. We find it somewhat difficult to identify all the connections, but find value in the challenging poetic images. We are particularly intrigued by what it might meant to recognise some of the "bloodthirsty and deceitful" aspects in our own lives. Can we cope with the idea that someone might be praying these ideas about us!

The foundation of prophecy is perhaps hope.

In the end, the Bible says in so many ways, God and goodness do triumph. Prophecy seems to use this long-term hope for the future as a lens through which to examine and evaluate present actions. We examine the beginning of the book of Ezekiel, where a prophet is called to speak God's words "whether the people listen to them or not".

Animal sacrifice is one of the most pervasive symbols in the Bible, and yet is foreign to modern society.

One interesting aspect of the sacrificial system in the Old Testament is that God sometimes declared he rejected it! Does this perhaps illuminate what might be the actual substance behind this ritual? We explore how "simply going through the motions" can perhaps be valuable spiritual discipline and yet can also be dangerous disengagement from the mission of God in our world.