Ever hear a song that describes exactly what you are feeling? Then even years later it still touches you in the same way? We have a whole collection of similar melodies called the psalms. Some describe a soft-pedaled trust in the power of love. Others are filled with gut-wrenching anguish. Both types can stir up gifts of faith. We hope you enjoy them often and share them liberally with others. Here is how.
- Let the psalms accompany you when you are grieving, especially the first forty psalms that describe every human sorrow. Jesus did this by praying, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” (Psalm 22). But he also meant to reach beyond the pain and tragedy, into his Father’s arms with the line, “All the nations will remember the Lord.”
- Become familiar with the rich imagery of the psalms, so you can share their moods when someone you know is suffering. Picture yourself in a parched land, or eating ashes, down in the pit, weary, forgotten, sleepless. Memorize a few of these lines and consider sharing a line or two with someone who is feeling the same way by saying, “What you are describing reminds me of…”
- Accept the challenge of thanksgiving and praise offered by the psalms. Let such prayers touch your heart and move you to gifts of awe and worship. God is the Most High, merciful, slow to anger, our shelter, our refuge. “With him alone for my rock, my safety, I can never fall.” (Psalm 62). Encourage others with some of these one-line pieces of consolation, as well as how they struck you.
- Consider praying the Psalm of the day from our Church’s daily readings. Repeat the brief refrain often; morning, noon and night. Let God reach out to you, through the psalmist. Enter into the same ebb and flow of faith that has marked Christians for thousands of years. For example, “O bless the Lord, my soul!” (Psalm 104)
- Move toward God by reading all of the psalms over a period of time. Or consider reading the psalms of the ascent that were chanted on pilgrimage to Jerusalem (Psalms 120 to 134). Or try a sampling of the different moods of the psalm by reading psalms: 6, 8, 103, 130, 136, 148, 150. In this way you can experience the vital rhythm to God’s enduring and undaunted presence: here for the taking and for the sharing.
