An Excerpt from Untamed Prayers: Psalm 123 and Psalm 136

By Chad Bird

09/30/25

8mins

An Excerpt from Untamed Prayers: Psalm 123 and Psalm 136

The following entries are excerpts from Chad Bird’s new book, Untamed Prayers: 365 Daily Devotions on Christ in the Book of the Psalms (1517 Publishing, 2025), pgs. 311 and 335

Amy Mantravadi

09/29/25

St. Michael, Defender of God’s People

Why did the church dedicate a day to St. Michael anyway? Who is he, and what does he do?

1517 Guest Contributor

09/26/25

Yardwork and the Antichrist

The Antichrist offers another continual presence. It is every whisper that tempts us toward autonomy, that tells us to carry it alone, that insists suffering is meaningless.

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Chad Bird

01/14/21

Hold on Loosely to Your Politics

Want to do yourself, your family, your friends, and the world a good deed? Hold on loosely to your politics. Don’t drop it. Don’t toss it aside. Don’t privatize it. But, above all, don’t hold on to your politics as if your life, your soul, and your salvation depend on it.

Gretchen Ronnevik

01/14/21

The Secret to Growing Your Faith

In our transactional view of our faith - “If I don’t… then God won’t.” “I need to, so God can” - we are seriously underestimating who we are dealing with.

Kathy Morales

01/13/21

What If?

What if I’ve used up God’s forgiveness—he’s given me far too many chances and I’ve blown them all. Maybe his grace is for you but not for me. What if Jesus loved me once, but now regrets everything he’s done for me?

Bror Erickson

01/08/21

When Salt Loses it's Taste

Good works do not give us a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees. Rather, good works result from righteousness given by the good work of the Righteous One on the cross.

John Bombaro

01/04/21

God's Unmasked Face

The church does well to remind the world that God is unmasked, indeed, that God has unmasked himself in the person of Jesus.

Jason Lang

01/04/21

Tempted & Delivered

Jesus is our sympathizer, our propitiation, and our advocate. We will be tempted but God will provide the way out, the way out is Jesus, the one who died for our sins.

John W. Hoyum

01/01/21

Dominus Mortis

Perhaps this past year has prompted the recognition that God is not the tame projection of our highest hopes and dreams. Instead, he is the one who uses even his foes to make a point.

Martin Luther

01/01/21

Our Sufficiency is From God

Any good work we perform among you; any doctrine we write upon your heart – that is God’s own work.

Bruce Hillman

12/30/20

Inspiration from Mr. Rogers about Coping with a Pandemic

Fred Rogers did not teach children how to live through a pandemic, but he had many profound things to say about loving our neighbors and finding our identity in that calling.

Jason Lang

12/28/20

We Forgive Our Debtors

God has forgiven us our trespasses in Christ Jesus and it is his grace that begins the transformation process making us into little forgivers.

Ken Sundet Jones

12/28/20

A Living Word

God's Word is the final word on you, and his claim on you as his people, his children, is the ultimate claim.

Robert Kolb

12/27/20

Silvester and Year’s End in Pandemic

As we close out an old year, Saint Silvester can remind us God is the Lord of history and He has used and is using even people whose lives sink largely or totally into obscurity to keep the confession of our faith in Jesus Christ alive.

1517 is a Christian non-profit (501(c)3) multi-media organization. Our mission is to declare and defend the Good News that we are forgiven and free on account of the death and resurrection of Jesus alone.

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