I can remember the first positive encounter I had with the psalms. It was during a time in my life when memorizing scripture was a new practice. After starting with mostly New Testament one-liners and moving on to short paragraphs of Paul’s letters, it only felt appropriate to diversify my scripture knowledge by adding a psalm to my repertoire. I didn’t care much for poetry at the time, but I was passionate about the Bible, and if poetry was part of the canon, then I was going to give it a try.
I selected Psalm 23. I don’t remember why, but surely it had something to do with it being relatively short and well known. I finished committing it to memory just before going on a mission trip to El Salvador. It would end up becoming a guide for my evening prayer times throughout that trip. Each night before going to bed I would recite Psalm 23 to myself as I slowly climbed the uneven stairs that led to the church building at the top of the children’s home property. I would look out over the village streets below and spend time with God, reflecting on his goodness and all that he was teaching me during that trip and that season of my life. This intimate time with the Lord was instrumental for my spiritual growth and for my call to ministry that I began to experience on this trip.
The funny thing about all of this is that I’m pretty sure I didn’t know what I was doing. What began as routine scripture memorization became a prayerful habit that helped me set aside distractions and prepare myself to encounter God in prayer. This was the first time I had experienced the psalms acting as a kind of prayer guide for me. At a moment in my life when I was more excited about following Jesus than ever before, Psalm 23 gave me words to verbalize my worship and adoration for who Jesus is and why I was overjoyed to trust him with my life. This was a huge step of growth for my engineering brain at the time, as I began to see scripture not only as a source of truth and information to understand God better, but as a formational tool and means of grace to help me experience God more and more. Psalm 23 didn’t just get in my head as a memory verse; the regular reciting and praying through these words began to make their way into my heart.
This was my gateway to understanding the psalms as a prayer book for me to use for all occasions. I began opening the psalms to guide me in times of worship. I turned to the psalms when I was feeling empty and hopeless. When life got way too busy during my seminary studies and reading scripture sometimes seemed like more homework, I turned to the psalms for meditation and for being still before God. When I didn’t have the words to pray, psalms gave me the words I needed to cry out to God. It is not just knowing that they are there or learning the words of a psalm that is powerful, but using the psalms as my prayer guide has been a huge part of my discipleship over the past 18 years. I read the psalms to help my soul connect with God; and God was faithful to meet me in the psalms and continues to be at work in my life.
About a year ago, I had the opportunity to share some of this with my daughter, Abigail. As she was struggling with her own eight-year-old fears and anxieties around bedtime, Tracy and I tried everything we could think of to comfort her without success. One night we talked to Abigail about how we turn to the psalms whenever we need help dealing with our own fears and anxieties. This seemed to interest her, so I wanted to show her what I meant by example. Psalm 23 came to my mind first, no doubt due to it being etched into my mind and heart for all these years. As we read through the words of Psalm 23, we talked about how God is like a good shepherd who always takes care of us. We talked about how God can give us peace like nothing else on this earth. We talked about how God is with us, even when it feels like we are in a dark valley. Abigail latched onto these words and felt comforted by them. We wrote some of these verses out on a paper for her to keep by her bed at night. If she felt fears and anxieties creeping back in, she could turn on her nightlight and reread this psalm to remind her that God is with her and is watching out for her. She quickly memorized these verses as she read them to help her sleep almost every night. Before long, she didn’t need the paper to help her remember the promises of this psalm. The hope-filled words became etched into her mind. They also found their way into her heart. Psalm 23 helped Abigail learn to trust God more. Even more important than that, Abigail now knows that the psalms are a place she can turn in the future for comfort and to guide her in prayer.
The psalms are an amazing part of the Scripture that God has given us. God doesn’t just want us to know they are there or know information about the psalms. I am convinced that God gave us the psalms to carry us in prayer in all types of occasions. As we continue through this series on the psalms, I want to invite you to let God be at work in your life through the psalms. Maybe for you this means memorizing a psalm and reciting it each day to focus yourself on God. Maybe it means using the psalms as a prayer guide. Maybe God will give you an opportunity to share a psalm with someone who needs to know God’s loving care. Maybe something entirely different. I don’t know how God wants to use the psalms in your life at this moment, but I am convinced that when we spend time in the psalms, God will surely meet us there.
In Christ,
Pastor Thomas
