Sit With Jesus + “Why I Love the Psalms”
Why I Love the Psalms.
Yesterday, I was asked if I love the Psalms. The answer to that question is, EMPHATICALLY, “Yes!” I love the Psalms. I explained that I have fallen in love with the Psalms in dark seasons and in low moments.
Yesterday, I also opened my Bible and my eyes fell on Psalm 130:1, “Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord.” And this is a precise example of why I love the Psalms. I know “depths,” and someone else, thousands of years ago, knew “depths.” My heart finds comfort and hope in that one simple phrase. The entirety of Psalms 130 is so beautiful.
PSALMS 130:
“Out of the depths have I CRIED unto thee, O LORD.
“Lord, hear my voice: let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.
“If the LORD shouldest mark iniquities, O LORD, who shall stand?
“But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.
“I WAIT for the LORD, my soul does WAIT and in His Word do I hope.
“My soul WAITETH FOR THE LORD more than they that watch for the morning:
“I say more than they that watch for the morning.
“Let Israel, hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption.
“And He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.”
This particular Psalm is such a picture of what is repeatedly seen in the Psalms: deep, dark emotions, which are overridden with truth and trust, leading to bold, faith-filled declarations of the mercy and goodness and sovereignty of God. In no other place in Scripture do we see the spectrum of human emotion and human experience play out more clearly. Both heights and depths are recorded. Unimaginable lows and soaring highs are captured and memorialized for all humanity to observe.
The Psalms are almost exactly the half-way point of the Bible. (In my Bible, page 913 is “halfway,” which is Psalm 111-113). At least 73 Psalms are attributed to David, whom God chose to call “a man after his own heart.”
In my opinion, this makes the Psalms a portrait of what so endeared God to the heart of David. He wasn’t “walled off” from God. He shared the deepest and most brilliant moments with His Creator. We never, or rarely, see David sharing these emotions with others in the stories of his life in the Samuels and Kings, but here, in Psalms, in his poetry and prose, they are displayed in their purest and most raw form. And, with this, it is almost as if God is giving us permission and inviting us to hurt…to feel, to have the pendulum swing from sorrow to exhilaration. In many ways, the Psalms paint a portrait of David’s heart for us to admire and examine all these millennia later.
And for this reason, the Psalms are a gift and a rare treasure for all. The Psalms are a refuge for the heartbroken and hurting. The Psalms are a display of praise and worship from mountains and valleys.
A few of the reasons I love the Psalms:
1. David’s, and other writers, love for the Word of God is show-cased, and I’m convicted by that because they didn’t have nearly as much Bible as I do.
“My heart standeth in awe of the Word.” (Psalm 119:16)
“Trouble and anguish have taken hold of me, yet thy commandments are my delights.” (Psalm 119:14)
“Therefore, I love they commandments above; yea, above fine gold.” (Psalm 119:12)
“How sweet are thy words unto my taste! Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth.” (Psalm 119:10)
“Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I HOPE IN THY WORD.” (Psalm 119:114)
“Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction.” (Psalm 119:9)
In Psalm 19, David says “The law of the LORD…the testimony…statures…commands…and his judgments are to be desired more than gold.”
Oh, to love the Word like David and other writers of the Psalms!
2. The Psalms are fuel for my prayers. And sometimes they are my prayers.
The other day, Bro. Woodward said, “The Psalms are the prayer book of Israel,” and I can say that they have been my prayer book, too. There have been days and seasons where I have had no words of my own to pray, but I have drug my weakness and wounds and fears into the presence of God and prayed,
“The LORD is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1)
“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust.” (Psalm 91:1-2)
3. Not only have the Psalms fueled my prayers, they have fueled my worship.
They have been an instruction manual on how to glorify and magnify this amazing God I am privileged to know and serve and walk with.
“I will bless the LORD at ALL times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her BOAST in the LORD.” (Psalm 34:1-2)
“I myself will awake early. I will praise thee, O LORD among the people…for thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens,…” (Psalm 57:8-11)
PS…David wrote this from a CAVE!
4. The Psalms have taught me how to declare things….even things I may not “feel.”
“What time I am afraid, I WILL trust in thee.” (Psalm 56:3)
“I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD.” (Psalm 118:17)
“Will the LORD cast off forever? and will He be favorable no more? … Has God forgotten to be gracious…And I said “this is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of most High…who is so great a God as our God? Thou art the God that doest wonders…” (Psalm 77:10-14)
These and many other phrases are things I have declared in spite of present emotions and present circumstances. The Psalms have taught me that truth trumps feelings, and that my job is to verbalize truth in the face of feelings.
5. The word “because” in the Psalms has shown me that experience becomes a birthplace of praise and trust.
“I love the LORD, BECAUSE hath heard my voice and my supplications.” (Psalm 116:1)
“Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live.” (Psalm 116:2)
“Because” proves to me that the difficulties of life can fuse my soul to His. I love Him because He first loved me.
6. The Psalms have been a refuge and have taught me how to find a refuge in God. When unthinkable circumstances have unfolded, when life has handed me questions for which I’ve had no answers, when the fiercest of storms are howling and swirling, I have learned to hide myself in the safety of the God Who is still “ a very present help in trouble.” (Psalm 46:1)
“God is our refuge and strength…. Therefore, will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea… The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.” (Psalm 46:1-7)
“Our soul waiteth for the LORD, he is our help and shield.” (Psalm 33:20)
“For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in His pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle did He hide me. (Psalm 27:5)
The God of the Psalmists is still a refuge, a fortress, a Rock of Defense, a High Tower, a safe place, a sure place in a rough world. When fear speaks, I still hide in Him. “He shall cover the with his feathers and under his wings shalt thou trust.” (Psalm 91:4)
7. And speaking of trust, the Psalms have taught me how to trust and have shown that trust is not always “perfect” on. my part, but that TRUST happens in crazy emotions and in spite of present questions I CHOOSE trust.
“…my heart trusted in him, and I am helped;” (Psalm 28:7)
“In God will I praise his word; in God I have put my TRUST; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.” (Psalm 56:4)
“TRUST in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us.” (Psalm 62:8)
8. The Psalms have taught me that God gives songs…even songs in the night.
“Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and IN the night His song shall be with me…” (Psalm 42:8)
“I call to remembrance my song in the night…” (Psalm 77:6)
“Sing unto the LORD a new song.” (Psalm 98:1)
“The LORD is my strength and song.” (Psalm 118:14)
He is a God Who gives a song for what you need strength for. He still gives songs in the solitary confinement of caves and in the pitch black of midnights.
“…He hath put a new song in my mouth…” (Psalm 40:3)
9. The Psalms have revealed what it looks like to be on a personal level with God. He’s not just someone else’s God, or my pastor’s God, or my church’s God. He’s mine.
“Unto thee will I cry, O LORD, MY Rock…” (Psalm 28:1)
“But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; MY glory, and the lifter up of MINE head.” (Psalm 3:3)
“MY help cometh from the LORD…” (Psalm 121:2)
Over and over; again and again, the Psalms portray the depths of relationship between humanity and deity. He is mine.
10. The Psalms have taught me about the GOODNESS of GOD…the tender mercies of God and their surety. They have taught me love for the people of God and the house of God. They have fueled my faith with phrases like, “He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds,” and, “I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.” The Psalms have instructed me on what repentance looks like in Psalm 51. I could go on and on with reasons that I love the Psalms. The things the Psalms have shown me is a long list…but I will close with one final thing…or maybe it’s two.
11. In the Psalms I have learned the power of vulnerability and dependence. God is not looking for people who “have it all together,” but rather for people who know they don’t. David wasn’t a “man after God’s own heart” because of his perfection, but rather because he was willing to OWN his flaws, frailties, sins, failures, and imperfections before God and was willing to stick with the process of being pefected. He opens his heart with its fractures and crushing over and over. He tells God what he’s facing and what he’s dealing with repeatedly. And it is in these vulnerable statements that incredible dependence is both birthed and displayed. And ultimately dependence is what God is after…. He’s looking for weak, dependent humanity through whom He can flow…through whom He can be strong…through which He can channel divine power and divine resources.
“I poured out my complaint before him; I shewed before him my trouble. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path.” (Psalm 142:2-3)
“…you desire TRUTH in the inward parts…” (Psalm 51:6)
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt despise.” (Psalm 51:17)
“All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me…” (Psalm 42:7)
And back to where I started:
“Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD.”
In deep places, I’ll convey deep vulnerability and deep dependence. Utter dependence. Total and complete reliance upon the one I look to for everything.
Charles Spurgeon says of this verse: “…out of those depths, we cry, wait, watch, and hope. In this Psalm we hear the pearl of redemption. v.7-8. Perhaps the sweet singer would never have found that precious thing had he not been cast into the depths. Pearls lie deep…beneath the floods prayer lived and struggled; yea, above the roar of the billows rose the cry of faith. It little matters where we are if we can pray; but prayer is never more real and acceptable than when it rises out of the worst places. Deep places beget deep devotion. Depths of earnestness are stirred by depths of tribulation. Diamonds sparkle most amidst the darkness…The more distressed we are, the more excellent is the faith which bravely trusts in the LORD, and therefore appeals to Him and to Him alone.”
So, in answer to the question, “Do you love the Psalms?” I think the answer is a resounding and definitive “YES.” My emphatic and definite answer is, “Yes. I love the Psalms.” These are just a few of the reasons why.
“Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name forever and ever.” (Psalm 145:2)
Thank you for joining me for this journey! Go grab your Bible and your journal!