What I Have Learned from Reading the Psalms

I am now almost halfway through my study of the Psalms.  What have I learned from this study? Several thoughts jump out immediately:

• It is OK to call for help!  David and the otehr psalmists did that regularly!
• Be transparent, vulnerable.  Yes, I want my enemies punished!  Yes, I want justice!
• God's responses often seem, to us mere mortals, slowly or non-existent. "How long?" is a common cry.

When I first became a Christian, I was introduced to an acronym for approaching God, ACTS: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication. One was encouraged to first tell God how much one Adored Him, then Confess any transgressions, express Thanksgivings for recent gifts and then, finally, make any requests (Supplication.) Here is a webpage that mentions that model (where "Contrition" replaces "Confession".) A slightly different version of that guide is the Navigator hand illustration for prayer, listing five aspects of prayer: confession, petition, intercession, thanksgiving, and praise.

These guides can be a good plan for someone calmly sitting down at their kitchen table in the morning, with an open Bible and a cup of coffee, attempting some type of devotional. But my own experience seems closer to David's hurried cries of "Help! I'm sinking!" or "How long?!" The psalms are often desperate, hurried cries for help, elegant in form, but at times angry or confused. There is a message of intimacy and trust. Bring every cry to God!

Long ago, when I was first reading the psalms, someone suggested writing personal psalms, not just reading them.  For a short time I did that, and enjoyed it. Here is a more post by Marc Alan Schelske on this concept. Quite a number of musicians and poets have ued the psalms as a stepping stone, either writing their own hymns or creating their own muscial scheme of a particular psalm. Michael Card has put numerous psalms to music.

But for many of us, simply reading a psalm quietly (or outloud) can easily become a prayer. There is a psalm for every mood.

What have I learned from the psalms?  

Forget the formalities.

Run to God, quickly, awkwardly, bumbling, fumbling for words. 

Run. Quickly.