The thing about reading the Psalms is that occasionally, at just the right time, there will be a sliver of poetry that speaks directly to your heart. Here are some crumbs from the table that have fed my soul in the past, and continue to do so, along with commentary on what they mean to me.
I was young and now I am old,
yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken
or their children begging bread.
(Psalm 37:25)
This verse has been a repeated comfort to me, as a man who has both a family and a tenuous financial future. Ruth and I have discovered that you really cannot pursue both God and Mammon, and although I don’t regret our decisions one little bit, I feel a quite natural concern for those who are under our care. This verse reminds me that if I chase righteousness, God isn’t just looking after me but my children also.
God, the one and only –
I’ll wait as long as he says.
Everything I need comes from him,
so why not?
He’s solid rock under my feet,
breathing room for my soul,
An impregnable castle:
I’m set for life.
(Psalm 62:1-2)
If you don’t recognise this, it’s because it’s from The Message translation. I find that Eugene Peterson does a good job of capturing the worship and poetry of the Psalms at times, and this is a good example.
The Lord will fulfil his purpose for me;
Your love, O LORD, endures forever –
do not abandon the works of your hands.
(Psalm 138:8)
Do you remember that stuff I wrote a couple of weeks ago about how I feel like I’m still waiting for God to get me to where I’m supposed to be? This verse, and the ones below, are my frequent prayer.
You got me when I was an unformed youth,
God, and taught me everything I know.
Now I’m telling the world your wonders,
I’ll keep at it until I’m old and grey.
God, don’t walk off & leave me until I get out the news
of your strong right arm to this world,
news of your power to the world yet to come.
(Psalm 71:17-18)
Another snippet from The Message. The less formal translation makes it sound more like a cry of the heart, which it is to me. These autobiographical verses give voice to my frustration and hope as I wait for God.
Let this be written for a future generation,
that a people not yet created may praise the LORD:
(Psalm 102:18)
AKA The Writer’s Prayer. If I had my wits about me, I would pray this every time I sat down to write anything.
My heart is not proud, O LORD,
My eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.
But I have stilled and quietened my soul;
like a weaned child with its mother,
like a weaned child is my soul within me.
O Israel, put your hope in the LORD
both now and for evermore.
(Psalm 131)
As someone who benefits greatly from those moments of silence before God, this is another Psalm I should commit to memory (come on, it’s only three verses) and let it be on my mouth every time I pause and wait to see if God has anything He wants to say to me.
There you have it. I’m sure that I shall continue to mine the Psalms for wealth long into the future, and I would encourage you to do the same. If you would like to, and it might be an encouragement to future readers, then please leave a comment on this post letting me know what snippets from the Psalms you find particularly powerful.
Psalm 37:25 – actually, I find this verse troubling. To me, it looks as though David has lost his grip on reality! Even when read in the context of the whole psalm, this verse just seems . . . out of touch.
Psalm 35:11b – if I recall correctly, we cited before our KCL exams at the Royal Horticultural Society’s halls.
The more I read the psalms, the more I find that so many of them have strange or unfamiliar imagery, or perhaps triumphalistic sentiments, which is then (in my experience) absorbed into worship without too much thought. Psalm 91 seems to be en vogue at the moment, and I just think that people are citing it too freely.
Of course, my comments here no doubt reflect my own issues and concerns, and this will be obvious when I say the psalms that I can say with most feeling are Psalms 88, 89, and 126.
Otherwise, Psalms 24 and 84 are evocative for me (as Petra and the violet burning wrote songs based on these; the Petra one is not so good, I have to say), and Psalm 26 gave me words to pray when I wasn’t recommended for ordination training and I felt I’d been dealt a bad hand as a result.
I’m not sure any of this will encourage future readers, mind!
It might encourage someone – you never know!