The Book of Psalms is God’s gift to us that ensures we will always have a prayer. Even when we don’t know how to pray, one of the 150 psalms will speak to our circumstances and provide us with an example of how to pray our way through. It’s been said that while the Bible is God’s Word to us, the Psalms are our words back to God.
Taken collectively, the Psalms provide a cross-section of real life interaction between God and His people of Israel. Through the filter of a gritty, genuine processing of faith we see high moments and low moments and all moments in between. Martin Luther spoke of the book as “a Bible in miniature.” John Calvin described it as an “anatomy of all parts of the soul” noting that any emotion man can express is represented in the Psalms.
In short, we could all stand to get a little more Psalms in our lives. For your teens or college age, I invite you to check out InWord’s newly revised study One on One with God: A Group Study in the Psalms. This small-group study explores six key psalms that help us experience a deeper intimacy with God. Revisions include multiple group guides for different age groups (middle school through college age!).
Finally, here are three “makes” for personally getting more psalms in our lives:
- Make it a steady diet:
Most chapters are able to stand on their own with the classic story components of introduction, body, and conclusion (with a few cliffhangers). No matter the size of the chapter, each psalm gives us a complete Bible experience, lending the book to nice, daily doses of Scripture. With 150 psalms, you can work through the book twice each year with 65 days to spare.
- Make it important:
Psalms is the Old Testament book most referred to in the New Testament. Of the approximately 260 Old Testament passages quoted in the New Testament, more than one-third are drawn from the Psalms. It’s also the book most quoted by Jesus. We should take a cue and keep the book heavily integrated into our spiritual formation.
- Make it more than a devotional moment:
It’s easy to use the Psalms as a light devotional moment, a convenient “go to” when we are trying to squeeze some Bible time into our busy lives or a worship moment when settling into personal Bible study. This, of course, is not a bad thing and even reflects the nature of the book: a collection of songs. But consider a slow-grind study through the book. Keep track of what each psalm teaches about God, and in turn, about our relationship with God.