Psalm 7 is a song for anyone who has ever felt falsely accused, misunderstood, or desperate to be vindicated.

But underneath David’s very reasonable words is something more volatile: anger, frustration, and the desire for God to feel exactly what he feels.

In this sermon, Jeremy Duncan explores the poetry of Psalm 7—from Taylor Swift and ancient Hebrew wordplay to necks, noses, swords, and bows—and asks what happens when our longing for justice begins to slip into a desire for vengeance.

The Psalms remind us that we don’t need to sanitize our emotions before bringing them to God. But they also invite us to let the presence of God reshape those emotions so that we can pursue justice without becoming consumed by violence.

Psalm 7 ultimately asks a difficult question:

Do we want a God modelled after our anger—or will we allow our anger to be transformed by God’s righteousness?

Recorded at Commons Church in Calgary, Alberta.

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What can ancient prayers teach us about our own experience of chaos, confusion, or distress?

In this week’s installment of our Summer Songs series, Yelena walks us through Psalm 86—a powerful "psalm of disorientation." Whether life feels stable or everything is falling apart, the Psalms provide a sacred space for profound honesty with the Divine.

In this message, we explore:
Asks and Reasons: Why naming our disorientation is a time-tested religious practice.
Communal Memory: How we lean on the stories of faith when our own words fall short.
Undivided Heart: Moving toward wholeness in the midst of fragmentation.
Relinquishment: Tracing the edge of chaos and trusting that we are held.
About Commons Church:

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What do you do when God feels far away? Psalm 13 is a song for those moments. In this message, we explore how naming our pain and shifting our perspective can help us move from lament to praise.

Key topics covered:
• The relationship between lament and praise: Why the "Book of Praises" is full of sorrow and how lament provides a place to stand while we grieve.
• Challenging our categories: Understanding how we use bias to simplify the world and how to move past the "outgroup homogeneity effect" to see our neighbors more clearly.
• Learning from diverse worldviews: Contrasting different cultural perspectives on suffering—moving from asking God to take suffering away to asking for the strength to endure it well.
• Practicing the Examen: A practical 10-minute rhythm to notice God’s presence in both desolation and consolation, helping us become agents of God’s love in the world.
Whether you are in a season of struggle or looking to deepen your trust in God, join us as we learn to bring our honest pain before a faithful God who is always at work.