~Pastor Greg
A couple weeks ago I, along with Pastor Bryce and Michael
Giuliani, had the opportunity to attend the annual Symposium on Christian
Worship sponsored by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship in Grand Rapids,
Michigan. We were three of some 1,800 participants from around the U.S.,
Canada, and the world. The theme for this year’s conference was When Life Is Prayer: the Psalms.
Worship, primary speakers, and a number of workshops all focused around the
Bible’s prayer book – the Psalms. Three
days of worshipping through the Psalms, reading the Psalms, praying the Psalms,
singing the Psalms, thinking and talking about the Psalms. Some might think
this is interesting, others a little strange or boring. But to be there, let me
say, was an inspiring experience.
The Psalm’s touch our hearts and souls in ways that seem to
be unique. They are the words from God’s Word that seem to lay hold of us in a
very deep and lasting manner. As one small evidence of this from my own
experience let me offer this: through about 20 years of pastoral ministry, when
I visit someone in the hospital, a care center, a home and I ask if there is
anything from Scripture I can read for them, it is almost always something from
the Psalms. The Psalms grab hold of us, I think, because the Psalmists write
from the heights and depths of human experience. We seem to find ourselves in
the Psalms.
But the Psalmists are not simply writing about human
experiences of joy and triumph, of fear and loss, impatience and loneliness,
awe and wonder, and countless other human experiences and emotions. They are
primarily writing about God, and how God is in the midst of our joy and
triumph, fear and loss. Sometimes they are praising God, sometimes crying to
God, sometimes challenging God, always in awe of God. So the Psalms do not just
speak to us about human experience and emotion, but about how God is in the
midst of those experiences and emotions. The Psalms do not first teach us about
proper human responses to God, they first teach us about God.
And what do they reveal to us about God? The Psalmists teach
us about a God who is not only creative, but a constantly reliable provider
(Pss. 8, 104). They reach out to a God who has a selective memory when it comes
to our sins, but a never-failing memory of his promises to us (Ps. 25). They
depend upon a God who constantly listens to, watches over, and defends His
people (Pss. 91, 138). In the midst of pain and trial they call out to a God
who both knows the pain of his people as well as abides with them through it
(Pss. 23, 42, 56). In a lifetime full of uncertainty they cling to a God who
shows himself to be reliable and a constant source of strength (Pss. 22, 118).
From the midst of despair they cry to a God who both hears his people and who
is the source of all hope and life (Pss. 13, 30). Among people who claimed
anything was permissible, they affirm a God who has revealed His life-giving
Law (Ps. 119).
So as you read the Psalms, pray the Psalms, sing the Psalms,
remember the Psalms let me encourage you to see not only a reflection of your
experience. Take the same step the Psalmist takes. Look for and learn from the
God who is with you in the midst of it all.
