The books of Psalms is my favourite book in the whole Bible; like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I can say ‘I am reading the Psalms daily, as I have done for years. I know them and love them more than any other book in the Bible.’ I can’t remember when I first discovered the potency of these prayers and songs, though I still love it when I hear a new song and find myself immersed through the creativity of others in a new way of singing these precious words. I think the ‘raw honesty and detailed thoroughness’ of the Psalms (Eugene Peterson’s memorable description) were the things which drew me first of all and which keep me finding new things in them.
I find in this collection of prayers and songs an integrity and honesty which have shaped my life. There is no pretence in the Psalms. Many people are shocked by the imprecatory psalms (Ps 137:9 perhaps being the most notorious verse!), appalled by the vindictiveness and spite they find there. I am not shocked, for I know my own heart, and it is a relief to find far-from-perfect people voicing their complaints, anger, frustration and bitterness to God. The Psalms often begin in complaint and misery (I identify with Ps 56:8 very much!), but show a pathway to praise and adoration that restores faith and perspective. The thing that draws me most, however, is this sense that even if God feels distant, even if I am angry with Him for how He is running the universe, even if I can find no reason to love Him, the Psalms show me that honest communication is better than dishonest pretence. Every gamut of emotion is expressed in the Psalms and God still remains majestic, loving, holy in it all. The Psalms provide, therefore, a framework and backbone for my wandering heart. They keep me tethered to the reality of God and regularly expose the sinfulness of my own heart and wash me clean, soaked and scrubbed white in the laundry of God’s Word.
As we being to study the book of Psalms in 2017 in our Bible studies, this is no theoretical exercise of erudition to gain information and learn ways of manipulation (the languages we use in everyday life, describing and persuading, the languages of lists and advertising rhetoric.) It’s an immersion into prayer as people have done for centuries. Read the Psalms each day and see what God says to you through them. Use the Psalms to speak to God, especially when you’ve run out of things to say. Don’t talk to God in remote ways, but in real, personal, everyday language. Read the Psalms in a different version, perhaps, to capture something of the immediacy and freshness of the Scriptures. Listen to songs that have these words in them so that you can sing God’s word. And then come to pray these Psalms corporately, to study together, to learn from each other. When we do this, we will be changed, for God’s Word is sharper than any double-edged sword, sharper than the surgeon’s scalpel, working in us to expose, reveal, transform and revolutionise us.
