When a 5-year-old puts on daddy’s suit coat and shoes and says he is a father, no one expects that idea to last more than an hour. But when a magazine commits to covering the book of Psalms with a column of one psalm per month, readers expect a long-term commitment.

While it seems hard to believe, we are already over four years into our commitment to provide concise commentary on each of the 150 psalms of the Bible. Anthony Selvaggio has provided lucid commentary each month. While you can obviously find longer commentaries elsewhere, Pastor Selvaggio has done an excellent work by showing the relevance of each psalm to life in this century, without neglecting exposition and context.

Pastor Selvaggio does have a larger calling, though, and that is to shepherd his flock at College Hill RPC in Beaver Falls, Pa. Over the past few years he has also become an author in his own right, including recent books on the minor prophets and on marriage.

As we come now to Psalm 50, this seemed to Pastor Selvaggio and to us to be a logical place to pass the baton to another pastor/ scholar. We are very pleased that Professor C. J. Williams has enthusiastically agreed to serve, making a commitment to 50 more psalm commentaries in the Witness.

C. J. Williams is professor of Old Testament Studies at the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh, Pa. He is working on his Ph.D. at Baltimore Hebrew University. Prior to serving full-time at the RP Seminary, he was a pastor for seven years at Providence (Pittsburgh, Pa.) RPC. He and his wife, Sherri, have five children: Noah (9), Grace (7), Judah (5), Gabriel (3), and Charity (1).

The RP Witness welcomes Prof. Williams. We thank Pastor Selvaggio for his sacrificial work for the Witness and its readers.

While I’m giving thanks, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to the many people who sacrifice in small or great ways to make this magazine possible. Some of you have volunteered for the Witness longer than I have been an editor, submitting news and brief notes, writing articles, and encouraging members and friends to subscribe.

Rather than flagging, though, the quality and enthusiasm with which people have done the work has only increased in the past couple years. And that is reflected in the comments we have received. The Reformed Presbyterian Witness is truly a magazine of the denomination and for the denomination. We’ve always been able to say that the Witness is received in the great majority of RPCNA households, yet in the past two years subscriptions have gone up over 10 percent. I believe a key reason for that is the amount and quality of the news and articles coming directly from our congregations.

Please keep us in your prayers, and please keep us on your mind as things happen in your own congregation and consider sharing your news and testimonies with the broader denomination.