It should have only taken 5 months. It took 14 months to actually get through the Psalms! In fact, I have read a few Bible blogs that just seem to stop in the Psalms and I understand that in a real way. It’s easy to get bogged down.
It was interesting for me to approach the psalms. I didn’t grow up with music. My mother does not like music. Of any kind. So when I come to things like the psalms, it’s just not as warm and fuzzy for me as they are for other people. But yet there are so many riches.
Here are my reflections on the psalms:
1) I was amazed over and over by David. Most kings exalt themselves and promote themselves as all powerful. David had such genuine and enormous humility as a king. He knew that he was in the hands of God alone. He knew it wasn’t his own righteousness that delivered, but God’s.
2) The Psalmists were just crazy raw before God. They let it all out but they didn’t stop there. They always ended the psalms with a trust and faith and a reliance upon God. It’s not enough to bare your soul. We must also commit to leaning into God even when we hurt or don’t understand.
3) One verse that stood out to me several times was David’s repeat statement along the lines that human help was worthless. He knew better than to put his trust in men.
4) God is such a God of celebration. He is a God of dancing, instruments, music and song and feasting. In most churches today if you had dancing and celebration you would have a church split.
5) The pivotal moment of all of Israel history was the Exodus. So many Psalms pointed to this great moment in Israel’s history. It is also a foreshadowing of what would take place on the cross. That now is the pivotal moment of Israel and the Christians.
6) We think of worship as all pretty psalms of praise and happiness. But that’s not the case. Not only were some psalms lament, but the many psalms of coming against enemies were also present. There were psalms that if we “sang” them today would be very strange.
7) The music was also a teacher of history. Raw history. Some psalms spoke plainly of failures and how God rescued and redeemed those failures. Psalms, by their very nature, teach. Even today, music teaches what one believes, things, finds funny, celebrates and more. Music is incredibly powerful.
8) The commands to thank the Lord and to praise Him with song and music were ridiculously abundant. Like I said before, this doesn’t come naturally to me. I need more of this discipline in my life. What about you?
9) The psalmist were not scared to call wickedness as wickedness and evil as evil.
10) The psalms often celebrate God’s love for Israel. We underestimate sometimes the heart of God for Israel.
11) We see David suffering so very much. Betrayal not just from enemies but from friends. He suffered sickness and death and sadness. But he didn’t let those overtake his soul. He pleaded to God for mercy and declared his faith in Him even in the midst of horrific suffering. Raw before God in his frustration, but reliant upon God in restoration and deliverance.
There’s probably so much more that could be said of the psalms. Honestly it’s fuzzy after a year. The truth is I need to less thinking on them and more obeying them–praise, worship and bringing out the instruments. In heavy times, we all need more of this.
