Let’s dive into the precious Psalms together. This well-loved collection of prayers will help us to understand God’s character better. It will also put the rest of what we read in the Old Testament into practice: giving us a model for how to apply the Bible to our own daily prayer life. This will be done when we read about how the authors reflected on examples of the Israelites’ lived experiences. 

For a broader view of this book of the Bible, we encourage you to watch this video:

Bible Journaling Tip: 

We can sometimes disconnect emotions that we read about in the Bible from true emotions in our real life. Print a few photos from your own life with experiences that made you feel: proud, happy, excited, in disbelief, and amazed. Write the emotive words on each photo. Add these into an envelope that you paste into the back of your Bible and use them as a key to pull out when you read about a certain emotion. (You could also draw emojis!)

LOOK UP (information): encounter God through the Scripture 

Author:

The book of Psalms is made up of 150 Hebrew poems and prayers. King David wrote 73 of them, but there are actually many other authors for the rest. See if you can identify some of these authors by reading the headings and introductions to different Psalms.

Audience:

This book is a collection of poems that were written over many years - it even includes some that were written by Moses. The Psalms are written in a way that assumes that its hearers have read and understood the history of God and the Israelites. So, if you read something that you do not understand, pause and think back about the other books in the Old Testament and ask: Where have I read about this before?

History:

The book of Psalms consists of two types of poems: lament and praise. The poems of lament express frustration with the brokenness of the world, the sinfulness of people, and the pain that God’s people had endured. The poems of praise, on the other hand, are filled with joy, celebration, and hope that God will fulfill his promises and send a savior for all people. 

Genre:

This collection of poems has the goal to become a new Torah for the people of God - a new Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers & Deuteronomy - meaning, it will become a new instruction for how to live as faithful believers. It is a prayerbook reflecting on the Torah and written with hopeful expectation for God’s promises to come true: for the Messiah to really come.  

LOOK IN (revelation): contemplate / reflect on our own lives

Key verse:

Psalm 98:4-9 NIV

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music; make music to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn- shout for joy before the Lord, the King. Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy; let them sing before the Lord.

Inspiration:

Have you considered that all of creation could be worshipping God? Our worldview in this modern world is a very human-centric view, because we believe in self-actualization as the goal of life: “become the best me I can be”. Most worldviews in history did not have people in the centre of everything, but rather as a holistic part of something much bigger. What are the implications of that for how we think about ourselves in relation to the rest of creation?  

LOOK OUT (transformation): respond with creative worship action  

Drawing prompt:

The Psalms reveal God’s character. Paint a sunset over a still lake, or a large bouquet of flowers - something that is beautiful for you. Then, take a pen and write down the characteristics of God that we read about in Psalms on the painting. You can write it in big and bold letters in open spaces, or you can hide it in the detail of more busy spaces. 

The idea is that this painting is reflecting the beauty of God’s character. As you read through the Psalms, ask yourself this question to help to identify the characteristics: Who is the God that the author is speaking to? What am I learning about God through what the author is saying? What is God like? What is he not like? What makes God unique from any other gods or kings?

Bible Journey with JournalOwl:

Here are some questions / prompts provided by the JournalOwl community. 

• Why did the psalm writer believe that the Lord would be willing to save him in verse four? (Psalms 6:4)
• How is the psalm writer protected from his enemies in verse eight of this book? (Psalms 6:8)

Follow this link to dive into this book with an online Bible Study group.

Writing prompt:

Many followers of Jesus since the Psalmists have also written beautiful songs and prayers to Jesus. See the famous prayer of St Francis for example:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace, Where there is hatred, let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon; Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope; Where there is darkness, light; Where there is sadness, joy

What could you write about God? Think back on the books of 1 and 2 Chronicles, and what we read about the life of David. When he writes Psalms about being in a desolate place and being chased by enemies, those are his real-life experiences. Nobody else has exactly your story of praise. Reflect on what is unique about your life, and then use those aspects to write your own Psalm to God.

Prayer:

God, I want to thank you for the book of Psalms. Your character is on display when I read through the Psalms. You are a creative and beautiful God who protects those who love you and obey your commands. Let my response to this text be worship unto you!