Dear Brothers and Sisters,
As I was preparing for the Monday evening Bible study, I was listening to a brief discussion at the Yale Bible Study site.
https://yalebiblestudy.org/courses/psalms/lessons/the-character-of-god-video/
Two professors, Dr. Joel S. Baden and Dr. John J. Collins, were talking about how the psalms reveal what the ancient Israelites thought of the character of God. In a short throw-away comment, they really caused my eyebrows to go up. They said something along the lines of, “Most of the rest of Scripture is supposed to be expressing the words of God. Or reporting on the words and acts of God. But the psalms are very different. They are clearly written by humans and expressing human experience. The psalms are not a book of instruction.”
I was startled because I had never thought of the psalms in that way before. Then I felt silly, because, OF COURSE, the psalms are very human. They are even assigned to various authors: David, Asaph, the sons of Korah, etc.. They are a compendium of hymns, poems, prayers and journalistic entries about events and people’s feelings.
Why are they so very precious? Perhaps because they express every conceivable variety of experience and emotion. From the comfort and hope of Psalm 23 (The Lord is my Shepherd). The ferociousness of Psalm 94 (O God of Vengeance). The plea for help in Psalm 142 (I cry to the Lord with my voice). The song of wonder for the creation God has made in Psalm 95 (Come, let us sing to the Lord).
Then there is today’s Psalm 137 which shouts out the raw emotions of grief, longing, resentment, fear, and a desire to get even. Can any of us truly say we haven’t felt something like this one time or another? Sometimes people come to talk about how ashamed they are of the ugly thoughts they have. A psalm like this one tells us that it’s OK to share even the darkest depths of ourselves with God. As a matter of fact, if you don’t know how to express a feeling, you can count on finding a psalm that will give you the words for it. After all, it’s silly to try to hide from the One who created us and knows us better than we know ourselves. And, having expressed these difficulties to the Great Physician, hopefully healing can begin and we won’t be tempted to act on our hard thoughts. Small wonder that all our services contain psalms. And many of our hymns are based on them.
Joy to you **all** as we **all** continue to worship and serve together!
Mo. Laura+
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