Psalms - The Bible's "songbook"

Many people love the book of Psalms. The Bible’s “songbook” shows us how to deal with real life. Eugene Peterson writes that the Psalms are a place where we “find the experience of being human before God exposed and sharpened.” The Psalms are incredibly honest, embracing the realities of life and singing through them.

Over a third of the Psalms can be categorized as laments. Over and over again these songs face up to the sharpest of pains, the deepest of struggles, and the loneliest of moments. This is where many of us are as we gather together on a Sunday. There are times when we come to sing with a heaviness of heart. None of us comes with everything figured out. We need to sing songs that recognize these realities without leaving us to despair of those realities, because they bring us to the Rock that is higher than us.

The Psalms tell us to sing when we’re happy. We have freedom to dance, to shout, to sing and play music, and to celebrate our victories. But we must not only sing songs that help us when we’re happy. We can also sing because we’re sad, and we must also sing of Christ when we’re sad. We have freedom to weep, to pour out our souls to a God who hears and who acts. We sing for our brothers and sisters in those moments or seasons when they cannot.

We sing, as the Psalms train us, to help us bring all of our lives, failures, successes, losses, gains, dreams, and ambitions into gospel perspective. Our singing can prepare us for every season of life, and sustain us through every season of life. We don’t need a musical escape from our lives; we need to gaze on the Savior of our lives – our refuge and help and comfort.

(from “Sing!” by Keith and Kristyn Getty)

PraiSing Him!

Mark