16 October 2025

‘Remember Jesus Christ!’ says St. Paul, ‘Raised from the dead!’ And then he adds, ‘a descendant of David’. Of whom? David, the shepherd boy, who slew Goliath who became Israel’s greatest king. It is from this line that Jesus was laid in a manger in Bethlehem, the house of bread, David’s town, as the carol proclaims!

Such a courageous and inspiring heritage but a heritage which goes further back than David to his great grandmother, Ruth, the Moabitess! She was a foreigner. She was born and brought up in Jordan. But it was her foreign blood which coursed through King David’s veins and was celebrated in the person of Jesus.

This lineage draws us away from any foolish anti-semitism for the foreign blood which is celebrated in David’s line reminds us of our own indebtedness to Judaism. Three quarters of the Bible is devoted to the Old Testament. This is our holy Scripture too and we share it with fellow Jews.

More than that, the great Scottish Presbyterian love affair with the Psalms has been celebrated this year in the 375^th anniversary of the Scottish Psalter (1650). In desiring to sing only words from Scripture, our forebears chose to sing the Psalms of David.

This was the hymn book of the Temple. They were recited by Jesus on the cross. They became the foundation of the Daily Office still recited  in the Catholic Church. The Latin text of the Psalms was set to plainsong in the pre-Reformation Church. And then, the distinctively Scottish Psalter!

And not only do we owe our spiritual heritage to the Jews but our particular form of non-Sacramental worship is directly related to what happens in the synagogue. Both Jews and Christians are people of the Book. The Word of God is central to both. The Jews taught us this! We are family! They are our cousins!