Psalms for the Soul
This month at Orchard Hill we are focusing our attention on the Psalms in our worship and teaching. John Calvin called the Psalms, “an Anatomy of all the parts of the Soul.” I like that! “An Anatomy of all the parts of the soul.” I believe Calvin used this language because he was aware at how profoundly the Psalms touch all of our deep emotions. Unlike most of other books of the Bible that contain straight forward narratives, letters, or history that confront our minds, the Psalms speak to us through poetry that connects to the depths of our heart. I want to encourage you to make the Psalms a regular part of your devotional and spiritual life:
1) Find a psalm reading plan. Your first step is finding a psalm reading plan. A quick internet search should be all you need to find one that suits you. The nice thing about reading through the psalms successively, say in a month, is that they do not build on one another and so if you have to miss a reading or two you can pick up wherever you left off without having to skim larger amounts. You could even just read one psalm a day and make it through all the psalms twice in a year.
2) Mark up your copy of the Psalms. If ever there were a book of the Bible that deserved a hearty dose of ink or pencil underlining, it’s the book of Psalms. Keep an eye out for repetitions and word pictures to point you towards the important themes.
3) Pray the Psalms. The psalms are fundamentally sung prayers. As you read psalms, read them out loud paraphrasing them into your own prayers as you go. Doing this over time will help develop a healthy prayer life that utilizes the vocabulary and themes of the Bible.
4) Look for Jesus in the psalms. The New Testament writers unequivocally saw the psalms as crucial material for understanding who Jesus was and what he came to accomplish. In the New Testament there is a list of 147 direct references to psalm quotations. The psalms are fundamentally messianic.
One author I read said, “Do not look down at the Psalms with a magnifying glass. Pray them upwards with a megaphone.” The word heart appears 131 times in this book of the Bible, which seems only appropriate since in the Psalms we have the heart of humanity reaching out to the heart of God. Blessings on your Psalms reading!
