Psalms: A Place to Meet God
Right after Thanksgiving in 2024, I got this bee in my bonnet to read one chapter in Psalms every day - knowing it would take me at least five months because there are 150 of them.
Best. Self-imposed. Homework. Ever.
The psalm was the first thing I read before I did my other scripture work, and those 5 PLUS months (I hadn't factored in Psalm 119) found me approaching each one like I was having an opening hymn for my own morning devotional. SUCH a good idea.
I loved the project so much, I started over again when I finished. In all, it took the better part of a year and a half to read through the psalms twice - reading one daily (except for 119).
I decided not to start over again a third time because a year of Old Testament study was approaching, which is quite a breathless steep climb if you want to do the whole thing... and Isaiah.... This time around I read Psalms in its appointed three weeks as many of you might have - which had the feel of trying to read the Old Testament in a year.
One of my favorite takeaways from the Psalms:
Remember the early days of smart phones, back while they were still addicting us with the pithy advertising slogan, "There's an app for that!"? And wasn't that cute and fun, back when all the apps were free at first? And we could barely conceive anything our phones weren't going to be able to do for us, all in the project of getting us to never put them down again?
Well. This ancient hymn book has become beloved because there is a psalm for every possible emotion and mood of the landscape of human emotion. "There's a psalm for that."
You're joyful and think you're going to burst for praise at what God has done for you?
There's a psalm for that.
You're in the depth of despair and need God to just stay with you and hold your hand, even if the despair doesn't lift for a few more minutes/years? There's a psalm for that.
You see how severely LESS than God you are - and yearn to be where He is - but clearly see the problem of the Fall - which has alienated you forever from such glory - were it not for Jesus Christ? There's a psalm for that.
You feel vulnerable and alone, abandoned or betrayed, and wonder how you can possibly prevail over the wickedness of the world - seeing all the darkness in it as a personal enemy to your well-being, safety, and happiness - and you know your only hope is for God to protect you? There's a psalm for that.
Spending time in the psalms teaches that God is... GOD. The Being in the Universe with superior wisdom, knowledge, power, justice, mercy, love, and light. The Being who can part seas, calm seas, walk on seas, and fill them wish fishes that weren't there just a minute ago.
God is greater than all of fallen humanity, and we are hopelessly lost to reconciling the distance between us, were it not for His Son - the Lamb of God who was slain for the world.
There are psalms filled with Messianic imagery and verbiage - prophetic because they're sung so many generations before they take place in the Savior's life.
Spending time in the psalms also teaches that God is... FATHER. A real, personal, intimate Parent who craves oneness with His children the way we crave it with ours.
Spending time in the psalms can leave you feeling about God the way you possibly felt about your earthly father as a little kid: My God is bigger than your God. My God is stronger than your God. My God is kinder than your God. My God is wiser than your God.
My God... IS God. He's in my corner, and He longs to be in your corner, too. He'll come the very second He's invited. But He's terribly polite, and you KNOW how He feels about agency. He will wait until He's invited, and then He'll run. Because my God is also my Abba. Daddy.
This is a Thing to know in a world where the darkness is gathering as quickly and surely as the Light is. If you need Him to be a Teacher, He's that. If you need Him to be a Comforter, He's that. If you take on the project of correction and growth inside a covenant relationship, He will be the chastening Life Coach you need to course correct as you walk with Him. How else can you walk without deviation? Because let me tell you what - without Him? I. DEVIATE.
If you need more strength, He shows up with His. If you need Hope, that's what He brings. And the psalms - in whole - praise the fact that there is - in reality - such a Being who can provide ALL those things for His unruly, deviating children - calling us home if we'll allow it.
My Father God is the Being whom I can't do without. I can't conceive anything He can't do - and that reality is articulated over and over again in the psalms. He's the one who provides every single thing needed for a perfect mortal curriculum to get me home again.
I really can't say enough about Him. Nephi sums up all the psalms in this one verse:
"I glory in plainness; I glory in truth; I glory in my Jesus, for he hath redeemed my soul from hell." (3 Nephi 33:6)
Psalms is a beautiful poetic spot to meet Him - find out who He really is - and fall completely in love with Him.
I love this: "My God... IS God. He's in my corner, and He longs to be in your corner, too. He'll come the very second He's invited. But He's terribly polite, and you KNOW how He feels about agency. He will wait until He's invited, and then He'll run. Because my God is also my Abba. Daddy."