Reading... Psalms

"Make a joyful noise to the Lord,
all the earth!"
Psalm 100:1

When I was a high schooler, I decided that, since the Bible was apparently such an important book, I would read it all the way through. I got as far as Psalms.

As a kid, I hated poetry. It was boring, it either didn't make sense or it said something so obvious there was no reason to put it in verse.

So when I got to Psalms, I gave up and stopped.

Today, the Psalms are one of my favorite books of the Bible.

Later on, I discovered that in the Psalms, God has given us two things: a prayer book, and a hymnal. There's a reason that the Psalms are the book the New Testament quotes from the most. People know it, and God speaks to us in it.

The Psalms have many authors – sometimes the author is named (David wrote quite a few), and sometimes they are anonymous. But they were brought together because they were all inspired by God and resonate with God's people.

Like modern music, the Psalms come in all sorts of genres: some are praise songs, some are confessional songs, some are the blues, and some are long ballads that tell a big story. It's important to notice that, and let each psalm speak from its own genre. (You shouldn't expect a blues song to be super uplifting.)

Jews and Christians have used psalms for daily prayer too: you can wake up in the morning and pray to God using the words of a psalm. For years, I prayed one of Psalm 145-150 every day, Monday through Sunday (Psalm 147 was broken into two days).

It's amazing, but the emotions we feel, the feelings we want to express, there have been other people who have been there too, and the Psalms capture nearly the whole range of human feeling. When we pray them, they can put words to the thoughts of our hearts, and when we pray them, we're praying them together with faithful people of all times.

3 questions to consider when reading Psalms:

1. What genre of psalm is this?
2. How does this express how I feel towards God?
3. How does this express how God feels towards us?

Happy reading!