In the television drama, “The Sopranos” there is a scene that takes place at a funeral. The guests receive prayer cards with a picture of Jesus on them along with a prayer.

One of the guests at the funeral remarks that as a kid he always wondered about the value of these cards. He collected baseball cards, he said, and they increased in value. Why not the prayer cards? “I don’t get it,” says the guest. “Ten thousand dollars for Mickey Mantle and zip for Jesus . . .” (1)

I suspect that says something about the values of our culture.

When the rock group of the nineteen-sixties said they were more popular than Jesus Christ, they hit the nail squarely on the thumb. They WERE more popular than Jesus. Our values as a culture are all out of whack.

Fortunately the Psalmist had a better set of …