Small Group Notes for 30th August 2026
N.B. Sermon can be heard via our website and YouTube channel and the Paper Service version is on our website: https://parishofmedsteadandfourmarks.co.uk/online-church/paper-services/
Read: Psalm 115
In your groups, you might like to start by discussing in general, what views do you have as a group about :
Psalms being situated in time and context in the history of the people of Isreal?
Psalms as being fluid, edited, adapted, over time.
Psalms as mechanisms for transmitting and embedding a national history.
These were notions that touched on the talk on Sunday, here is an opportunity to discuss them ma little more deeply.
Read Vs 1-8 : I argued that I saw a good case for this being in, or shortly after the exile in Babylon. What do you think?
Read the remainder of the Psalm, I argued this had a slightly different feel and tone, and that maybe… if the first half was initial conceived and written in exile, this latter part might be an addition during the period of return, and rebuilding. What do you think?
If you were in church for the talk, in what was did you find the ‘acted’ psalm different to the read psalm - if at all? Share this with those who were not able to be there.
How might this Psalm and our exploration of it change what you think, feel or do?