The Psalms begin with the word “Blessed” – as Christian students and young workers we want to be people who experience ever increasingly the blessing of knowing the Living God. It is my prayer that this term that as we sing, pray and study the Psalms they will help each one of us have “A Closer Walk With God”. It is through faith in the gospel that we are reconciled into a loving relationship with God. In that relationship fullness of life is found, as we receive the saving benefits of Jesus and transforming work of the Holy Spirit.
Many of us are less familiar with the Psalms and find them harder to read – that’s ok. We’ll be getting to grips with the Psalms together and growing in our confidence to understand and use them in our own lives.
Here are my top six tips for getting the most from the Psalms:
(1) Psalms express God’s truth in poetry to engage our hearts:
God made us as whole people, with a mind that thinks, a heart that desires, and a will that makes choices. He hasn’t just given us truth in narrative and epistles to educate our minds and commands to direct our wills, but He also has given us the poetry to engage our hearts. The Psalms are filled with poetic figures of speech and beautiful symmetries to draw out our imaginations, emotions, affections and experiences. An epistle can say: “You can trust God when life hurts;” while the Psalms say “God is our refuge and strength, our stronghold, our hiding place, our rock, our very present help in times of need”.
(2) Psalms invite us to slow down:
Hebrew poetry doesn’t rely on rhyme or meter of words. It relies of “parallelism” (a form of repetition and symmetry of ideas) in the lines. There are three types (i) says the same thing in slightly different words, (ii) makes a contrast, (iii) develops an idea further. This repetition isn’t pointless and to enable us to skim read things faster. Rather it wants us to slow down and meditate on the idea from different angles - like lifting up a diamond to the light and turning it around to see its different facets. As we reflect on what the Psalmist said and consider how it relates to us, we're being invited to pray to the God that the Psalmist is also addressing and use his words as our guide.
(3) Psalms identify with our experiences in different seasons of life:
There are lots of different types of Psalms (e.g. Thanksgiving, Praise, Confession, Lament, Wisdom, Royal, Hymns) that Israel and the Church would have used at different times for their public worship and personal devotions. These were composed during all the different seasons of life, with its highs and lows:
(i) There are psalms of “orientation” (when life is going well and we want to sing on the hilltops);
(ii) there are many psalms of “disorientation” (when life has been thrown into confusion and difficulty and we’re crying out to God for help);
(iii) and there are psalms of “new orientation” (when God has answered our prayers and given us a new perspective on the situation).
Whatever we are on our discipleship journey with Jesus, or whatever we’re experiencing: we are not the first ones here and we have been given words to use with God to help us walk with Him.
(4) Psalms show us how to draw closer to God:
Each individual Psalm is a “self-contained spiritual pilgrimage” – a journey towards God from wherever we are presently. In the way it has been composed there will be a flow of ideas. The meaning of each Psalm is contained not only in the words and ideas, but also in the structure. How does it start and end? What are the turning points, the contrasts, crescendos, declensions, or surprises? By following in the Psalmist’s steps we are able to come into the place of understanding and experience of God’s grace that the Psalmist also reached. In this way each psalm is its own spiritual counselling session.
(5) Psalms as a whole collection tell a story:
The Psalms are a collection of 150 songs and prayers which are sub-divided into five smaller collections. These collections were composed or selected for use during different times in the history of God’s dealings with Israel:
Book 1 (1-41): The era of David’s reign and struggles.
Book 2 (42-72): The era of Solomon, the Temple and the Kings.
Book 3 (73-89): The era of the decline of Israel into sin and idolatry.
Book 4 (90-106): The era of the exile and dispersion among the nations.
Book 5 (107-150): The era of the restoration of Israel and hopes for the Messiah.
There are often some surprises and insights that arise when you put the individual Psalm its into book context. The collection as a whole tells the story of how the blessed life is found through trust in God’s Word and refuge in God’s King (Psalm 1-2), and how one day all of creation will join with heaven’s rejoicing in God’s salvation (Psalm 146-150).
(6) Psalms are meaningful in the light of Jesus:
We aren’t ancient Israelites, we’re New Testament Christians who look back on the Psalms through the person and work of Jesus Christ. Jesus didn’t sing from Mission Praise or off a projection screen. He prayed and sang the Psalms. Jesus is sometimes spoken of in the Psalms, He is God’s promised King who is coming to suffer and save His people. Jesus is the God of the Psalter that we sing and pray to. It is sometimes helpful with some difficult passages in the Psalms (particularly when the Psalmist is claiming to be “righteous” or calling for God to destroy the “wicked”) to think of how Jesus would have prayed and sung that Psalm perfectly. And then because we are in Christ, through faith in Him, how can we join in His song as His back-singers today?
