Why were the Psalms written? Paul tells Timothy, ‘All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.’ (2 Tim 3:16-17) The Psalms are useful and helpful to us because they equip us for every good work, but their importance also lies in showing us how to communicate with God and in affirming the reality of response to God in all its diverse forms.
In the introduction to the ‘Message’ version of the Psalms, Eugene Peterson comments on their ‘raw honesty and detailed thoroughness.’ Many of us have preconceived ideas about how to speak to God, believing that God must be approached tentatively (because He may well turn out to be as capricious and moody as our earthly parents) or diffidently (because He may be as indifferent to us as others have turned out to be) or politely (because politeness is the thing He values most.) All of these ideas can shape our prayers and leave us confused, resentful and reluctant to pray at times.
The Psalms, though, are ‘God’s gift to train us in prayer that is comprehensive (not patched together from emotional fragments scattered around that we chance upon) and honest (not a series of more or less sincere verbal poses that we think might please our Lord.)’ (Eugene Peterson, ‘Answering God’, P 5-6) When we read the Psalms, we see a wide range of response to God: from adoration, praise, worship and thanksgiving, to anger, confusion, hurt, bitterness and complaint. No human emotion is left out; we see in these prayers what it means to be human and that we can approach God freely, confidently, boldly, children welcomed into the loving arms of mercy, grace and kindness. Generations have found reassurance and hope from the diversity of the psalms and as we pray these prayers, we become aware that there is no situation which can keep us from God. When Paul tells us to pray continually (1 Thess 5:17), the Psalms show us how to do this.
