We’re taking a break from John’s Gospel for the summer to do Psalms with the help of many wonderful preachers and writers. This week we’ll learn how to read the Psalms as an overview. This would be a great time to invite your friends to join us, or to do this with friends as a summer study.
A paradigm changer for me on how to read the Psalms was a chapter on the Psalms in Philip Yancey’s book: The Bible Jesus Read.
We read and discussed this article in church Sunday and many mature Christians found it eye-opening, so I felt free to do it here, with this mature group. We’ll take it page by page, with illustrations from the Psalms. The Psalter is both the songbook and the prayer book of the Bible. We will be practicing singing and praying them. You may want to get a prayer journal. Our own Judy wrote recently:
This week’s study has been eye-opening how my passion has subsided and has given me the determination to love God more (not just Jesus) I’ve been in Psalms’s praises. Yesterday I wrote some verses out and then journaled. Yesterday it was a time of intimacy. . .
In a few weeks, we will do Psalm 23, and if you don’t already have it, I’d like you to get this classic, for we will spend 3 weeks on it. Please do it right away so you are ready.
I’m sure you could get it from the library, and the audio is free if you have Amazon Prime, but it’s very inexpensive at this link:
1. How have you experienced the presence or power of God in your life this week?
Monday: Frostily Depressed
Read the opening page, finishing the paragraph that ends on the 2nd page.
2. Why did Yancey hate the psalms?
3. What did he try to do to like them better that failed?
4. What discovery opened his eyes?
5. Can you identify with Yancey’s frustration? Why or why not?
Tuesday: The Psalms Are Meant To Increase Our Intimacy with God
Read Pages 2 through halfway through 3 stopping at “Many Psalms show their authors…”
6. What did Yancey learn from reading the notes in his father’s Bible? Have you ever read someone’s Bible notes and learned something about them or their relationship with God?
7. How are the Psalms similar?
8. Poetry may teach us something, but primarily it is meant to get to our hearts. My friend Ann became a Christian after reading T. S. Elliot’s Hollow Men. She didn’t want to live a hollow life. Look at one of your favorite psalms, and find the poetry that captured your heart. Share the word picture or word pictures here and explain why it touches your heart.
9. Now, share, and you may want to share it in a journal too, how that word picture causes you to praise God, confess sin, or ask God for something. Then do it.
10. What mealtime prayer did Yancey learn as a child and why did he become uncomfortable with it?
Wednesday: Honest to God
Read through the middle of page 5 to “The Cursing Psalms”
11. What stands out and why?
12. Why did Yancey find it comforting that the psalmists struggled with questions? Was that part of your spiritual journey or not? Explain.
13. Describe the contrasting juxtaposition of Psalms 22 and 23. What does this teach us?
14. How about 102 and 103?
15. Why do you think God wants us to be honest with Him? Do you think you are? Has this helped you hear from God? Explain.
Thursday: Cursing and Praising
Read up to the middle of page 7 and stop at “Third, the psalms give me a model of spiritual therapy.”
16. How did C. S. Lewis see the cursing psalms, but what problem is there with that view?
17. How does Yancey see the cursing psalms? Do you find this helpful? Explain.
18. What did C. S. Lewis first misunderstand about the psalms of praise when he said, “I don’t want my dog to bark approval of my books.” What did he come to understand?
19. How did the ancient Hebrews respond to God’s glory? (Our Laura-dancer will like this!)
Friday: Spiritual Therapy
20. Read to the end and share what stands out to you.
21. Depending on your emotions today, see if you can find a psalm that matches them. Meditate on it, and share what word pictures stand out to you. Then use it as a springboard for prayer, let it lead you into praise, lament, confession, or supplication.
1. How have you experienced the presence or power of God in your life this week? For the last few months I frequently listen to the song Counting my blessings. There is a line that says the more I look in the details the more of Your goodness I find. My daughter in law had a yard sale this week and I gathered together toys I had at my house that the girls don’t play with much any more. One item was a small plastic house with furniture. I realized one of the stools was missing. I looked for it and couldn’t find so I put the stuff in the car anyway. I thought if it sells, she knows who buys it and I find the stool, I will get it to them. The next morning when I opened up the door to drop things off to her, there in plain sight was the missing 1 1/2 inch plastic stool. Something totally insignificant to me, but the more I look in the details, the more of His goodness I find.
Judy, this is good. I’m finding myself, the more I stop, listen and feel His presence, the closer I’m getting to truly being with Him. I pray I’m open his leading at all times.
Judy, I so relate to this: Something insignificant to me, but the more I look in the details, the more of His goodness I find. It came to view once again while we were on this trip to the Philippines. finding a special material my daughter wanted to buy for some friends, an outpatient clinic to go to without the dreaded long wait that is common in the Philippines, taking a quick trip with my cousin, and finding out a doctor friend I haven’t seen for many years has her clinic next door, etc!
Sunday: God Hunt 1. How have you experienced the presence or power of God in your life this week? – Last week when Tim Keller talked about the church that was feeding the homeless and then stopped and fed a lesser amount because they didn’t want to just fee them, they wanted to befriend them as well and couldn’t do that well if they didn’t cut back on how many they fed. That really made me think about what they did and this Friday and Saturday an opportunity presented itself. We were at a free concert on Friday night in the downtown of a neighboring town and a homeless woman came up to me and asked if I could help her get something to eat. None of the vendors were set up yet with food, so I wasn’t able to help. I did see her later and she had a bad of food so she was helped. Then yesterday, Saturday, my husband and I were visiting some new shops in that same downtown and she was there again and approached me. I don’t know if she recognized me or not, but I did her. I gave her money this time, but I said, you are going to get food with this right and she said that she is not a drug addict and she does go to church, she’s just homeless. I felt today as I was talking to a friend about what happened, that God was telling me to ask her her name next time. I will see if that happens again, but I want to have a bag of food ready for her to just hand her. I almost just turned her away on Friday, but stopped and got up and walked with her to see if the vendor was ready with the food. God works in us, he worked in me Friday night and I can only pray I will continue to hear Him lead me to what I’m to do when opportunities come up.
I experienced the presence of God in other people’s grace to me this week. Twice I double booked myself and I had to cancel plans I had made. In both cases the inconvenienced parties were quite understanding.
Sunday: God Hunt
1. How have you experienced the presence or power of God in your life this week?
—I was keeping grandchildren this past week while our son and his wife had a retreat time for 7 days in the mountains in Colorado. I was feeding the three teenage grandsons until they left on Monday for a Senior High Church camp and I then had my 8 year old and 10 year old granddaughters for the whole week. I felt like God blessed our week with the strength needed for me and protection from accident or any health issues. I am just very grateful to God for his power and presence in his gracious care over our lives.
I have been richly blest by studying the Psalms. MY grandmother memorized Psalm 103 and repeated it often. A fresh study of the Psalms would be wonderful.
Hi, Dee! I can’t wait to get started. My church isn’t doing summer study.. so this is a God-Send ! Going to Billy Graham training Center in Asheville in July for seminar on Psalms. Last yr attended Psalm seminar at Montreat, NC.I love studying God’s Word . My small grp at church in Delafield, Wi just finished Ecclesiastes study… I had bought your study bk quite a while ago and re read it ..Loved that study! We are leaving for Door on Thur for a few days.. will have my Bible along to work on Psalms . Please include me in this study. Thanks, again! You are a blessing!
Hi Dee, yes.. leaving for Door County this Thur.. returning to Delafield Sun…staying in Fish Ck. A few months ago I was reading the Pulse in our hotel room and noticed that you had just done an event in Egg Harbor THAT MORNING! I wish I had known earlier… would have been there! Oh, I just read Yancey’s article Great article I have struggled with them, too. A real take away last year at the Montreat seminar was the evening get togethers with the leader in the old lodge. It was so meditative…prayer by candle light! It was HEART FELT ..not head knowledge! I felt so close to God ..was wonderful! The other place that feels like stepping into heaven is at the Cove in NC Are you familiar with it? My husband and I try to have a retreat there every yr..would love to tell you about it . I even have an extra program for this yr… can mail it or drop it off to you ..let me know.. Thx for including me in the study!🙏😁Barb
I am loving the Psalms. Listen to a nighty podcast on the Psalms before bed which relaxes me and attend a small women’s bible study on the Psalms. We do one a week… we are at Psalm 62. The lady who leads it provides several different resources which adds insight and also encorages time for discussion. Would enjoy reading Psalms with you too.
I’m looking forward to spending time in the Psalms. It’s a very different season for me right now. I pray Jesus speaks to me through these words and these friends in Christ.
For a variety of reasons! They seemed to contradict each other, they were like a medical prescription (bad health read Psalm…) they sometimes exacerbated his problem instead of making it better, he would end up on a “wintry” Psalm and end up feeling depressed, they were boring and religious to him. I love where he says something about why did we need 150 when 15 would do!
3. What did he try to do to like them better that failed?
He tried to systematically study them. He learned about them; the poetry, Psalms of lament, ascent, royalty, etc. He was more intelligent but still didn’t like them.
4. What discovery opened his eyes?
He figured out that they were personal letters to God, written by a myriad of people.
5. Can you identify with Yancey’s frustration? Why or why not?
Absolutely! Unfortunately, not just with the Psalms. I struggle to understand a lot of the Bible, and though I know it’s what I need to know, sometimes I dread reading it. Ugh, did I just say that out loud? I also wonder why we don’t study some books compared to others. Like, why haven’t we (or others) done a study of Acts? Or Malachi, Micah, or Haggai? We seem to study some text more than others 🤷🏻♀️ (not just here but in other venues as well).
Good question, Laura. I love your questions. Keller has said all Scripture is inspired and valuable, but some parts are more valuable than others. As an individual matures, reads through the Bible habitually, he learns so much more, and I think some parts minister more to some than others.
Because there are so many psalms, we frequently return, yet even this summer we will probably only get through 10 to 12. I’m using the ones our worship leader chose for church because they are ones that are easily put to music, so some are very familiar such as 1, 2, and 23, and some will be unfamiliar to many.
Welcome, Dee. Is Dee a nickname for another name? My real name is Meredith, with the nickname of Meredy, which my sisters could not pronounce, so I became just Dee.
If my comment can be taken down, I would appreciate it. I tried everything I could think of yesterday to rem look very it but didn’t seem to have that option. ASAP, please. I have followed along with these studies but rarely commented and that is a better option for me. My apologies Thanks
Monday: Frostily Depressed
Read the opening page, finishing the paragraph that ends on the 2nd page.
2. Why did Yancey hate the psalms?
—Because in his experience in reading the Psalms they frankly were not uplifting to him and he would end up reading the ones that felt very “wintery” to him and they depressed him. Also he said they confused him by their bleak despair mixed closely together with soaring joy. They seemed contradictory to him and felt unnecessarily repetitive.
3. What did he try to do to like them better that failed?
—He tried to study them systematically and familiarized himself with all the aspects of them but continued to fail finding enjoyment reading them.
4. What discovery opened his eyes?
—He discovered and these are his words. “that Psalms comprises a sampling of spiritual journals. They are personal letters to God. Even the psalms for public use were designed as corporate prayers: God was their primary audience as well. ……They are personal prayers in the form of poetry, written by a variety of people—peasants, kings, professional musicians, rank amateurs—in wildly fluctuating moods.
5. Can you identify with Yancey’s frustration? Why or why not?
—Yes, I have had mixed feelings about various Psalms. They do feel all over the place at times but yet I have had sections of them minister deeply to my heart.
Yancey’s assessment of them as personal journals and letters to God is very helpful.
I loved how he said he realized they were personal letters to God and the point was to read them like over the shoulder. And how studying them from an intellectual or systematic.viewpoint didn’t work. They’re personal. The Psalms are comforting to me for that reason. I relate to the struggles, the pain, and also the moments of praise and joy. All parts of my relationship with God. I love that we have the Psalms to help us understand that our experience is real and normal and it doesn’t have to make sense or fit in a theological or systematic box. Life doesn’t have pretty bows on everything. Lots of experiences are left unresolved throughout life. The Psalms show me that my experience doesn’t mean something is wrong with my faith. And that’s so comforting.
Loved this Ali… I love that we have the Psalms to help us understand that our experience is real and normal and it doesn’t have to make sense or fit in a theological or systematic box. Life doesn’t have pretty bows on everything. Lots of experiences are left unresolved throughout life. The Psalms show me that my experience doesn’t mean something is wrong with my faith. And that’s so comforting.
Hi Ali, just want to welcome you and I like your honest post. Love this especially: “Life doesn’t have pretty bows on everything. Lots of experiences are left unresolved throughout life. The Psalms show me that my experience doesn’t mean something is wrong with my faith.” Yes! I find this much more comforting than putting on a smile and being stoical, sweeping the painful things under the proverbial rug of spirituality. Sometimes there are no answers, and we just have to believe that while we don’t understand, we have a God who is with us in it.
1. How have you experienced the presence or power of God in your life this week?
I had the most lovely God sighting this week! I met one of our blog sisters, dear Bing! Last week we all prayed for safe travels and for no volcanic activity to interrupt the flights that she and her daughter, Ruth were taking home. Bing and Ruth had a lay over in Seattle on their way home! I was able to meet them in real life! It was so so fun!!! We had a sweet time together and Ruth’s dear friends, Caleb and Danny were able to join us! It was pure joy meeting them all and spending a blessed two hours with them! What beautiful friends! Thank you, Lord!
Oh wow! I was wondering how Bing and Ruth were doing with the volcano situation in the Philippines. We’re they able to stay through the length of the trip? So glad they are safe and I can’t wait to hear all about it. That must have been so fun meeting each other!
I too remember meeting many in Ohio, and I have gotten to meet a couple others in places close to me. In fact, Patti, when you come east I would love to meet up. You will be very close to me 😉.
2. Why did Yancey hate the psalms?
Yancey found the Psalms contradictory and depressing. Some were boring and repetitious. They seemed to have no logical sequence and many seemed to be “wintry” and made him depressed. 3. What did he try to do to like them better that failed?
Yancey tried to read them systematically and it helped his comprehension, but not his enjoyment. 4. What discovery opened his eyes?
Once he realized that the Psalms were a sampling of spiritual journals, prayers to God. 5. Can you identify with Yancey’s frustration? Why or why not?
Yes, I can identify. Some of them are depressing and filled with such lament, they can be leave me wanting….and can be difficult to understand. I tend to page through seeking out the Praise Psalms, though I love some of the Psalms of protection. Psalm 91 has been one that has many of my footnotes around it in all of my Bible. 🙂
Monday: Frostily Depressed Read the opening page, finishing the paragraph that ends on the 2nd page. 2. Why did Yancey hate the psalms? – They were confusing, boring and they seemed to contradict themselves and they depressed him. 3. What did he try to do to like them better that failed? – He tried to study the book systematically but he still didn’t enjoy reading Psalms so he avoided it. 4. What discovery opened his eyes? – By trying to make it more difficult than what it was he missed the point that the Psalms were like spiritual journals, personal letters to God. He started reading them keeping in mind that they weren’t for the audience reading them, but to God. 5. Can you identify with Yancey’s frustration? Why or why not? – I certainly can feel his frustration. They seem to much like poetry and at times and I am not a fan of poetry. I like to understand and get a meaning for what I’m reading.
I owe my love for poetry to my mother and my high school literature teacher, Julie! I used to either sing or make up silly acrostics to study for my nursing tests! LOL
Looking forward to this study as I, too, don’t really know how to read the Psalms and yet many people over the years have told me they just ‘love’ this book. Some of the psalms speak to me but I don’t go to them by default when I am troubled.
Also, I have never done a study like this and hope I can be persistent and disciplined enough to hang with it. Thank you, Dee, for all your hard work. And hello Julie Pedroza!!!!!
2. Why did Yancey hate the psalms? He would read a psalm that didn’t fit his circumstance at the time so finding no comfort. The main reason though they confused him. He felt they contradicted themselves and after reading them for a bit he found them boring
3. What did he try to do to like them better that failed?he tried reading them systematically and learned to appreciate the poetic craft and Hebrew parallelism. He still didn’t enjoy them.
4. What discovery opened his eyes? He realized they were personal letters to God and should be read that way. The audience is God and not other people. Now when he reads them he tries to project himself back to what was going on with the writer.
5. Can you identify with Yancey’s frustration? Why or why not? There are parts of some psalms I don’t enjoy. I’ve been trying to slow down reading and think about what they are really saying and not just skim the parts I’m not enjoying.
Sunday: God Hunt
1. How have you experienced the presence or power of God in your life this week?
Ruth and I left the Philippines at 1 PM on Saturday. We had an 8-hour layover in Taipei and an 11-hour flight to Seattle. It was a very long day for us, but God gave us a few hours of sleep while on the latter flight. We spent the night with 2 of Ruth’s friends and we had a good night’s sleep at their place. On Sunday morning, we woke up to a bright, sunny, and cool morning. From the 15th floor of the high rise, I relished the beauty of the clear blue sky and the city’s expansive landscape. The day was extra beautiful as our Patti picked us up and took us out for breakfast at a restaurant with great ambiance and food. The conversations that flowed around the table were for the books! There we were-5 people who met for the first time as a group connected by Patti’s love in action. Dee, you are right-Patti is the consummate hostess. Her hospitality is above and beyond!
It has also dawned on me that this visit was pre-ordained by God, and nothing stood in its way including a volcanic activity in the Philippines which could have caused a delay to our trip back home.
Thank you for your prayers and we are glad to be back home!
Oh Bing! I’m so glad you made it home safely and also (BONUS) got to meet Patti! I love this. I prayed and hoped you were able to complete your trip successfully. It seemed short for going so far away. Did you stay the amount of time or have to leave early due to the volcanism? ♥️🙏
Bing, I was so blessed to be able to spend time with Bing, Ruth, Caleb and Danny. Each one, a true treasure. Bing is the sweetest, most loving woman of God. I know we all see that here on the blog. Ruth is lovely, smart, articulate, with a huge heart for rescuing animals (and people too, I think!) . She is also a very talented musician. Caleb and Danny are both wonderful and interesting young men. The Lord was very present. There is never enough time! The Lord is so good and I am so thankful that your trip went well!
Oh Bing, So glad to have you back home in the states and what a wonderful gift from God that you got to see Patti. Look forward to hearing more about your trip and your time with Ruth. You know we all were praying for you. 🙏🏻💕
Thank you all for your sweet thoughts! There were some real tough times while we were there but I kept clinging to Jesus and to the knowledge that you were praying for us.
1. How have you experienced the presence or power of God in your life this week? There have been several times this week where I have found my thoughts to be negative about situations especially at work and almost immediately I have felt the Holy Spirit stopping me and redirecting my thoughts to examine myself and what is really going on in my heart. Mostly, it boils down to pride.
6. What did Yancey learn from reading the notes in his father’s Bible? Have you ever read someone’s Bible notes and learned something about them or their relationship with God?
Yancey learned that he needed to put himself in the position of the authors just as he read his fathers Bible notes. Yes, my mom was an avid reader and journaled often. She would write index cards with Bible verses to remind her, also. I have one that says something like, “Sometimes I want to throw in the towel. Grant me perseverance and peace.”
7. How are the Psalms similar?
The letters are from real people to God. They tell us about what a real, heartfelt, relationship with God should look like.
1. How have you experienced the presence or power of God in your life this week?
I’ve been quietly doing the Keller sermons and blog studies on John and they have been powerful. I have done the ones on Confident in Hope and Confident in Love. I had a big aha moment in the Love sermon in which Keller talked about a woman who never got over a break-up with her fiancé, as compared to a woman who did. He used the metaphor of how the love of God put a sweetness, as it were, in the bottom of the cup (or in one’s heart) that kept the bitterness from going all the way down, and how the love of God was real to one woman and more abstract to the other. Then, a couple nights ago, we watched episode 2 of The Chosen’s new season, and I watched as forgiveness was modeled between Peter and Matthew. It was very powerful and moving for me as well, as I feel like it touched something very deeply in me. I am eager to move beyond my default tendency which is to allow grudges and resentments to remain in my heart.
2. Why did Yancy hate the Psalms?
When he would turn to the Psalms to find relief for his problems, as he knew others did, it never worked for him. He would read a Psalm that just left him feeling worse (it exacerbated, not cured, his problem). Especially if he read one of the “wintry Psalms”, he would end up feeling “frostily depressed”.
3. What did he try to do to like them better that failed?
He studied them systematically, learning about Hebrew parallelism, recognizing the different types of psalms. Yet, after all that study, he still found no enjoyment in them.
4. What discovery opened his eyes?
He discovered that the psalms were actually like prayer journals, or personal letters to God, written by a variety of people in a wide array of emotional states (paranoid, vindictive, petty, self-righteous). They are personal prayers written in the form of poetry.
5. Can you identify with Yancey’s frustration? Why or why not?
I like reading through the Psalms. Often, I will read one out loud, and then, telling God I’d like to use the psalmist’s words, pray it back to Him, adding my own words, thoughts, or applying it to my own feelings and what I need, or it will call to mind a need for someone else and I will pray for them. I remember we’ve studied the psalms here before, with the help of Michael Reeves and Keller, and I learned a lot during that time.
I can identify with his frustration in that sometimes I feel frustrated and overwhelmed by trying to study other parts of the Bible, picking it apart, as it were, when I just want to read it, “feel” it, and get drawn into the scene. I have been on a couple of retreats where we used Lectio Divina, which is reading a short passage of Scripture. It is read out loud by one person, and first, you just try to notice what jumped out at you – maybe a word, or a phrase. The passage is read again, and if possible, you try to enter into the scene, imagining what do you see, hear, smell, taste…who are you in the scene? Are you one of the people, or a bystander? Once I did that with the baptism of Jesus, as if I was with Him, standing in a long line, waiting for His turn to go into the water with John, and when He got baptized and came out of the water, I thought oh – His clothes are all soaking wet!
So good to see you here, Susan! I love your answers, especially to 5. What a great way to bring the Psalms to life! Love “His clothes are all soaking wet!” 🙂
6. What did Yancey learn from reading the notes in his father’s Bible? Have you ever read someone’s Bible notes and learned something about them or their relationship with God?
He learned about his father’s relationship with God as he read his father’s words that he wrote in the margins of his Bible. Yancey has no conscious memory of his father, and his father didn’t have his son in mind when he wrote those words.
7. How are the Psalms similar?
Just as Yancey has no conscious memory of his father, we do not personally know the authors of the Psalms. His father didn’t have his son in mind when he wrote those notes in his Bible. The authors of the Psalms were not thinking of us when they penned their thoughts and prayers. Yet, we are moved by them, just as Yancey is moved when he reads his father’s notes. Yancey tries to project himself back into the mind of his father, and we also can try to project ourselves back into the mind of the writer of a psalm. Have we felt this way too? Gone through this kind of anguish? Felt this same joy and praise?
8. Poetry may teach us something, but primarily it is meant to get to our hearts. My friend Anne became a Christian after reading T.S. Eliot’s Hollow Men. She didn’t want to live a hollow life. Look at one of your favorite psalms and find the poetry that captured your heart. Share the word picture or word pictures here and explain why it touches your heart.
Psalm 18:16-19. The word picture here is of a person in deep trouble, drowning as it were, and God reaching down and drawing the person “out of many waters”, delivering him from his strong enemies, and setting his feet down on a broad, spacious place. He sent from on high, He took me; He drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my stay. He brought me forth also into a broad place; He rescued me, because He delighted in me.
It makes me think of how God reached down to save me, who knew Him not. My enemy, Satan, was too strong for me, but God was my Rescuer and I can just picture my arms up in the air while I’m in deep water, and God’s hands grabbing mine and pulling me up and out and setting me down in a good place, a safe place. And then the assurance of the reason He did this for me: He delights in me and loves me. It wasn’t me at all. It was Him.
9. Now share, and you may want to share it in a journal too, how that word picture causes you to praise God, confess sin, or ask God for something. Then do it.
It makes me want to praise God for being so strong and powerful to overcome the grip of the enemy, the spiritual darkness I was in before I knew Him, in the same way that He parted the Red Sea for His people with a mighty, outstretched arm He held back the seas as they crossed safely to dry ground. And He can still reach down and pull me out when I go off the path. He never stops being a Rescuer. It helps me to confess sin when I say God, I can’t, but You can. Over two years ago, I asked Him to please take away even the desire for a particular sin, and He has.
10. What mealtime prayer did Yancey learn as a child and why did he become uncomfortable with it?
He learned this prayer, “God is great. God is good. Let us thank Him for this food.” He was uncomfortable with it because he saw what real life was like. Why are more Christians dying for their faith than ever before? Why did his father die before the age of 30? Why are there so many who live in poverty and hopelessness? How can Christians in Sudan or Ethiopia, who lack food, thank God for food? If all of those statements about God are true, why don’t we see more evidence? It is hard. I remember one day walking down the hallway at work at the hospital and hearing a patient screaming in pain, and under my breath, I said, “Really God? Really?” In those moments we are confronted with the awful, painful realities of the world in which we live, and we wonder what is God doing about it?
You always have such poignant illustrations like this one
I remember one day walking down the hallway at work at the hospital and hearing a patient screaming in pain, and under my breath, I said, “Really God? Really?” In those moments we are confronted with the awful, painful realities of the world in which we live, and we wonder what is God doing about it?
So good to see you back, Susan! I have missed your great posts. Amen to Dee. And Amen to this too: He never stops being a Rescuer. It helps me to confess sin when I say God, I can’t, but You can. Over two years ago, I asked Him to please take away even the desire for a particular sin, and He has.
Tuesday: The Psalms Are Meant To Increase Our Intimacy with God
Read Pages 2 through halfway through 3 stopping at “Many Psalms show their authors…”
6. What did Yancey learn from reading the notes in his father’s Bible? Have you ever read someone’s Bible notes and learned something about them or their relationship with God?
—He was able to learn about his own dad’s relationship with God.
I have read from my Mom’s Bible and from my Aunt’s Bible. My Aunt who was Mom’s youngest sister. Both had marked and identified favorite verses. Both understood the Gospel clearly.
7. How are the Psalms similar?
—Yancey said “They came out of a common context, God’s covenant relationship with Israel, and were expressed in beautiful, sometimes highly structured poetry.”
8. Poetry may teach us something, but primarily it is meant to get to our hearts. My friend Ann became a Christian after reading T. S. Elliot’s Hollow Men. She didn’t want to live a hollow life. Look at one of your favorite psalms, and find the poetry that captured your heart. Share the word picture or word pictures here and explain why it touches your heart.
—“More than any other book in the Bible, Psalms reveals what a heartfelt, soul-starved, single-minded relationship with God looks like.”
I thought this above statement by Yancey was a good observation about the Psalms.
As far as a favorite Psalm I have more than one. In the past I have memorized Psalm 1 and Psalm 139 so I am very familiar with the context of both. (No I couldn’t recite either to you now) And that is because I don’t have the cognitive where with all or time to even maintain a review process for all the scriptures I have memorized. I’m just too right brained for that. 🥴
I’ll choose Psalm 1 for this exercise because of its brevity.
The beginning of the Psalm speaks to my position and posture in living life. Blessing comes upon the person who chooses to follow and mediate on God’s Word and to not walk, stand or sit with ungodly companions. Verse 3 gives a word picture of the person who lives this way as being like a tree planted by a stream of water. He yields fruit in season and does not dry up and wither away.
It encourages me that if I maintain a consistent practice of tapping into the living water of Jesus and God’s Word I will grow and flourish from it. I find security in the truth of it.
9. Now, share, and you may want to share it in a journal too, how that word picture causes you to praise God, confess sin, or ask God for something. Then do it.
—Verse 6 says “the Lord knows the way of the righteous;” I live the fact He is personally aware of and connected to me.
I praise Him for the refreshing life giving Word and I ask for His wisdom as I try to be careful and consider where I walk, sit and stand but that most importantly I spend much time immersed in God’s Word and prayer.
10. What mealtime prayer did Yancey learn as a child and why did he become uncomfortable with it?
—(God is great. God is good. Let us thank him for this food.)
He questioned in his mind the truths behind those words. If God is great and good then why is this world so messed up where people are oppressed, dying, living in poverty and going hungry.
1. How have you experienced the presence or power of God in your life this week?
It started two weeks ago with a sermon at church, and I’ve ruminated on it for the past two weeks. God is bringing to the surface certain beliefs I’ve unknowingly held onto about Him due to trauma in my past with manipulation, blameshifting, and other mental and psychological harm. So our pastor emphasized that God is holy so He has to deal with sin, but He doesn’t delight in doing so (that was crucial for me to hear). He is kind, long suffering, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. He held out two hands, his right hand was God’s wrath in having to deal with sin, the left hand was that He is kind, slow to anger, compassionate, long suffering, and faithful. He held up the left hand and said, this is bigger than the other. God grieves to have to deal with sin because He loves us so much, but he has to deal with it because He is Holy. So for the last three days, I’ve been living in, WOW WOW WOW WOW…so God would rather consume me with His love than pour His wrath out on me. So He took on his own wrath so that I wouldn’t have to. So that I would be able to be consumed in His Love and dance in the Trinity with His Holy Spirit inside rather than be separated from Him forever and endure His wrath forever. So He is the way the truth and the life, but no one comes to the father except through Christ. Though I’ve known Him for 30 plus years, I’ve been the woman in the cleft of the rock more so than the woman riding up with Him out of the wilderness. Though I’ve had those times when I sense His love so overwhelmingly, I want to sense His presence more and more for that is when His joy is unleashed inside me regardless of my circumstances. Hard to explain!
Yes Rebecca WOW WOW WOW to what you have shared here and the impact it has had on you. I especially appreciate this comment “so God would rather consume me with His love than pour His wrath out on me. So He took on his own wrath so that I wouldn’t have to”. What a wonderful truth!
I know there are endless good resources out there in Christian literature but as I have gotten the sense that your background has caused deep struggles and hard relationships continue from it. I might suggest a book called “God’s Not Like That” by Bryan Clark. He deals with why we have wrong beliefs about who God is that stem from our family of origin. Your comment “God is bringing to the surface certain beliefs I’ve unknowingly held onto about Him due to trauma in my past with manipulation, blameshifting, and other mental and psychologicalg harm.” Made me think of Bryan’s book. My husband and I have known Bryan since he was a boy. We have great respect for him and his ministry. He has been a good mentor to our pastor son. Reading it helped me identify some things in my own past that had caused me to have a wrong view of God.
It is so good to see your posts, Rebecca!! They are always so honest, sweet and truly hit home with me! You are a blessing!
Julie Pedroza
June 11, 2024
Love this Rebecca… So our pastor emphasized that God is holy so He has to deal with sin, but He doesn’t delight in doing so (that was crucial for me to hear). He is kind, long suffering, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. He held out two hands, his right hand was God’s wrath in having to deal with sin, the left hand was that He is kind, slow to anger, compassionate, long suffering, and faithful. He held up the left hand and said, this is bigger than the other. God grieves to have to deal with sin because He loves us so much, but he has to deal with it because He is Holy.
Rebecca, thank you for sharing with us what you learned in the sermon at your church. It showcases the beauty of our God, and I love how you express it: “So God would rather consume me with His love than pour His wrath out on me.” Oh, the consuming fire of His love, for you, Rebecca! And I love your personal reference to The Songs about being the woman in the cleft of the rock more than the woman riding up with Him out of the wilderness. So beautiful.
6. What did Yancey learn from reading the notes in his father’s Bible? Have you ever read someone’s Bible notes and learned something about them or their relationship with God?
Yancey learned about his father’s relationship with God through the notes in the margins of his Bible. I did this, too. I still have my bible from the time that I attended a Christian college, in which we had required chapel three days a week. I look through it from time to time and see my notes in the margins, with dates of chapel services and quotes from the speakers that I didn’t want to forget. They’re like breadcrumbs, taking me back to that time and reminding me what impacted me then, and remembering why it impacted me. Things I had forgotten. That I needed to remember. I wrote notes in the margins and then forgot them. Yancey’s dad wrote those notes for himself. Those margin notes were breadcrumbs for Yancey to hold onto, having no memories of his dad and so little to connect to. Makes me think about how we read the words of the Biblical authors and how their words inform our faith even now. We are “fellow pilgrims” who are connected by our faith, even centuries apart.
7. How are the Psalms similar?
When I read that Yancey didn’t like the Psalms, I frankly couldn’t relate. I LOVE the Psalms. Maybe most of all the books. Because it’s personal. In a crisis of faith, I don’t need answers, I need a hand to hold. I relate to the Psalms. I relate to the anguish, the anger, the joy, the earnestness of it all.
8. Look at one of your favorite psalms, and find the poetry that captured your heart. Share the word picture or word pictures here and explain why it touches your heart.
Psalm 139 is my favorite by far. There’s so much to that psalm, but the picture that is most compelling for me is verse 13, “you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” I have difficult relationships with my parents, and particularly wounding is the relationship with my mom. I love her, but we have so much brokenness in our family that I don’t let myself acknowledge the authority of either of my parents, especially my mom. The truth that God was there with me BEFORE either of my parents, that HE was the first one on the scene of me being created, was really comforting to me. I felt the threat removed when I realized that. Psalm 139 has been key for me learning my identity, worth, and value in God’s eyes and trying to change the way I live and conduct myself in relationships, according to the truth that my identity, worth, and value are determined by God and not by the people in my life.
10. What mealtime prayer did Yancey learn as a child and why did he become uncomfortable with it?
I know that mealtime prayer all too well. And I can definitely relate to feeling uncomfortable exclaiming that God is great and good when life is cumulatively awful for so many. If He’s so great and good, then why did all that happen? I’ve said that to Him about my own life, too. And my troubles and traumas are micro-specks compared to others. I love how Yancey said the Psalms are “journals of people who believe in a loving, gracious, faithful God in a world that keeps falling apart.” That’s a good summary of what my faith journey has looked like as well, though I would add “STRUGGLE TO believe” to mine. I have definitely struggled to give thanks to God when there seems like I have nothing to be thankful for. And the idea of keeping a “gratitude journal” has irritated me for years because it doesn’t feel authentic to write down things I’m SUPPOSED to be thankful for when I’m not actually thankful, because all around me, life is falling apart. But inexplicably, through my suffering, God has bent the axis of my heart enough to get some fresh light on the good things. And when He shines light on them, I see the gleam of good that I didn’t see before.
Ali, Family brokenness is so painful, but I love the way you see beyond it to God. This is so good: Psalm 139 has been key for me learning my identity, worth, and value in God’s eyes and trying to change the way I live and conduct myself in relationships, according to the truth that my identity, worth, and value are determined by God and not by the people in my life.
Ali, wow, how long have you been on the blog and how could I have missed you? I’ve been going through some pretty intense therapy via my counselor and some really good books discovering I have bought into a lie about who I am most of my life. I really resonate with this post and especially so with how Psalm 139 helps to anchor you in learning that your identity, value, and worth is determined by God before anyone in your life could paste their label of value on you. It’s amazing how I have spent a lifetime thinking I’m what others have thought about me instead of the truth of who I am which was given to me by God BEFORE I was born. SO important in order to flourish in the beautiful ways God knitted me together in my mother’s womb. So now I’m going to go and read Psalm 139.
Hi, I am new to the blog, having just recently discovered it. I resonate with your words as well. I too have bought into those lies and let them dictate how I viewed myself. I struggle to live out what God says about me, but I’m trying. I feel like I’m trying to change the operating system that has run my thoughts for so long. It’s hard.
Julie Pedroza
June 11, 2024
Such a great post Ali. Thank you for insight to the Psalms and being open here.
Ali, I love your post. Thank you for sharing your heart so personally. I also like the way you describe the Psalms as having a “hand to hold”. I feel for you in your struggle in your relationship with your parents and love how you are basing your identity and worth on what God says in Psalm 139. This is so key, that we allow God to determine our identity, worth, and value, rather than people.
8. Poetry may teach us something, but primarily it is meant to get to our hearts. My friend Ann became a Christian after reading T. S. Elliot’s Hollow Men. She didn’t want to live a hollow life. Look at one of your favorite psalms, and find the poetry that captured your heart. Share the word picture or word pictures here and explain why it touches your heart.
I like Psalm 3:
“O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.” Selah But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. I cried aloud to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. Arise, O Lord! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked. Salvation belongs to the Lord; your blessing be on your people! Selah”
Psalm 3:1-8 ESV
Here, the shield, my glory, and the “lifter of my head” resonate with me. It’s probably due to this song why I can relate so well to this Psalm. God will always be my shield. He loves me. He lifts me when I am down.
6. What did Yancey learn from reading the notes in his father’s Bible? Have you ever read someone’s Bible notes and learned something about them or their relationship with God?
He learned about his father’s relationship with God. Yes, My mom wrote many notes that I have kept, read and re-read. She loved the 23rd Psalm and would write it out on a notepad. She was a prayer warrior and I have notes on friends she prayed for. 7. How are the Psalms similar?
The Psalms of journals of people who believe in God and His love and faithfulness in spite of a world drowning in sin and craziness. Their psalms describe their anguish, struggles, suffering, sorrows, joys, praises and renewed trust in the Almighty. 8. Poetry may teach us something, but primarily it is meant to get to our hearts. My friend Ann became a Christian after reading T. S. Elliot’s Hollow Men. She didn’t want to live a hollow life. Look at one of your favorite psalms, and find the poetry that captured your heart. Share the word picture or word pictures here and explain why it touches your heart.
Psalm 91 has meant a lot to me over the years, especially at difficult times. I have so many notes written on that page in my Bible; some for my family and some for friends going through difficult times. I always get a picture of a loving and protected place where the Spirit of God is very present and He is sheltering me under His great and comforting Spiritual wings. I visualize a safe and grassy part of a large mountain in the sky that is only inhabited by God’s Holy Spirit, His love and protection. No one can come close to me when I am in that safe spot, comforted by His Mighty Hand and the His shield. Chaos may be happening, but it does not touch me if I am abiding their in His safety. He takes away my fear. I love Him so, yet His love is so much greater than anything I can comprehend. 9. Now, share, and you may want to share it in a journal too, how that word picture causes you to praise God, confess sin, or ask God for something. Then do it.
When I am abiding in His Word and His love, in spite of all my flaws, I sense His peace covering me. I praise Him for His loving care, when I am aware of it and when I am not. I pray for forgiveness of my sins that I am aware of and those I may be unaware of and I ask for His strength, protection and mercy as I go through the day or the night. He is truly my refuge, my comforter and my dwelling place. I am so thankful for His promise of giving His angels charge to guard me in my ways. The words of the entire Psalm become more meaningful each time I read it. 10. What mealtime prayer did Yancey learn as a child and why did he become uncomfortable with it?
Yancey felt, at times, it had been a trial of faith ~ God was good….yet life was filled with pain…he lost his father before he had a chance to know him; Yancey was not sure he honestly felt the goodness of God in what he saw in real life.
Monday: Frostily Depressed
Read the opening page, finishing the paragraph that ends on the 2nd page.
1. Why did Yancey hate the psalms?
He saw the Psalms as something people use as a medicine cabinet and reading them was confusing to him. He also found them boring and repetitious.
2. What did he try to do to like them better that failed?
He studied the psalms systematically and developed a heightened sense of comprehension but he lacked the sense of enjoyment he was longing for.
3. What discovery opened his eyes?
He discovered that the psalms were comprised of a sampling of spiritual journals and were personal letters to God. “I must read them as an “over-the-shoulder” reader, for the intended audience was not other people, but God. Even the psalms for public use were designed as corporate prayers: God was their primary audience as well.”
4. Can you identify with Yancey’s frustration? Why or why not?
Yes. The book of Psalms was confusing at times for me as well. I have favorites that I have gone to periodically. Psalm 1, 8, 16, 27, 31, 51, 84, 139, 116, 103, 121, 139, 145, 73. I looked over these psalms and realized they were like medicine cabinets for me as Yancey said; nevertheless, God used them for His purposes. And now, that I have this new perspective of the psalms being spiritual journals, I am hoping for more intimacy with God as my sole audience.
I do remember a time in my earlier acquaintance with our Patti when we exchanged emails praying over some chapters of the Psalms and how it was a very meaningful time for me, praying back and forth with her in written form. This is a reminder for me and a better understanding of why that time was impactful to our friendship. I am glad that you chose this for our study, Dee.
I love your naming of the psalms, Bing. Reminds me when my daughter Anne was a teenager and we knew a family with 3 college age boys. When I told them I was writing a guide on the psalms, they asked: Which ones???
When we left Anne said I want to marry someone who would ask a question like that.
Bing, I cherish those Psalms we prayed together. They were very meaningful (and still are) to me. It helped me to know you better and pray for your needs, as well as relate to the writer of the Psalms. God’s goodness is so great and those prayers together were healing for me at a painful time. I am so blessed by our friendship. 🙂 And I am so blessed by all that is being posted by the amazing women on this blog this week! It is like a Summer Garden of God’s blessings to my soul!
Tuesday: The Psalms Are Meant To Increase Our Intimacy with God Read Pages 2 through halfway through 3 stopping at “Many Psalms show their authors…” 6. What did Yancey learn from reading the notes in his father’s Bible? Have you ever read someone’s Bible notes and learned something about them or their relationship with God? – He was able to see what kind of relationship his father had with God. They helped him to be challenged, moved and convicted by what he wrote. I have not had the opportunity to read someone else’s notes in an old Bible. 7. How are the Psalms similar? – They are like personal journals from the one who wrote the Psalm expressing their feelings in their relationship with God. 8. Poetry may teach us something, but primarily it is meant to get to our hearts. My friend Ann became a Christian after reading T. S. Elliot’s Hollow Men. She didn’t want to live a hollow life. Look at one of your favorite psalms, and find the poetry that captured your heart. Share the word picture or word pictures here and explain why it touches your heart. – Honestly I don’t usually look at Psalms other than to read them for a Bible plan, but today I opened up my Bible and looked, and it fell open to Psalm 18. So I stopped and really read Psalm 18. My word pictures would be this…I’m living in a world of hatred and chaos. A world that is pushing my God out of the way, but I know my God is worthy to be praised, so I cry out to him and thank Him. He hears me and he is not happy with what He is seeing in this world. He brought his wrath upon this world and it trembled in fear as they scattered. He saw the trouble I was in and reached down and took hold of me to bring me to safety. He was pleased with me and brought me to Him. He has always heard my cries and he has always rescued me from the enemy’s grasp. He is perfect and following Him gives me the power to out run the enemy and win my battle. I will remember what he has done and what he will continue to do for me because my God is powerful and reigns. He will be standing in the end and because I follow Him, I will be standing next to him. 9. Now, share, and you may want to share it in a journal too, how that word picture causes you to praise God, confess sin, or ask God for something. Then do it. – Lord you are worthy of my praises. You always hear my cries and rescue me out of the grip of the enemy. Your faithfulness and unconditional love is unmeasurable and I want to always be with you. I will continue to read, learn and love like you so I can be in your will until the end of time. In your mighty name I pray, amen. 10. What mealtime prayer did Yancey learn as a child and why did he become uncomfortable with it? – He learned “God is great. God is good. Let us thank him for this food.” He started to dig deeper in to that simple prayer and wondered why more goodness wasn’t seen in this world. He wondered why good people are dying young because they followed Him. And he started to think his food, his abundance came from others sources besides God.
Julie — see if you can open this. It’s Twila doing Psalm 18. I had to hide a lot of my posts until I can be sure I won’t get sued on any of them after a lawsuit, but try to open it, otherwise I’ll fix it:
Love your answer to 8. Julie! Wow! He is perfect and following Him gives me the power to out run the enemy and win my battle. I will remember what he has done and what he will continue to do for me because my God is powerful and reigns. He will be standing in the end and because I follow Him, I will be standing next to Him.
9. Now, share, and you may want to share it in a journal too, how that word picture causes you to praise God, confess sin, or ask God for something. Then do it.
Oh Lord, I am sorry I get down on myself. You made me so why do I do that? I thank You for being “the lifter of my head.” I am thankful for that. Amen.
10. What mealtime prayer did Yancey learn as a child and why did he become uncomfortable with it?
It was “God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food. Amen.” He felt uncomfortable because he questioned the phrases. Is God good? How come people suffer then? What if we don’t have food?
2. Why did Yancey hate the psalms? They confused him and were contradictory. He also found them to be more depressing than uplifting. 3. What did he try to do to like them better that failed? Studying them systematically. 4. What discovery opened his eyes? That this was not God speaking to man, but man speaking to God. 5. Can you identify with Yancey’s frustration? Why or why not? I don’t think that I have had the same frustrations with the Psalms so much, because I always thought that they were songs and not all songs are meant to make you feel happy.
You are correct Dawn about the Psalms being songs. Paul David Tripp says the Psalms are the Bible’s Hymnbook. He also makes the point that we sing when we are happy, we sing when we are sad, we sing at birthdays and we sing at funerals. Singing takes place in many contexts.
Thank you for the reminder that psalms are songs “and not all songs are meant to make you feel happy.” So true. Songs are from the heart and the heart feels it all.
2. Why did Yancey hate the psalms? He felt they were confusing, all over the place, and boring.
3. What did he try to do to like them better that failed? He tried to recognize the different types of Psalms and read them through the lens of the type they were.
4. What discovery opened his eyes? That they were in essence a ‘sampling of spiritual journals’.
5. Can you identify with Yancey’s frustration? Why or why not? Yes, but for different reasons. I never cared much for the Psalms, and didn’t read them systematically and purposefully until late last year. I couldn’t articulate why I didn’t like them but after reading them last year, I appreciated them more but the book is far from my favorite.
6. What did Yancey learn from reading the notes in his father’s Bible? Have you ever read someone’s Bible notes and learned something about them or their relationship with God? He learned of his father’s relationship with God. No I haven’t.
7. How are the Psalms similar? We are not necessarily being taught about the Lord or theology but we learn of God by seeing other pilgrim’s relationships with Him.
8. Poetry may teach us something, but primarily it is meant to get to our hearts. My friend Ann became a Christian after reading T. S. Elliot’s Hollow Men. She didn’t want to live a hollow life. Look at one of your favorite psalms, and find the poetry that captured your heart. Share the word picture or word pictures here and explain why it touches your heart. “Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me. By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.” Psalm 42:7-8 The idea of the Lord’s Spirit or love drowning me (and perhaps it’s His Will or hard things) is a powerful picture or thought. Then to follow it with His command of His steadfast love and song with me at night is a powerful picture.
9. Now, share, and you may want to share it in a journal too, how that word picture causes you to praise God, confess sin, or ask God for something. Then do it. Lord may I be so aware of your love and presence that it would be like the powerful force of the waterfall, and the overwhelming pull and covering of the waves and breakers.
10. What mealtime prayer did Yancey learn as a child and why did he become uncomfortable with it? The simplicity of faith expressed in the prayer was/is often times challenged by the hard things and trials in this world.
Love your precious prayer too, Tammy! This spoke to my heart: Lord may I be so aware of your love and presence that it would be like the powerful force of the waterfall, and the overwhelming pull and covering of the waves and breakers.
6. What did Yancey learn from reading the notes in his father’s Bible ? His father’s thought and journey with God. Have you ever read someone’s Bible notes and learned something about them or their relationship with God? No 7. How are the Psalms similar? They give us an insight to what the author is thinking or feeling.
Wednesday: Honest to God
Read through the middle of page 5 to “The Cursing Psalms”
11. What stands out and why?
—His story about Professor Allan Bloom who asked his class to identify an evil person and they couldn’t. The students didn’t have a category in their minds for evil. Asd you consider that he wrote this article back in the mid 1980s it is troubling in light of the fact evil has risen to high levels in our own society and the whole world.
12. Why did Yancey find it comforting that the psalmists struggled with questions? Was that part of your spiritual journey or not? Explain.
—To know he wasn’t alone in that spiritual giants even Jesus struggled and felt terribly troubled by the world around them was comforting.
Yes I have found comfort in identifying that this is the plight of humanity in this broken fallen world and others have gone before me survived and serve as examples.
I think anyone who is honest about the experiences of the difficult, disordered and messiness of life and has to face life as it really is at times finds it comforting that the Bible in the Psalms does not shy away from the way things are.
13. Describe the contrasting juxtaposition of Psalms 22 and 23. What does this teach us?
—In Psalm 22 David cries out in despair over his situation but under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is prophesying about the sufferings of Jesus in great detail that actually were fulfilled. But then in Psalm 23 David describes a beautiful and completely different experience and beautiful sentiments of the Lord as the Good Shepherd.
It teaches us that life encompasses both aspects of living in this fallen broken world.
14. How about 102 and 103?
—It is the same. Two Psalms one right after the other that are categorically different. 102 is the prayer of an afflicted man and 103 is a hymn of majestic praise.
15. Why do you think God wants us to be honest with Him? Do you think you are? Has this helped you hear from God? Explain.
—It would seem since God is omniscient that being honest with him is more about our need to be honest with ourselves. And when I openly voice my honest feelings to Him it seems to help clear the air of any pretense on my part and makes my heart open to his honesty back to me. If I am honest about my needs He can address them honestly for me.
Yes at my age it would be foolish to be anything but honest with God. He is more than ready and wiling to hear and help me and comfort me. It is his very nature to wrap his loving arms around me. Truth when lovingly applied has a very cleansing effect.
Bev, I loved this – “And when I openly voice my honest feelings to Him it seems to help clear the air of any pretense on my part and makes my heart open to his honesty back to me. If I am honest about my needs He can address them honestly for me.”
Bev, loved your answer to 15… It would seem since God is omniscient that being honest with him is more about our need to be honest with ourselves.This is eye opening for sure.
11. What stands out and why?
The wildly vacillating emotions of the psalmists…it’s all there! The vengeful, vindictive anger against the enemies of God’s people, and them wanting God to crush and destroy them. The individual psalmist’s feelings of utter despair and abandonment, and also their most joyful praise. Feeling forlorn versus the comfort of knowing the Shepherd. I don’t think there is a human emotion that the Psalms do not cover.
12. Why did Yancey find it comforting that the psalmists struggled with questions? Was that part of your spiritual journey or not? Explain.
He finds it comforting to think that if he finds himself feeling like the psalmist who wrote Psalm 22 or 102, that even spiritual giants, like the psalmists and Jesus Himself, have felt the emotions expressed in the Psalms. Yes, I feel that I struggle too with questions, doubts, and fears. Life can be very unpredictable and unsettling, and even in my closest relationships, there can be misunderstanding, miscommunication, a feeling of not being as connected or close as I would like. It’s hard to imagine that in heaven we will all have transparent hearts, without the need for wearing masks, pretending, or hiding our true selves and feelings. Many years ago, while grieving the loss of my nephew, I turned to the psalm that talks about God turning our mourning into dancing (Psalm 30). The way I was feeling at the moment, I thought, no way. How can this be? I am so sad right now, and I don’t understand how I will ever feel happy again. I remember eating dinner with my family and one of the kids saying something funny, and I laughed, and immediately felt guilty, as in why are you laughing when your nephew is dead? Through praying that Psalm, during that prayer it was like God showed me that I was not standing there alone, forlorn, and that He was expecting me to dance. Instead, He was taking me into His arms and dancing with me.
13. Describe the contrasting juxtaposition of Psalms 22 and 23. What does this teach us?
Psalm 22 is a psalm of abandonment, with the opening words spoken by Jesus when He was on the cross. Asking God why He has forsaken and abandoned Him. Then in Psalm 23, David writes about the comfort of being in the care of the Shepherd, who leads him beside still waters, refreshing and restoring his soul. It teaches us to be honest with God about how we are feeling and to not stop talking to Him even when we are in despair. We are also encouraged to see the hope in God that is still there in our darkest times.
14. How about 102 and 103?
The psalmist in Psalm 102 is crying out to God to please hear him. He is afflicted on all sides and feeling it in his body. He has no strength left and feels that God has left him. Psalm 103 begins with “Bless the Lord, O my soul” and talks about all of God’s benefits. Those are very far apart in the range of emotions!
15. Why do you think God wants us to be honest with Him? Do you think you are? Has this helped you hear from God? Explain.
When there is no honesty, relationships break down, or they grow cool, superficial, and distant. I know this to be true, because there have been times when I have felt I just cannot say what I’m really feeling deep down inside to another person, and I keep it in, for fear of them being angry, or turning away from me, or loss of approval, or even rejection. But those unspoken things can put up an invisible wall, even if only I know it’s there. With God, I find it much easier to just say what I’m really feeling, because I know He already knows anyway. There’s no hiding my private thoughts from Him. Yet He wants us to say it to Him because He wants relationship with us. Distance from God can grow when we don’t share what we’re really feeling; not that He turns away, but we will feel distant from Him.
Susan, Your answer to question 12 resonated with me. When my sister-in-law (who was a widow with 3 children) died suddenly at age 40 the grief was huge in our family and my husband was the one most responsible for arrangements so we spent a week back in our hometown handling it all. I remember feeling a constant weight inside. After returning home to our own community one evening we were together with close friends from our church who were people who were praying us through our difficult times and laughing openly and freely for the first time after her death It was a feeling that lifted my soul. I was surprised by it but in a safe group to express it.
Your comment is so beautiful, “ it was like God showed me that I was not standing there alone, forlorn, and that He was expecting me to dance. Instead, He was taking me into His arms and dancing with me.”
Oh Bev, I can’t even imagine the heartache your family endured at the sudden death of your sister-in-law. Thankful you had such caring, loving friends to pray with you and support you through it.
Many years ago, while grieving the loss of my nephew, I turned to the psalm that talks about God turning our mourning into dancing (Psalm 30). The way I was feeling at the moment, I thought, no way. How can this be? I am so sad right now, and I don’t understand how I will ever feel happy again. I remember eating dinner with my family and one of the kids saying something funny, and I laughed, and immediately felt guilty, as in why are you laughing when your nephew is dead? Through praying that Psalm, during that prayer it was like God showed me that I was not standing there alone, forlorn, and that He was expecting me to dance. Instead, He was taking me into His arms and dancing with me.
2. Why did Yancey hate the psalms?
They didn’t “cure” his depression, or ease his pain and in most cases made his struggles worse. He couldn’t understand why most believers used it as a medicine cabinet for their soul. 3. What did he try to do to like them better that failed?
He studied the Psalms systematically. On an intellectual level he enjoyed the details rather than at a heart level so he had a grasp of it but without enjoyment. 4. What discovery opened his eyes?
He discovered that the Psalms doesn’t fit into a spiritual “grid”, for they are personal letters to God and the intended audience wasn’t other people; the intended audience was God. These are written by a variety of people in fluctuating moods. 5. Can you identify with Yancey’s frustration? Why or why not?
I don’t recall if I was frustrated or not. In the early 1990’s I learned about the different structures in the Psalms. In the Psalms that were written in chiastic structure, it was important to find the central point of what the Psalmist is wanting us to learn about God, and the psalmist’s heart. However, not all of the Psalms had a central message about God, and some started with depression and ended in depression with no turn, so I was perplexed. It wasn’t until I saw that the Psalms aren’t books we want to dissect to find out what God is trying to tell us, and then stop there. They are books that expose the heart of the psalmists who are communicating with God. It actually comforted me to know that they are just as messed up as I am, and didn’t try to hide it from God. Instead they let it all out before God whether it was a lament, thank offering, or anything else. I think that is what God delights in.
I signed up a few days ago but messed it up so badly, I withdrew. If possible and there is grace, I’d like to try again. I’ve been reading the posts and the insight and transparency is soooo good that I just want to soak it in.
Yes! : They are books that expose the heart of the psalmists who are communicating with God. It actually comforted me to know that they are just as messed up as I am, and didn’t try to hide it from God. Instead they let it all out before God whether it was a lament, thank offering, or anything else. I think that is what God delights in. 🙂
Wednesday: Honest to God
▪ What stands out and why?
When he said that “the 150 Psalms are as difficult, disordered, and messy as life itself. Oddly, that fact gives me great comfort.” We live in a time when everything we see from our friends’ social media is a highlight reel, but there is so much loneliness and I keep hearing about more and more suicides. And I ask myself, why are we ashamed of being real with each other? But I am, too. And scared of being real, too. The Psalms, as dissonant as they are from one to the next, are a connection to the realness of a life of faith.
▪ Why did Yancey find it comforting that the psalmists struggled with questions? Was that part of your spiritual journey or not? Explain.
Absolutely. So much brokenness in my family, and pain from consequences of poor decisions when my unhealed self was running the show. Consequences I still live with. Lots of questions and doubts. But ultimately, they have pushed me even closer to Jesus.
▪ Describe the contrasting juxtaposition of Psalms 22 and 23. What does this teach us?
That there is space to hold both despair and hope in the same heart. Like we were created to hold both, and both lead to God. Honestly, I’ve had days where one day was like Psalm 22 and Psalm 102 and then the next was like Psalm 23 and Psalm 103. So different. But same life, same circumstances.
▪ Why do you think God wants us to be honest with Him? Do you think you are? Has this helped you hear from God? Explain.
I think He wants us to be honest with Him because He wants a relationship with us and He wants us to be close, with nothing in between us, an unobstructed view. I would like to think I’m honest with God, but I think my “honesty” comes out in complaints and anger. Constant conversations with God but all about me and my problems. I realized I needed to stop and listen. You know that marriage therapy exercise where one person puts on a blindfold and the other person says everything they need to say without the blindfolded person saying anything but instead just listening? I thought about that and realized I needed to be quiet and listen. That was helpful for me in kind of recalibrating how I was praying. It also makes me think of what Mother Teresa said about prayer once – a reporter asked her what she prays about and she said she doesn’t say anything she just listens. And the reporter asked her what God said to her, and she said, he doesn’t say anything he just listens. And that really struck me. God wants to commune with me, and maybe that means no words, more often than I think. Yet so often, I treat Him like my own personal genie.
Interesting responses from Mother Teresa, Ali. I remember reading she didn’t want her prayer journal published, but they still did, and people were shocked at some of her despondent prayers!
Wednesday: Honest to God Read through the middle of page 5 to “The Cursing Psalms” 11. What stands out and why? – It surprises me, I think, that Prof Bloom’s undergraduate students could not come up with one evil person. That saddens me that history is not being remembered and used as a learning tool. 12. Why did Yancey find it comforting that the psalmists struggled with questions? Was that part of your spiritual journey or not? Explain. – He found it comforting because Jesus himself has had the emotions of injustice and then a loving thought. It may help to see both points of view and to know that we don’t have to feel bad when we are struggling. 13. Describe the contrasting juxtaposition of Psalms 22 and 23. What does this teach us? – Psalm 22 shows David struggling and crying out to God for an answer and Psalm 23 shows that God has rescued him and David knows that God will provide for him in his want. 14. How about 102 and 103? – Psalm 102 has a weakened man feeling abandoned by his friends and alone. Psalm 103 has a man remembering that God is the one who provides and is with him. 15. Why do you think God wants us to be honest with Him? Do you think you are? Has this helped you hear from God? Explain. – God knows we are human and have emotions. I think he wants to hear us speak to him about what bothers us so he knows we are paying attention to the outside world. He wants to see our righteous anger and asking him for help in dealing with these things. I think I do speak out to him and ask him why Lord, I don’t get it Lord. God spoke things in to existence and we need to speak to him as well. And the more I speak to him the more I feel his presence him my life and hear him in my thoughts.
11. What stands out and why? The idea that cursing Psalms, angry Psalms are in the Bible at all. I never thought much about that. It gives me some peace, that when my heart matches that vibe, it’s not wrong to cry out to God as these pilgrims did.
12. Why did Yancey find it comforting that the psalmists struggled with questions? Was that part of your spiritual journey or not? Still is, there are horrendous experiences that make no earthly sense. Recently in my circles a young mother/wife/Christian committed suicide. The wreckage and questions for those who love her cause seismic after effects that those I love will wrestle with for a long time. Walking through the death (brain cancer)of a close family friend’s 8 year old daughter, walking that out, having to believe on faith God would redeem even as she lost physical ability and would ask me to go on adventures. The contrast of a little girl who would ask me to go on a walk or go swimming but her body could no longer do those things and a good God, absolutely tore me apart. My only response was to jump by faith that cliff of circumstance and believe what I couldn’t see, couldn’t feel, that God was good and trust.
13. Describe the contrasting juxtaposition of Psalms 22 and 23. The contrast is viewing God in truth, and viewing God through the filter of our experience. It teaches us that it’s a very normal experience to wrestle with the truth of who God is and wh He can feel like given our valid and true experience. Like that picture you gave us in your book Idol Lies, when we have been given Ipecac to vomit out the vile poison of our idols God would seem a cruel Father, as opposed to when He holds us close to comfort and console us while we are sick.
14. How about 102 and 103?
15. Why do you think God wants us to be honest with Him? Do you think you are? Has this helped you hear from God? Explain. A genuine relationship means honesty, I am honest with God, but only as honest as I am with myself and sometimes I need to give Him space to be able to reveal to me my own heart. I don’t know if it’s helped me hear from God but it has helped me to enter into deeper fellowship. As I am honest it seems to open the emotional door for Him to enter more deeply into the inner rooms of my heart and mind.
Tammy, the examples you gave in your answer to #12 are certainly very hard, even impossible, to grapple with. I mean, what do we do with such horrible tragedies? I also remember something Dee wrote in her book, The God of All Comfort, and it was that if we turn away from God, we let go of our only lifeline.
Oh Tammy so many hard things to deal with, I’m so sorry. I remember my older sister, not a believer, yet, ask me how I could seem to be at peace with my other sister’s sudden death. I told her there will always be questions we don’t have the answers to or know why, but that I have to trust God that he does. She seemed to think about it at least.
Thursday: Cursing and Praising
Read up to the middle of page 7 and stop at “Third, the psalms give me a model of spiritual therapy.”
16. How did C. S. Lewis see the cursing psalms, but what problem is there with that view?
—He thought the reactions of the Psalmists in their cursing were wrong. He felt the “cursing Psalms” expressed spiritual immaturity by the religious Jews of the Old Testament and that it was corrected by the New Testament citing verses like “love your enemies” and “forgive them for they know not what they do. His argument was kind of complicated and could not be carried through because New Testament authors Paul and Peter supported and affirmed some of those cursing Psalms.
17. How does Yancey see the cursing psalms? Do you find this helpful? Explain.
—He sees them as prayers and says they have to be considered in their literary context. Prayers that we are overhearing.
I do find it helpful and I like that Yancey says “God has a high threshold of tolerance for what is appropriate to say in a prayer. He can “handle” my unsuppressed rage. I may well find that my vindictive feelings need his correction—but only by taking those feelings to him will I have that chance for correction and healing.” That comes back to the honesty factor. We have to be honest with God for correction and healing in our lives.
18. What did C. S. Lewis first misunderstand about the psalms of praise when he said, “I don’t want my dog to bark approval of my books.” What did he come to understand?
—Frankly, I don’t quite understand Lewis’s analogy about his dog and it is a bit lost on me. I have trouble applying it. But I agree praise should be an instinctive and natural response to God and is a shared enjoyment with God. Psalm 22:3 in the KJV says “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.” Other versions use the word enthroned on the praises. In other words God is or should be the very heart of any praise and becomes an active participant not just an object of praise. We praise a living God who by his holiness and splendor provokes a response of praise when we truly see him as he is.
19. How did the ancient Hebrews respond to God’s glory? (Our Laura-dancer will like this!)
—Very enthusiastically. Yes for Laura, dance included!😀
And with instruments and even loud music. I love many styles of music but I have to admit I just simply cannot stand still when I sing or hear good melodic music with a beat. I like the rhythm of music and great harmonies. So for me singing praises to God is a wonderful experience of worshipping him.
16. How did C.S. Lewis see the cursing psalms, but what problem is there with that view?
He seemed almost embarrassed by them. He contrasted the spirit of vengefulness in the cursing psalms with the model of forgiveness in the NT. He felt that though the psalmists’ reactions were natural, they were wrong. He also wrote an article about how the Jewish people, due to being God’s chosen people, became self-righteous.
17. How does Yancey see the cursing psalms? Do you find this helpful? Explain.
He first reminds us that when we read the psalms, we are overhearing prayers addressed to God. In that way, the cursing psalms, says Yancey, are “spiritual therapy” (to the max!). They give us a solution to the problem of being wronged. Instead of hurting another person back, or repressing our feelings of hurt and anger, we can take them to God, trusting Him to be the just Judge. He says it’s best to take even our worst feelings to God, because we’re not gossiping when we’re telling God all about it, nor are we cursing people to others. Yancey sees these psalms as a model for how to deal with evil and injustice, which is to take our feelings, in all honesty, to God. I do find this helpful. I can tend to want to complain to somebody else about what someone did to me, which is gossip, if they were not a part of the problem. When I go to God and talk it through with Him, He often reveals something to me about how to handle my feelings. Like Yancey said, sometimes I need to be corrected.
18. What did C.S. Lewis first misunderstand about the psalms of praise when he said, “I don’t want my dog to bark approval of my books?” What did he come to understand?
He seemed to not understand the purpose of praise? He used the example of his dog, which seems like because dog/owner is kind of a master/servant relationship, that the dog “has to” bark approval of his books. We shouldn’t praise God because we “have to” or are expected to. Then Lewis said that praise can be like pausing and enjoying the beauty of something, almost as if kneeling before it, and then wanting to announce it to others. I think he came to understand that it naturally flows out of us when we stop to appreciate what God has made or done for us.
19. How did the ancient Hebrews respond to God’s glory?
They would dance with abandon with loud musical instruments and incense. I think of how David danced with all his might before the Lord. He wasn’t worried about carrying himself in a dignified manner as befitted the king of Israel.
I like this, Susan. I remember Keller saying the reason Job didn’t get in trouble for all his anger was because he always brought it to God and not to others.
▪ How did C. S. Lewis see the cursing psalms, but what problem is there with that view?
It sounded to me like CS Lewis thought we should filter ourselves to avoid doing wrong. I think the problem is that things in us that aren’t exposed, continue to grow in the dark. For me personally, this is the reason I’ve done so much therapeutic writing over the past four+ years during a time of intense personal dismantling and rebuilding in my life. If reactions, urges, anger, rage go unacknowledged, they grow in me. I put words to things and shine light on things and they lose their power. Not sure who said it first, but I love the statement “Shame can’t hide in the light.” That’s been my personal experience, too. Expose what’s growing in the darkness and it loses its power, gets smaller, and God comes in with compassion. Being honest, even if it’s messy and ugly, has been profoundly healing for me.
▪ How does Yancey see the cursing psalms? Do you find this helpful? Explain.
It sounds like he sees them as prayers of people who are taking their anger to God and placing it in God’s hands, for God to deal with. I do find this helpful. Grudges, anger, rage, and hatred have become idols for me, just as much as success, wealth, and approval can be idols. I can, and have, spend large hunks of my life fixating on my grudges, the wrongs done against me, the pain someone caused me, and it gets in between me and God. It becomes more important to me to feed the grudge or the pain than to submit and surrender to God’s plan, God’s way of dealing with it. So expressing my anger and pain to God and placing them in God’s hands is surrendering them to Him. It’s hard to let go of. But the alternative makes things even worse.
▪ What did C. S. Lewis first misunderstand about the psalms of praise when he said, “I don’t want my dog to bark approval of my books.” What did he come to understand?
I like the distinction that your heart welling up at seeing a beautiful painting, hearing music, or being blown away by nature is a form of praise. I’ve struggled with praise. A lot has gone wrong. I tend to look at the wrong and the bad. But I don’t acknowledge how joyfully overwhelmed I have been by the wonders of the Creator, and the inspired acts of the created. I have a post-it note on my desk that says “You are the Creator. I am Your creation” to remind me who I am and Whose I am. I love it when God’s beauty puts me in my place.
▪ How did the ancient Hebrews respond to God’s glory?
Beautiful music, poetry, any outpouring with their whole being comes out through their hands, their voices. I love that. I WANT to lose control like that. I want to surrender to God’s joy in me. Frederick Buechner said, “We have God’s joy in our blood” and I LOVE that. I want to understand what that looks like for me. I’m so buttoned up and filtered all the time. But the Creator made us in His image, and I think that means we are created to create, too. Creation challenges the impossible. Maybe with God’s creative “gene” in us, we can do that, too. I want to make space in my life for simple expressions of joy and praise with the abilities God gave me. Maybe also what comes out of me will help others feel less alone, too.
Yes, I think so. Definitely part of an ongoing conversation with Him. I write on my computer but also I have a journaling app on my phone that has a dictation option so I can talk and it will type for me, and I use that while I’m walking or driving. Many times I’ve turned it on when I’m praying.
Ooohh I sat up straighter when I caught mention of Frederick Buechner in your post! I read his book, The Sacred Journey. I read it twice. It’s worth reading again. What books have you read of his?
Also, I can relate to your struggle with grudges, having trouble letting go of the wrongs done against me…I remember things like from grade school. A few weeks ago on Dee’s blog, we listened to a Tim Keller sermon that was eye opening for me. He talked about two women who broke up with their fiancé. One was able to get over it, the other not so. For the one who was able to forgive, he said that God’s love was like a sweetness in the bottom of her “cup” (as in her heart) that didn’t let the bitterness get all the way down, while the other woman – God’s love was abstract to her.
Susan, I’ve read “Telling the truth” and “Secrets in the Dark.” I want to read more. I will check out “The Sacred Journey.” I have loved everything of his that I have read!
Everyone — Sarah is a young neighbor with amazing potential and maturity — welcome her with me! She may be our youngest — though I am not sure. Sweet mother to 3 littles: Lily, Daniel, and Boaz.
We read and discussed this article in church Sunday and many mature Christians found it eye-opening, so I felt free to do it here, with this mature group. We’ll take it page by page, with illustrations from the Psalms. The Psalter is both the songbook and the prayer book of the Bible. We will be practicing singing and praying them. You may want to get a prayer journal. Our own Judy wrote recently:
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1. How have you experienced the presence or power of God in your life this week? For the last few months I frequently listen to the song Counting my blessings. There is a line that says the more I look in the details the more of Your goodness I find. My daughter in law had a yard sale this week and I gathered together toys I had at my house that the girls don’t play with much any more. One item was a small plastic house with furniture. I realized one of the stools was missing. I looked for it and couldn’t find so I put the stuff in the car anyway. I thought if it sells, she knows who buys it and I find the stool, I will get it to them. The next morning when I opened up the door to drop things off to her, there in plain sight was the missing 1 1/2 inch plastic stool. Something totally insignificant to me, but the more I look in the details, the more of His goodness I find.
Judy, this is good. I’m finding myself, the more I stop, listen and feel His presence, the closer I’m getting to truly being with Him. I pray I’m open his leading at all times.
So true, Judy!
Love this Judy: the more I look in the details, the more of His goodness I find! Yes!
Judy, I so relate to this: Something insignificant to me, but the more I look in the details, the more of His goodness I find. It came to view once again while we were on this trip to the Philippines. finding a special material my daughter wanted to buy for some friends, an outpatient clinic to go to without the dreaded long wait that is common in the Philippines, taking a quick trip with my cousin, and finding out a doctor friend I haven’t seen for many years has her clinic next door, etc!
Sunday: God Hunt
1. How have you experienced the presence or power of God in your life this week? – Last week when Tim Keller talked about the church that was feeding the homeless and then stopped and fed a lesser amount because they didn’t want to just fee them, they wanted to befriend them as well and couldn’t do that well if they didn’t cut back on how many they fed. That really made me think about what they did and this Friday and Saturday an opportunity presented itself. We were at a free concert on Friday night in the downtown of a neighboring town and a homeless woman came up to me and asked if I could help her get something to eat. None of the vendors were set up yet with food, so I wasn’t able to help. I did see her later and she had a bad of food so she was helped. Then yesterday, Saturday, my husband and I were visiting some new shops in that same downtown and she was there again and approached me. I don’t know if she recognized me or not, but I did her. I gave her money this time, but I said, you are going to get food with this right and she said that she is not a drug addict and she does go to church, she’s just homeless. I felt today as I was talking to a friend about what happened, that God was telling me to ask her her name next time. I will see if that happens again, but I want to have a bag of food ready for her to just hand her. I almost just turned her away on Friday, but stopped and got up and walked with her to see if the vendor was ready with the food. God works in us, he worked in me Friday night and I can only pray I will continue to hear Him lead me to what I’m to do when opportunities come up.
Great story, Julie.
I love your sweet, tender heart for others, Julie. I love the opportunities God gave you, as you were seeking.
Love how God weaves the details of our experiences for good, Julie!
I experienced the presence of God in other people’s grace to me this week. Twice I double booked myself and I had to cancel plans I had made. In both cases the inconvenienced parties were quite understanding.
Tammy — a good reminder to be gracious when something like this happens. Nice to see you here!
Sunday: God Hunt
1. How have you experienced the presence or power of God in your life this week?
—I was keeping grandchildren this past week while our son and his wife had a retreat time for 7 days in the mountains in Colorado. I was feeding the three teenage grandsons until they left on Monday for a Senior High Church camp and I then had my 8 year old and 10 year old granddaughters for the whole week. I felt like God blessed our week with the strength needed for me and protection from accident or any health issues. I am just very grateful to God for his power and presence in his gracious care over our lives.
I often take for granted God’s providential care like strength for the work that I do, Bev. You reminded me to be thankful.
I’ve been wanting to study Psalms and Dee is one of my favorite authors, and I need a group to connect with. Excited about this! Hello!
Love your name Amiable Ali!
😃 thank you
Welcome to the group Amiable Ali. Glad to have you. You will enjoy it so much and learn a ton.
Thank you!
I truly look forward to studying the Psalms. I am thankful to walk more closely with the Lord in this study. Thank you. Kristi
Excited to have you, Ali!
Welcome Kristi, glad you are joining us.
I have been richly blest by studying the Psalms. MY grandmother memorized Psalm 103 and repeated it often. A fresh study of the Psalms would be wonderful.
My husband and I memorized that too — such a good one to help us pray. Sounds like a special grandmother.
Glad to see you Roberta. You will enjoy this group.
Hi, Dee! I can’t wait to get started. My church isn’t doing summer study.. so this is a God-Send ! Going to Billy Graham training Center in Asheville in July for seminar on Psalms. Last yr attended Psalm seminar at Montreat, NC.I love studying God’s Word . My small grp at church in Delafield, Wi just finished Ecclesiastes study… I had bought your study bk quite a while ago and re read it ..Loved that study! We are leaving for Door on Thur for a few days.. will have my Bible along to work on Psalms . Please include me in this study. Thanks, again! You are a blessing!
So good to have you, Barb! Did you mean Door County or something? I live in Door County!
Hi Dee, yes.. leaving for Door County this Thur.. returning to Delafield Sun…staying in Fish Ck. A few months ago I was reading the Pulse in our hotel room and noticed that you had just done an event in Egg Harbor THAT MORNING! I wish I had known earlier… would have been there! Oh, I just read Yancey’s article Great article I have struggled with them, too. A real take away last year at the Montreat seminar was the evening get togethers with the leader in the old lodge. It was so meditative…prayer by candle light! It was HEART FELT ..not head knowledge! I felt so close to God ..was wonderful! The other place that feels like stepping into heaven is at the Cove in NC Are you familiar with it? My husband and I try to have a retreat there every yr..would love to tell you about it . I even have an extra program for this yr… can mail it or drop it off to you ..let me know.. Thx for including me in the study!🙏😁Barb
Welcome Barb!
I am loving the Psalms. Listen to a nighty podcast on the Psalms before bed which relaxes me and attend a small women’s bible study on the Psalms. We do one a week… we are at Psalm 62. The lady who leads it provides several different resources which adds insight and also encorages time for discussion. Would enjoy reading Psalms with you too.
Wonderful Jennifer. Welcome!
Hello Jennifer, welcome to the group.
I’m looking forward to spending time in the Psalms. It’s a very different season for me right now. I pray Jesus speaks to me through these words and these friends in Christ.
I agree with your prayer. Stay with us Paula. You will love these Christ-centered women.
So glad you joined the group Paula. I’ve grown so much since doing these and the ladies are wonderful.
2. Why did Yancey hate the psalms?
For a variety of reasons! They seemed to contradict each other, they were like a medical prescription (bad health read Psalm…) they sometimes exacerbated his problem instead of making it better, he would end up on a “wintry” Psalm and end up feeling depressed, they were boring and religious to him. I love where he says something about why did we need 150 when 15 would do!
3. What did he try to do to like them better that failed?
He tried to systematically study them. He learned about them; the poetry, Psalms of lament, ascent, royalty, etc. He was more intelligent but still didn’t like them.
4. What discovery opened his eyes?
He figured out that they were personal letters to God, written by a myriad of people.
5. Can you identify with Yancey’s frustration? Why or why not?
Absolutely! Unfortunately, not just with the Psalms. I struggle to understand a lot of the Bible, and though I know it’s what I need to know, sometimes I dread reading it. Ugh, did I just say that out loud? I also wonder why we don’t study some books compared to others. Like, why haven’t we (or others) done a study of Acts? Or Malachi, Micah, or Haggai? We seem to study some text more than others 🤷🏻♀️ (not just here but in other venues as well).
Good question, Laura. I love your questions. Keller has said all Scripture is inspired and valuable, but some parts are more valuable than others. As an individual matures, reads through the Bible habitually, he learns so much more, and I think some parts minister more to some than others.
Because there are so many psalms, we frequently return, yet even this summer we will probably only get through 10 to 12. I’m using the ones our worship leader chose for church because they are ones that are easily put to music, so some are very familiar such as 1, 2, and 23, and some will be unfamiliar to many.
I would like to follow along as you study the Psalms. I probably won’t keep up but I would like to try.
Welcome, Dee. Is Dee a nickname for another name? My real name is Meredith, with the nickname of Meredy, which my sisters could not pronounce, so I became just Dee.
I don’t think I was aware of this detail Dee. Love this.
I didn’t know that Dee!!
Welcome Dee, so glad you found the group.
Hi Beth,
Psalm 77 is such a comforting psalm for us when trouble overwhelms us. Good one to memorize.
If my comment can be taken down, I would appreciate it. I tried everything I could think of yesterday to rem look very it but didn’t seem to have that option. ASAP, please. I have followed along with these studies but rarely commented and that is a better option for me. My apologies Thanks
I removed it, Beth, as you requested. My prayers are with you.
Monday: Frostily Depressed
Read the opening page, finishing the paragraph that ends on the 2nd page.
2. Why did Yancey hate the psalms?
—Because in his experience in reading the Psalms they frankly were not uplifting to him and he would end up reading the ones that felt very “wintery” to him and they depressed him. Also he said they confused him by their bleak despair mixed closely together with soaring joy. They seemed contradictory to him and felt unnecessarily repetitive.
3. What did he try to do to like them better that failed?
—He tried to study them systematically and familiarized himself with all the aspects of them but continued to fail finding enjoyment reading them.
4. What discovery opened his eyes?
—He discovered and these are his words. “that Psalms comprises a sampling of spiritual journals. They are personal letters to God. Even the psalms for public use were designed as corporate prayers: God was their primary audience as well. ……They are personal prayers in the form of poetry, written by a variety of people—peasants, kings, professional musicians, rank amateurs—in wildly fluctuating moods.
5. Can you identify with Yancey’s frustration? Why or why not?
—Yes, I have had mixed feelings about various Psalms. They do feel all over the place at times but yet I have had sections of them minister deeply to my heart.
Yancey’s assessment of them as personal journals and letters to God is very helpful.
Isn’t it? I love that you, such a mature believer, find it so as well.
Added comment: Welcome to all the new names on the blog this morning. It is a good experience to study God’s Word together with Dee and others.
Amen to Bev! Welcome to all the new and returning friends on the blog today!
I agree, Bev! Yancey’s assessment of them as personal journals and letters to God is very helpful.
I would love to join this study.
We’re so happy to have you, Ruth!
Welcome Ruth, so glad to have you in the group. Enjoy!
Looking forward to doing this. Thanks so much!
So glad you found the group Anita. Welcome.
I loved how he said he realized they were personal letters to God and the point was to read them like over the shoulder. And how studying them from an intellectual or systematic.viewpoint didn’t work. They’re personal. The Psalms are comforting to me for that reason. I relate to the struggles, the pain, and also the moments of praise and joy. All parts of my relationship with God. I love that we have the Psalms to help us understand that our experience is real and normal and it doesn’t have to make sense or fit in a theological or systematic box. Life doesn’t have pretty bows on everything. Lots of experiences are left unresolved throughout life. The Psalms show me that my experience doesn’t mean something is wrong with my faith. And that’s so comforting.
Love this from our new friend Ali:
The Psalms show me that my experience doesn’t mean something is wrong with my faith. And that’s so comforting.
Loved this Ali… I love that we have the Psalms to help us understand that our experience is real and normal and it doesn’t have to make sense or fit in a theological or systematic box. Life doesn’t have pretty bows on everything. Lots of experiences are left unresolved throughout life. The Psalms show me that my experience doesn’t mean something is wrong with my faith. And that’s so comforting.
Hi Ali, just want to welcome you and I like your honest post. Love this especially: “Life doesn’t have pretty bows on everything. Lots of experiences are left unresolved throughout life. The Psalms show me that my experience doesn’t mean something is wrong with my faith.” Yes! I find this much more comforting than putting on a smile and being stoical, sweeping the painful things under the proverbial rug of spirituality. Sometimes there are no answers, and we just have to believe that while we don’t understand, we have a God who is with us in it.
Hi Ali, I agree with all the above comments to your post. The same things you said that the others highlighted stood out to me. 💕
1. How have you experienced the presence or power of God in your life this week?
I had the most lovely God sighting this week! I met one of our blog sisters, dear Bing! Last week we all prayed for safe travels and for no volcanic activity to interrupt the flights that she and her daughter, Ruth were taking home. Bing and Ruth had a lay over in Seattle on their way home! I was able to meet them in real life! It was so so fun!!! We had a sweet time together and Ruth’s dear friends, Caleb and Danny were able to join us! It was pure joy meeting them all and spending a blessed two hours with them! What beautiful friends! Thank you, Lord!
Pictures to come of their meeting next week!
Oh how fun! I remember the time in Ohio where a bunch of us from the blog met up and went to hear Dee speak. So much fun!
Oh wow! I was wondering how Bing and Ruth were doing with the volcano situation in the Philippines. We’re they able to stay through the length of the trip? So glad they are safe and I can’t wait to hear all about it. That must have been so fun meeting each other!
I too remember meeting many in Ohio, and I have gotten to meet a couple others in places close to me. In fact, Patti, when you come east I would love to meet up. You will be very close to me 😉.
Oh Patti! How delightful!! What a kiss from God to let you two meet. 💕😊
2. Why did Yancey hate the psalms?
Yancey found the Psalms contradictory and depressing. Some were boring and repetitious. They seemed to have no logical sequence and many seemed to be “wintry” and made him depressed.
3. What did he try to do to like them better that failed?
Yancey tried to read them systematically and it helped his comprehension, but not his enjoyment.
4. What discovery opened his eyes?
Once he realized that the Psalms were a sampling of spiritual journals, prayers to God.
5. Can you identify with Yancey’s frustration? Why or why not?
Yes, I can identify. Some of them are depressing and filled with such lament, they can be leave me wanting….and can be difficult to understand. I tend to page through seeking out the Praise Psalms, though I love some of the Psalms of protection. Psalm 91 has been one that has many of my footnotes around it in all of my Bible. 🙂
Patti, I love Psalm 91 as well. The imagery of wings and feathers and God as a shelter is like a balm!
Hi! Pamela Steele here
I would love to be a part of this Summer study on Psalms! 🙂
And we’re so glad you are here, Pamela!
Wow, so many new and wonderful ladies joining the group. Welcome Pamela!
Welcome, Pamela!
Monday: Frostily Depressed
Read the opening page, finishing the paragraph that ends on the 2nd page.
2. Why did Yancey hate the psalms? – They were confusing, boring and they seemed to contradict themselves and they depressed him.
3. What did he try to do to like them better that failed? – He tried to study the book systematically but he still didn’t enjoy reading Psalms so he avoided it.
4. What discovery opened his eyes? – By trying to make it more difficult than what it was he missed the point that the Psalms were like spiritual journals, personal letters to God. He started reading them keeping in mind that they weren’t for the audience reading them, but to God.
5. Can you identify with Yancey’s frustration? Why or why not? – I certainly can feel his frustration. They seem to much like poetry and at times and I am not a fan of poetry. I like to understand and get a meaning for what I’m reading.
Julie, You sound like Laura 😄 not a fan of poetry.
Hahaha!!! I thought the same thing when I read this post!
I owe my love for poetry to my mother and my high school literature teacher, Julie! I used to either sing or make up silly acrostics to study for my nursing tests! LOL
Looking forward to this study as I, too, don’t really know how to read the Psalms and yet many people over the years have told me they just ‘love’ this book. Some of the psalms speak to me but I don’t go to them by default when I am troubled.
Also, I have never done a study like this and hope I can be persistent and disciplined enough to hang with it. Thank you, Dee, for all your hard work. And hello Julie Pedroza!!!!!
So very glad to have you Susan — so you and Julie are friends?
Susan delighted to see you back. Always enjoy hearing your insights and experiences. 😊
2. Why did Yancey hate the psalms? He would read a psalm that didn’t fit his circumstance at the time so finding no comfort. The main reason though they confused him. He felt they contradicted themselves and after reading them for a bit he found them boring
3. What did he try to do to like them better that failed?he tried reading them systematically and learned to appreciate the poetic craft and Hebrew parallelism. He still didn’t enjoy them.
4. What discovery opened his eyes? He realized they were personal letters to God and should be read that way. The audience is God and not other people. Now when he reads them he tries to project himself back to what was going on with the writer.
5. Can you identify with Yancey’s frustration? Why or why not? There are parts of some psalms I don’t enjoy. I’ve been trying to slow down reading and think about what they are really saying and not just skim the parts I’m not enjoying.
Sunday: God Hunt
1. How have you experienced the presence or power of God in your life this week?
Ruth and I left the Philippines at 1 PM on Saturday. We had an 8-hour layover in Taipei and an 11-hour flight to Seattle. It was a very long day for us, but God gave us a few hours of sleep while on the latter flight. We spent the night with 2 of Ruth’s friends and we had a good night’s sleep at their place. On Sunday morning, we woke up to a bright, sunny, and cool morning. From the 15th floor of the high rise, I relished the beauty of the clear blue sky and the city’s expansive landscape. The day was extra beautiful as our Patti picked us up and took us out for breakfast at a restaurant with great ambiance and food. The conversations that flowed around the table were for the books! There we were-5 people who met for the first time as a group connected by Patti’s love in action. Dee, you are right-Patti is the consummate hostess. Her hospitality is above and beyond!
It has also dawned on me that this visit was pre-ordained by God, and nothing stood in its way including a volcanic activity in the Philippines which could have caused a delay to our trip back home.
Thank you for your prayers and we are glad to be back home!
Thank God, you are back in USA
Oh Bing! I’m so glad you made it home safely and also (BONUS) got to meet Patti! I love this. I prayed and hoped you were able to complete your trip successfully. It seemed short for going so far away. Did you stay the amount of time or have to leave early due to the volcanism? ♥️🙏
Wonderful you met up with Patti! And for your protection!
Hi Bing! That’s so wonderful about your trip and that you got to meet Patti!
Bing, I was so blessed to be able to spend time with Bing, Ruth, Caleb and Danny. Each one, a true treasure. Bing is the sweetest, most loving woman of God. I know we all see that here on the blog. Ruth is lovely, smart, articulate, with a huge heart for rescuing animals (and people too, I think!) . She is also a very talented musician. Caleb and Danny are both wonderful and interesting young men. The Lord was very present. There is never enough time! The Lord is so good and I am so thankful that your trip went well!
Oh Bing, So glad to have you back home in the states and what a wonderful gift from God that you got to see Patti. Look forward to hearing more about your trip and your time with Ruth. You know we all were praying for you. 🙏🏻💕
Thank you all for your sweet thoughts! There were some real tough times while we were there but I kept clinging to Jesus and to the knowledge that you were praying for us.
Welcome back Bing. So glad you and Ruth got back safely and how fun to meet up with Patti.
1. How have you experienced the presence or power of God in your life this week? There have been several times this week where I have found my thoughts to be negative about situations especially at work and almost immediately I have felt the Holy Spirit stopping me and redirecting my thoughts to examine myself and what is really going on in my heart. Mostly, it boils down to pride.
Love this kind of God hunt Dawn that sees how He is working on our hearts! So good.
Dawn, You are always transparent with us. I just love your honesty. 💕
Welcome to all the new sisters joining us on the blog! Dee is a gem and you are in the best place to be for studying the Word of our great God ♥️🙏
Amen to Laura! Welcome!
Oh I so agree with these Ladies. Dee is a blessing for sure.
6. What did Yancey learn from reading the notes in his father’s Bible? Have you ever read someone’s Bible notes and learned something about them or their relationship with God?
Yancey learned that he needed to put himself in the position of the authors just as he read his fathers Bible notes. Yes, my mom was an avid reader and journaled often. She would write index cards with Bible verses to remind her, also. I have one that says something like, “Sometimes I want to throw in the towel. Grant me perseverance and peace.”
7. How are the Psalms similar?
The letters are from real people to God. They tell us about what a real, heartfelt, relationship with God should look like.
You remind a bit of your honest prayerful mother!
Laura,
How touching that you found your mom’s cards of bible verses. That must be a treasure.
1. How have you experienced the presence or power of God in your life this week?
I’ve been quietly doing the Keller sermons and blog studies on John and they have been powerful. I have done the ones on Confident in Hope and Confident in Love. I had a big aha moment in the Love sermon in which Keller talked about a woman who never got over a break-up with her fiancé, as compared to a woman who did. He used the metaphor of how the love of God put a sweetness, as it were, in the bottom of the cup (or in one’s heart) that kept the bitterness from going all the way down, and how the love of God was real to one woman and more abstract to the other. Then, a couple nights ago, we watched episode 2 of The Chosen’s new season, and I watched as forgiveness was modeled between Peter and Matthew. It was very powerful and moving for me as well, as I feel like it touched something very deeply in me. I am eager to move beyond my default tendency which is to allow grudges and resentments to remain in my heart.
2. Why did Yancy hate the Psalms?
When he would turn to the Psalms to find relief for his problems, as he knew others did, it never worked for him. He would read a Psalm that just left him feeling worse (it exacerbated, not cured, his problem). Especially if he read one of the “wintry Psalms”, he would end up feeling “frostily depressed”.
3. What did he try to do to like them better that failed?
He studied them systematically, learning about Hebrew parallelism, recognizing the different types of psalms. Yet, after all that study, he still found no enjoyment in them.
4. What discovery opened his eyes?
He discovered that the psalms were actually like prayer journals, or personal letters to God, written by a variety of people in a wide array of emotional states (paranoid, vindictive, petty, self-righteous). They are personal prayers written in the form of poetry.
5. Can you identify with Yancey’s frustration? Why or why not?
I like reading through the Psalms. Often, I will read one out loud, and then, telling God I’d like to use the psalmist’s words, pray it back to Him, adding my own words, thoughts, or applying it to my own feelings and what I need, or it will call to mind a need for someone else and I will pray for them. I remember we’ve studied the psalms here before, with the help of Michael Reeves and Keller, and I learned a lot during that time.
I can identify with his frustration in that sometimes I feel frustrated and overwhelmed by trying to study other parts of the Bible, picking it apart, as it were, when I just want to read it, “feel” it, and get drawn into the scene. I have been on a couple of retreats where we used Lectio Divina, which is reading a short passage of Scripture. It is read out loud by one person, and first, you just try to notice what jumped out at you – maybe a word, or a phrase. The passage is read again, and if possible, you try to enter into the scene, imagining what do you see, hear, smell, taste…who are you in the scene? Are you one of the people, or a bystander? Once I did that with the baptism of Jesus, as if I was with Him, standing in a long line, waiting for His turn to go into the water with John, and when He got baptized and came out of the water, I thought oh – His clothes are all soaking wet!
So good to see you here, Susan! I love your answers, especially to 5. What a great way to bring the Psalms to life! Love “His clothes are all soaking wet!” 🙂
Me, too, Susan! I love your answer to #5!
Hi Susan! Good to see you here again.
I like the idea of “participating” in the scripture as you described with Jesus’ baptism. I’ll have to try that sometime!
Oh I didn’t realize Susan was our dear friend Susan. Fun to think of you following along with John and Keller. I remember that illustration as well.
Dee, that was a different Susan who posted on June 10th! I hope she stays!
Hi Susan, glad to see you again. Loved your answer to #5. That would definitely open up a new meaning to the scripture.
6. What did Yancey learn from reading the notes in his father’s Bible? Have you ever read someone’s Bible notes and learned something about them or their relationship with God?
He learned about his father’s relationship with God as he read his father’s words that he wrote in the margins of his Bible. Yancey has no conscious memory of his father, and his father didn’t have his son in mind when he wrote those words.
7. How are the Psalms similar?
Just as Yancey has no conscious memory of his father, we do not personally know the authors of the Psalms. His father didn’t have his son in mind when he wrote those notes in his Bible. The authors of the Psalms were not thinking of us when they penned their thoughts and prayers. Yet, we are moved by them, just as Yancey is moved when he reads his father’s notes. Yancey tries to project himself back into the mind of his father, and we also can try to project ourselves back into the mind of the writer of a psalm. Have we felt this way too? Gone through this kind of anguish? Felt this same joy and praise?
8. Poetry may teach us something, but primarily it is meant to get to our hearts. My friend Anne became a Christian after reading T.S. Eliot’s Hollow Men. She didn’t want to live a hollow life. Look at one of your favorite psalms and find the poetry that captured your heart. Share the word picture or word pictures here and explain why it touches your heart.
Psalm 18:16-19. The word picture here is of a person in deep trouble, drowning as it were, and God reaching down and drawing the person “out of many waters”, delivering him from his strong enemies, and setting his feet down on a broad, spacious place.
He sent from on high, He took me; He drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my stay. He brought me forth also into a broad place; He rescued me, because He delighted in me.
It makes me think of how God reached down to save me, who knew Him not. My enemy, Satan, was too strong for me, but God was my Rescuer and I can just picture my arms up in the air while I’m in deep water, and God’s hands grabbing mine and pulling me up and out and setting me down in a good place, a safe place. And then the assurance of the reason He did this for me: He delights in me and loves me. It wasn’t me at all. It was Him.
9. Now share, and you may want to share it in a journal too, how that word picture causes you to praise God, confess sin, or ask God for something. Then do it.
It makes me want to praise God for being so strong and powerful to overcome the grip of the enemy, the spiritual darkness I was in before I knew Him, in the same way that He parted the Red Sea for His people with a mighty, outstretched arm He held back the seas as they crossed safely to dry ground. And He can still reach down and pull me out when I go off the path. He never stops being a Rescuer. It helps me to confess sin when I say God, I can’t, but You can. Over two years ago, I asked Him to please take away even the desire for a particular sin, and He has.
10. What mealtime prayer did Yancey learn as a child and why did he become uncomfortable with it?
He learned this prayer, “God is great. God is good. Let us thank Him for this food.” He was uncomfortable with it because he saw what real life was like. Why are more Christians dying for their faith than ever before? Why did his father die before the age of 30? Why are there so many who live in poverty and hopelessness? How can Christians in Sudan or Ethiopia, who lack food, thank God for food? If all of those statements about God are true, why don’t we see more evidence? It is hard. I remember one day walking down the hallway at work at the hospital and hearing a patient screaming in pain, and under my breath, I said, “Really God? Really?” In those moments we are confronted with the awful, painful realities of the world in which we live, and we wonder what is God doing about it?
You always have such poignant illustrations like this one
I remember one day walking down the hallway at work at the hospital and hearing a patient screaming in pain, and under my breath, I said, “Really God? Really?” In those moments we are confronted with the awful, painful realities of the world in which we live, and we wonder what is God doing about it?
So good to see you back, Susan! I have missed your great posts. Amen to Dee. And Amen to this too: He never stops being a Rescuer. It helps me to confess sin when I say God, I can’t, but You can. Over two years ago, I asked Him to please take away even the desire for a particular sin, and He has.
Tuesday: The Psalms Are Meant To Increase Our Intimacy with God
Read Pages 2 through halfway through 3 stopping at “Many Psalms show their authors…”
6. What did Yancey learn from reading the notes in his father’s Bible? Have you ever read someone’s Bible notes and learned something about them or their relationship with God?
—He was able to learn about his own dad’s relationship with God.
I have read from my Mom’s Bible and from my Aunt’s Bible. My Aunt who was Mom’s youngest sister. Both had marked and identified favorite verses. Both understood the Gospel clearly.
7. How are the Psalms similar?
—Yancey said “They came out of a common context, God’s covenant relationship with Israel, and were expressed in beautiful, sometimes highly structured poetry.”
8. Poetry may teach us something, but primarily it is meant to get to our hearts. My friend Ann became a Christian after reading T. S. Elliot’s Hollow Men. She didn’t want to live a hollow life. Look at one of your favorite psalms, and find the poetry that captured your heart. Share the word picture or word pictures here and explain why it touches your heart.
—“More than any other book in the Bible, Psalms reveals what a heartfelt, soul-starved, single-minded relationship with God looks like.”
I thought this above statement by Yancey was a good observation about the Psalms.
As far as a favorite Psalm I have more than one. In the past I have memorized Psalm 1 and Psalm 139 so I am very familiar with the context of both. (No I couldn’t recite either to you now) And that is because I don’t have the cognitive where with all or time to even maintain a review process for all the scriptures I have memorized. I’m just too right brained for that. 🥴
I’ll choose Psalm 1 for this exercise because of its brevity.
The beginning of the Psalm speaks to my position and posture in living life. Blessing comes upon the person who chooses to follow and mediate on God’s Word and to not walk, stand or sit with ungodly companions. Verse 3 gives a word picture of the person who lives this way as being like a tree planted by a stream of water. He yields fruit in season and does not dry up and wither away.
It encourages me that if I maintain a consistent practice of tapping into the living water of Jesus and God’s Word I will grow and flourish from it. I find security in the truth of it.
9. Now, share, and you may want to share it in a journal too, how that word picture causes you to praise God, confess sin, or ask God for something. Then do it.
—Verse 6 says “the Lord knows the way of the righteous;” I live the fact He is personally aware of and connected to me.
I praise Him for the refreshing life giving Word and I ask for His wisdom as I try to be careful and consider where I walk, sit and stand but that most importantly I spend much time immersed in God’s Word and prayer.
10. What mealtime prayer did Yancey learn as a child and why did he become uncomfortable with it?
—(God is great. God is good. Let us thank him for this food.)
He questioned in his mind the truths behind those words. If God is great and good then why is this world so messed up where people are oppressed, dying, living in poverty and going hungry.
Bev, when I pray Psalm 1 I always thank Him that He watches over my way!
1. How have you experienced the presence or power of God in your life this week?
It started two weeks ago with a sermon at church, and I’ve ruminated on it for the past two weeks. God is bringing to the surface certain beliefs I’ve unknowingly held onto about Him due to trauma in my past with manipulation, blameshifting, and other mental and psychological harm. So our pastor emphasized that God is holy so He has to deal with sin, but He doesn’t delight in doing so (that was crucial for me to hear). He is kind, long suffering, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. He held out two hands, his right hand was God’s wrath in having to deal with sin, the left hand was that He is kind, slow to anger, compassionate, long suffering, and faithful. He held up the left hand and said, this is bigger than the other. God grieves to have to deal with sin because He loves us so much, but he has to deal with it because He is Holy. So for the last three days, I’ve been living in, WOW WOW WOW WOW…so God would rather consume me with His love than pour His wrath out on me. So He took on his own wrath so that I wouldn’t have to. So that I would be able to be consumed in His Love and dance in the Trinity with His Holy Spirit inside rather than be separated from Him forever and endure His wrath forever. So He is the way the truth and the life, but no one comes to the father except through Christ. Though I’ve known Him for 30 plus years, I’ve been the woman in the cleft of the rock more so than the woman riding up with Him out of the wilderness. Though I’ve had those times when I sense His love so overwhelmingly, I want to sense His presence more and more for that is when His joy is unleashed inside me regardless of my circumstances. Hard to explain!
Oh, Rebecca! This is such a description of God’s holiness and how He does not delight in dealing with our sin. So full of great truths!!
Yes Rebecca WOW WOW WOW to what you have shared here and the impact it has had on you. I especially appreciate this comment “so God would rather consume me with His love than pour His wrath out on me. So He took on his own wrath so that I wouldn’t have to”. What a wonderful truth!
I know there are endless good resources out there in Christian literature but as I have gotten the sense that your background has caused deep struggles and hard relationships continue from it. I might suggest a book called “God’s Not Like That” by Bryan Clark. He deals with why we have wrong beliefs about who God is that stem from our family of origin. Your comment “God is bringing to the surface certain beliefs I’ve unknowingly held onto about Him due to trauma in my past with manipulation, blameshifting, and other mental and psychologicalg harm.” Made me think of Bryan’s book. My husband and I have known Bryan since he was a boy. We have great respect for him and his ministry. He has been a good mentor to our pastor son. Reading it helped me identify some things in my own past that had caused me to have a wrong view of God.
Bev, I just downloaded it on Audible. 🙂
So beautiful, Rebecca. So good to have you here!
Dee, it’s so good to be here with you and all my beautiful sisters!
It is so good to see your posts, Rebecca!! They are always so honest, sweet and truly hit home with me! You are a blessing!
Love this Rebecca… So our pastor emphasized that God is holy so He has to deal with sin, but He doesn’t delight in doing so (that was crucial for me to hear). He is kind, long suffering, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness. He held out two hands, his right hand was God’s wrath in having to deal with sin, the left hand was that He is kind, slow to anger, compassionate, long suffering, and faithful. He held up the left hand and said, this is bigger than the other. God grieves to have to deal with sin because He loves us so much, but he has to deal with it because He is Holy.
Rebecca, thank you for sharing with us what you learned in the sermon at your church. It showcases the beauty of our God, and I love how you express it: “So God would rather consume me with His love than pour His wrath out on me.” Oh, the consuming fire of His love, for you, Rebecca! And I love your personal reference to The Songs about being the woman in the cleft of the rock more than the woman riding up with Him out of the wilderness. So beautiful.
6. What did Yancey learn from reading the notes in his father’s Bible? Have you ever read someone’s Bible notes and learned something about them or their relationship with God?
Yancey learned about his father’s relationship with God through the notes in the margins of his Bible. I did this, too. I still have my bible from the time that I attended a Christian college, in which we had required chapel three days a week. I look through it from time to time and see my notes in the margins, with dates of chapel services and quotes from the speakers that I didn’t want to forget. They’re like breadcrumbs, taking me back to that time and reminding me what impacted me then, and remembering why it impacted me. Things I had forgotten. That I needed to remember. I wrote notes in the margins and then forgot them. Yancey’s dad wrote those notes for himself. Those margin notes were breadcrumbs for Yancey to hold onto, having no memories of his dad and so little to connect to. Makes me think about how we read the words of the Biblical authors and how their words inform our faith even now. We are “fellow pilgrims” who are connected by our faith, even centuries apart.
7. How are the Psalms similar?
When I read that Yancey didn’t like the Psalms, I frankly couldn’t relate. I LOVE the Psalms. Maybe most of all the books. Because it’s personal. In a crisis of faith, I don’t need answers, I need a hand to hold. I relate to the Psalms. I relate to the anguish, the anger, the joy, the earnestness of it all.
8. Look at one of your favorite psalms, and find the poetry that captured your heart. Share the word picture or word pictures here and explain why it touches your heart.
Psalm 139 is my favorite by far. There’s so much to that psalm, but the picture that is most compelling for me is verse 13, “you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” I have difficult relationships with my parents, and particularly wounding is the relationship with my mom. I love her, but we have so much brokenness in our family that I don’t let myself acknowledge the authority of either of my parents, especially my mom. The truth that God was there with me BEFORE either of my parents, that HE was the first one on the scene of me being created, was really comforting to me. I felt the threat removed when I realized that. Psalm 139 has been key for me learning my identity, worth, and value in God’s eyes and trying to change the way I live and conduct myself in relationships, according to the truth that my identity, worth, and value are determined by God and not by the people in my life.
10. What mealtime prayer did Yancey learn as a child and why did he become uncomfortable with it?
I know that mealtime prayer all too well. And I can definitely relate to feeling uncomfortable exclaiming that God is great and good when life is cumulatively awful for so many. If He’s so great and good, then why did all that happen? I’ve said that to Him about my own life, too. And my troubles and traumas are micro-specks compared to others. I love how Yancey said the Psalms are “journals of people who believe in a loving, gracious, faithful God in a world that keeps falling apart.” That’s a good summary of what my faith journey has looked like as well, though I would add “STRUGGLE TO believe” to mine. I have definitely struggled to give thanks to God when there seems like I have nothing to be thankful for. And the idea of keeping a “gratitude journal” has irritated me for years because it doesn’t feel authentic to write down things I’m SUPPOSED to be thankful for when I’m not actually thankful, because all around me, life is falling apart. But inexplicably, through my suffering, God has bent the axis of my heart enough to get some fresh light on the good things. And when He shines light on them, I see the gleam of good that I didn’t see before.
Ali, Family brokenness is so painful, but I love the way you see beyond it to God. This is so good: Psalm 139 has been key for me learning my identity, worth, and value in God’s eyes and trying to change the way I live and conduct myself in relationships, according to the truth that my identity, worth, and value are determined by God and not by the people in my life.
Ali, wow, how long have you been on the blog and how could I have missed you? I’ve been going through some pretty intense therapy via my counselor and some really good books discovering I have bought into a lie about who I am most of my life. I really resonate with this post and especially so with how Psalm 139 helps to anchor you in learning that your identity, value, and worth is determined by God before anyone in your life could paste their label of value on you. It’s amazing how I have spent a lifetime thinking I’m what others have thought about me instead of the truth of who I am which was given to me by God BEFORE I was born. SO important in order to flourish in the beautiful ways God knitted me together in my mother’s womb. So now I’m going to go and read Psalm 139.
Hi, I am new to the blog, having just recently discovered it. I resonate with your words as well. I too have bought into those lies and let them dictate how I viewed myself. I struggle to live out what God says about me, but I’m trying. I feel like I’m trying to change the operating system that has run my thoughts for so long. It’s hard.
Such a great post Ali. Thank you for insight to the Psalms and being open here.
Ali — you add so much to this blog. Love your breadcrumbs metaphor.
Ali, I love your post. Thank you for sharing your heart so personally. I also like the way you describe the Psalms as having a “hand to hold”. I feel for you in your struggle in your relationship with your parents and love how you are basing your identity and worth on what God says in Psalm 139. This is so key, that we allow God to determine our identity, worth, and value, rather than people.
8. Poetry may teach us something, but primarily it is meant to get to our hearts. My friend Ann became a Christian after reading T. S. Elliot’s Hollow Men. She didn’t want to live a hollow life. Look at one of your favorite psalms, and find the poetry that captured your heart. Share the word picture or word pictures here and explain why it touches your heart.
I like Psalm 3:
“O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.” Selah But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. I cried aloud to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. Arise, O Lord! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked. Salvation belongs to the Lord; your blessing be on your people! Selah”
Psalm 3:1-8 ESV
Here, the shield, my glory, and the “lifter of my head” resonate with me. It’s probably due to this song why I can relate so well to this Psalm. God will always be my shield. He loves me. He lifts me when I am down.
https://youtu.be/pRsNWuiGv5U?si=-mxTC5BEUth9TfuM
Thank you for sharing this link, Laura!! Wow! Love this so much! Powerful! Chills!!
Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir! An absolute favorite of mine. Thanks for sharing. 💕
Thanks for sharing the link Laura. Makes a difference when it’s in song.
6. What did Yancey learn from reading the notes in his father’s Bible? Have you ever read someone’s Bible notes and learned something about them or their relationship with God?
He learned about his father’s relationship with God. Yes, My mom wrote many notes that I have kept, read and re-read. She loved the 23rd Psalm and would write it out on a notepad. She was a prayer warrior and I have notes on friends she prayed for.
7. How are the Psalms similar?
The Psalms of journals of people who believe in God and His love and faithfulness in spite of a world drowning in sin and craziness. Their psalms describe their anguish, struggles, suffering, sorrows, joys, praises and renewed trust in the Almighty.
8. Poetry may teach us something, but primarily it is meant to get to our hearts. My friend Ann became a Christian after reading T. S. Elliot’s Hollow Men. She didn’t want to live a hollow life. Look at one of your favorite psalms, and find the poetry that captured your heart. Share the word picture or word pictures here and explain why it touches your heart.
Psalm 91 has meant a lot to me over the years, especially at difficult times. I have so many notes written on that page in my Bible; some for my family and some for friends going through difficult times. I always get a picture of a loving and protected place where the Spirit of God is very present and He is sheltering me under His great and comforting Spiritual wings. I visualize a safe and grassy part of a large mountain in the sky that is only inhabited by God’s Holy Spirit, His love and protection. No one can come close to me when I am in that safe spot, comforted by His Mighty Hand and the His shield. Chaos may be happening, but it does not touch me if I am abiding their in His safety. He takes away my fear. I love Him so, yet His love is so much greater than anything I can comprehend.
9. Now, share, and you may want to share it in a journal too, how that word picture causes you to praise God, confess sin, or ask God for something. Then do it.
When I am abiding in His Word and His love, in spite of all my flaws, I sense His peace covering me. I praise Him for His loving care, when I am aware of it and when I am not. I pray for forgiveness of my sins that I am aware of and those I may be unaware of and I ask for His strength, protection and mercy as I go through the day or the night. He is truly my refuge, my comforter and my dwelling place. I am so thankful for His promise of giving His angels charge to guard me in my ways. The words of the entire Psalm become more meaningful each time I read it.
10. What mealtime prayer did Yancey learn as a child and why did he become uncomfortable with it?
Yancey felt, at times, it had been a trial of faith ~ God was good….yet life was filled with pain…he lost his father before he had a chance to know him; Yancey was not sure he honestly felt the goodness of God in what he saw in real life.
Patti, I love your word picture of the grassy place on a mountain. So beautiful and comforting. 💕
Monday: Frostily Depressed
Read the opening page, finishing the paragraph that ends on the 2nd page.
1. Why did Yancey hate the psalms?
He saw the Psalms as something people use as a medicine cabinet and reading them was confusing to him. He also found them boring and repetitious.
2. What did he try to do to like them better that failed?
He studied the psalms systematically and developed a heightened sense of comprehension but he lacked the sense of enjoyment he was longing for.
3. What discovery opened his eyes?
He discovered that the psalms were comprised of a sampling of spiritual journals and were personal letters to God. “I must read them as an “over-the-shoulder” reader, for the intended audience was not other people, but God. Even the psalms for public use were designed as corporate prayers: God was their primary audience as well.”
4. Can you identify with Yancey’s frustration? Why or why not?
Yes. The book of Psalms was confusing at times for me as well. I have favorites that I have gone to periodically. Psalm 1, 8, 16, 27, 31, 51, 84, 139, 116, 103, 121, 139, 145, 73. I looked over these psalms and realized they were like medicine cabinets for me as Yancey said; nevertheless, God used them for His purposes. And now, that I have this new perspective of the psalms being spiritual journals, I am hoping for more intimacy with God as my sole audience.
I do remember a time in my earlier acquaintance with our Patti when we exchanged emails praying over some chapters of the Psalms and how it was a very meaningful time for me, praying back and forth with her in written form. This is a reminder for me and a better understanding of why that time was impactful to our friendship. I am glad that you chose this for our study, Dee.
I love your naming of the psalms, Bing. Reminds me when my daughter Anne was a teenager and we knew a family with 3 college age boys. When I told them I was writing a guide on the psalms, they asked: Which ones???
When we left Anne said I want to marry someone who would ask a question like that.
Bing, I cherish those Psalms we prayed together. They were very meaningful (and still are) to me. It helped me to know you better and pray for your needs, as well as relate to the writer of the Psalms. God’s goodness is so great and those prayers together were healing for me at a painful time. I am so blessed by our friendship. 🙂 And I am so blessed by all that is being posted by the amazing women on this blog this week! It is like a Summer Garden of God’s blessings to my soul!
Tuesday: The Psalms Are Meant To Increase Our Intimacy with God
Read Pages 2 through halfway through 3 stopping at “Many Psalms show their authors…”
6. What did Yancey learn from reading the notes in his father’s Bible? Have you ever read someone’s Bible notes and learned something about them or their relationship with God? – He was able to see what kind of relationship his father had with God. They helped him to be challenged, moved and convicted by what he wrote. I have not had the opportunity to read someone else’s notes in an old Bible.
7. How are the Psalms similar? – They are like personal journals from the one who wrote the Psalm expressing their feelings in their relationship with God.
8. Poetry may teach us something, but primarily it is meant to get to our hearts. My friend Ann became a Christian after reading T. S. Elliot’s Hollow Men. She didn’t want to live a hollow life. Look at one of your favorite psalms, and find the poetry that captured your heart. Share the word picture or word pictures here and explain why it touches your heart. – Honestly I don’t usually look at Psalms other than to read them for a Bible plan, but today I opened up my Bible and looked, and it fell open to Psalm 18. So I stopped and really read Psalm 18. My word pictures would be this…I’m living in a world of hatred and chaos. A world that is pushing my God out of the way, but I know my God is worthy to be praised, so I cry out to him and thank Him. He hears me and he is not happy with what He is seeing in this world. He brought his wrath upon this world and it trembled in fear as they scattered. He saw the trouble I was in and reached down and took hold of me to bring me to safety. He was pleased with me and brought me to Him. He has always heard my cries and he has always rescued me from the enemy’s grasp. He is perfect and following Him gives me the power to out run the enemy and win my battle. I will remember what he has done and what he will continue to do for me because my God is powerful and reigns. He will be standing in the end and because I follow Him, I will be standing next to him.
9. Now, share, and you may want to share it in a journal too, how that word picture causes you to praise God, confess sin, or ask God for something. Then do it. – Lord you are worthy of my praises. You always hear my cries and rescue me out of the grip of the enemy. Your faithfulness and unconditional love is unmeasurable and I want to always be with you. I will continue to read, learn and love like you so I can be in your will until the end of time. In your mighty name I pray, amen.
10. What mealtime prayer did Yancey learn as a child and why did he become uncomfortable with it? – He learned “God is great. God is good. Let us thank him for this food.” He started to dig deeper in to that simple prayer and wondered why more goodness wasn’t seen in this world. He wondered why good people are dying young because they followed Him. And he started to think his food, his abundance came from others sources besides God.
Julie — see if you can open this. It’s Twila doing Psalm 18. I had to hide a lot of my posts until I can be sure I won’t get sued on any of them after a lawsuit, but try to open it, otherwise I’ll fix it:
https://deebrestin.com/2023/05/4-abba-father-abbas-child-part-a/
Thanks Dee, I was able to open it. WOW! Twila’s testimony puts Psalm 18 in a new light.
Love your answer to 8. Julie! Wow! He is perfect and following Him gives me the power to out run the enemy and win my battle. I will remember what he has done and what he will continue to do for me because my God is powerful and reigns. He will be standing in the end and because I follow Him, I will be standing next to Him.
9. Now, share, and you may want to share it in a journal too, how that word picture causes you to praise God, confess sin, or ask God for something. Then do it.
Oh Lord, I am sorry I get down on myself. You made me so why do I do that? I thank You for being “the lifter of my head.” I am thankful for that. Amen.
10. What mealtime prayer did Yancey learn as a child and why did he become uncomfortable with it?
It was “God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food. Amen.” He felt uncomfortable because he questioned the phrases. Is God good? How come people suffer then? What if we don’t have food?
Great, Laura! (prayer)
2. Why did Yancey hate the psalms? They confused him and were contradictory. He also found them to be more depressing than uplifting.
3. What did he try to do to like them better that failed? Studying them systematically.
4. What discovery opened his eyes? That this was not God speaking to man, but man speaking to God.
5. Can you identify with Yancey’s frustration? Why or why not? I don’t think that I have had the same frustrations with the Psalms so much, because I always thought that they were songs and not all songs are meant to make you feel happy.
You are correct Dawn about the Psalms being songs. Paul David Tripp says the Psalms are the Bible’s Hymnbook. He also makes the point that we sing when we are happy, we sing when we are sad, we sing at birthdays and we sing at funerals. Singing takes place in many contexts.
Thank you for the reminder that psalms are songs “and not all songs are meant to make you feel happy.” So true. Songs are from the heart and the heart feels it all.
2. Why did Yancey hate the psalms? He felt they were confusing, all over the place, and boring.
3. What did he try to do to like them better that failed? He tried to recognize the different types of Psalms and read them through the lens of the type they were.
4. What discovery opened his eyes? That they were in essence a ‘sampling of spiritual journals’.
5. Can you identify with Yancey’s frustration? Why or why not? Yes, but for different reasons. I never cared much for the Psalms, and didn’t read them systematically and purposefully until late last year. I couldn’t articulate why I didn’t like them but after reading them last year, I appreciated them more but the book is far from my favorite.
6. What did Yancey learn from reading the notes in his father’s Bible? Have you ever read someone’s Bible notes and learned something about them or their relationship with God? He learned of his father’s relationship with God. No I haven’t.
7. How are the Psalms similar? We are not necessarily being taught about the Lord or theology but we learn of God by seeing other pilgrim’s relationships with Him.
8. Poetry may teach us something, but primarily it is meant to get to our hearts. My friend Ann became a Christian after reading T. S. Elliot’s Hollow Men. She didn’t want to live a hollow life. Look at one of your favorite psalms, and find the poetry that captured your heart. Share the word picture or word pictures here and explain why it touches your heart. “Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me. By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.” Psalm 42:7-8 The idea of the Lord’s Spirit or love drowning me (and perhaps it’s His Will or hard things) is a powerful picture or thought. Then to follow it with His command of His steadfast love and song with me at night is a powerful picture.
9. Now, share, and you may want to share it in a journal too, how that word picture causes you to praise God, confess sin, or ask God for something. Then do it. Lord may I be so aware of your love and presence that it would be like the powerful force of the waterfall, and the overwhelming pull and covering of the waves and breakers.
10. What mealtime prayer did Yancey learn as a child and why did he become uncomfortable with it? The simplicity of faith expressed in the prayer was/is often times challenged by the hard things and trials in this world.
Great prayer for #9, Tammy!
Love your precious prayer too, Tammy! This spoke to my heart: Lord may I be so aware of your love and presence that it would be like the powerful force of the waterfall, and the overwhelming pull and covering of the waves and breakers.
6. What did Yancey learn from reading the notes in his father’s Bible ? His father’s thought and journey with God. Have you ever read someone’s Bible notes and learned something about them or their relationship with God? No
7. How are the Psalms similar? They give us an insight to what the author is thinking or feeling.
Wednesday: Honest to God
Read through the middle of page 5 to “The Cursing Psalms”
11. What stands out and why?
—His story about Professor Allan Bloom who asked his class to identify an evil person and they couldn’t. The students didn’t have a category in their minds for evil. Asd you consider that he wrote this article back in the mid 1980s it is troubling in light of the fact evil has risen to high levels in our own society and the whole world.
12. Why did Yancey find it comforting that the psalmists struggled with questions? Was that part of your spiritual journey or not? Explain.
—To know he wasn’t alone in that spiritual giants even Jesus struggled and felt terribly troubled by the world around them was comforting.
Yes I have found comfort in identifying that this is the plight of humanity in this broken fallen world and others have gone before me survived and serve as examples.
I think anyone who is honest about the experiences of the difficult, disordered and messiness of life and has to face life as it really is at times finds it comforting that the Bible in the Psalms does not shy away from the way things are.
13. Describe the contrasting juxtaposition of Psalms 22 and 23. What does this teach us?
—In Psalm 22 David cries out in despair over his situation but under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is prophesying about the sufferings of Jesus in great detail that actually were fulfilled. But then in Psalm 23 David describes a beautiful and completely different experience and beautiful sentiments of the Lord as the Good Shepherd.
It teaches us that life encompasses both aspects of living in this fallen broken world.
14. How about 102 and 103?
—It is the same. Two Psalms one right after the other that are categorically different. 102 is the prayer of an afflicted man and 103 is a hymn of majestic praise.
15. Why do you think God wants us to be honest with Him? Do you think you are? Has this helped you hear from God? Explain.
—It would seem since God is omniscient that being honest with him is more about our need to be honest with ourselves. And when I openly voice my honest feelings to Him it seems to help clear the air of any pretense on my part and makes my heart open to his honesty back to me. If I am honest about my needs He can address them honestly for me.
Yes at my age it would be foolish to be anything but honest with God. He is more than ready and wiling to hear and help me and comfort me. It is his very nature to wrap his loving arms around me. Truth when lovingly applied has a very cleansing effect.
Bev, I loved this – “And when I openly voice my honest feelings to Him it seems to help clear the air of any pretense on my part and makes my heart open to his honesty back to me. If I am honest about my needs He can address them honestly for me.”
Ali — how I love that you are interacting! 🙂
Bev, loved your answer to 15… It would seem since God is omniscient that being honest with him is more about our need to be honest with ourselves. This is eye opening for sure.
Amen to Ali and Julie! Yes!
11. What stands out and why?
The wildly vacillating emotions of the psalmists…it’s all there! The vengeful, vindictive anger against the enemies of God’s people, and them wanting God to crush and destroy them. The individual psalmist’s feelings of utter despair and abandonment, and also their most joyful praise. Feeling forlorn versus the comfort of knowing the Shepherd. I don’t think there is a human emotion that the Psalms do not cover.
12. Why did Yancey find it comforting that the psalmists struggled with questions? Was that part of your spiritual journey or not? Explain.
He finds it comforting to think that if he finds himself feeling like the psalmist who wrote Psalm 22 or 102, that even spiritual giants, like the psalmists and Jesus Himself, have felt the emotions expressed in the Psalms. Yes, I feel that I struggle too with questions, doubts, and fears. Life can be very unpredictable and unsettling, and even in my closest relationships, there can be misunderstanding, miscommunication, a feeling of not being as connected or close as I would like. It’s hard to imagine that in heaven we will all have transparent hearts, without the need for wearing masks, pretending, or hiding our true selves and feelings. Many years ago, while grieving the loss of my nephew, I turned to the psalm that talks about God turning our mourning into dancing (Psalm 30). The way I was feeling at the moment, I thought, no way. How can this be? I am so sad right now, and I don’t understand how I will ever feel happy again. I remember eating dinner with my family and one of the kids saying something funny, and I laughed, and immediately felt guilty, as in why are you laughing when your nephew is dead? Through praying that Psalm, during that prayer it was like God showed me that I was not standing there alone, forlorn, and that He was expecting me to dance. Instead, He was taking me into His arms and dancing with me.
13. Describe the contrasting juxtaposition of Psalms 22 and 23. What does this teach us?
Psalm 22 is a psalm of abandonment, with the opening words spoken by Jesus when He was on the cross. Asking God why He has forsaken and abandoned Him. Then in Psalm 23, David writes about the comfort of being in the care of the Shepherd, who leads him beside still waters, refreshing and restoring his soul. It teaches us to be honest with God about how we are feeling and to not stop talking to Him even when we are in despair. We are also encouraged to see the hope in God that is still there in our darkest times.
14. How about 102 and 103?
The psalmist in Psalm 102 is crying out to God to please hear him. He is afflicted on all sides and feeling it in his body. He has no strength left and feels that God has left him. Psalm 103 begins with “Bless the Lord, O my soul” and talks about all of God’s benefits. Those are very far apart in the range of emotions!
15. Why do you think God wants us to be honest with Him? Do you think you are? Has this helped you hear from God? Explain.
When there is no honesty, relationships break down, or they grow cool, superficial, and distant. I know this to be true, because there have been times when I have felt I just cannot say what I’m really feeling deep down inside to another person, and I keep it in, for fear of them being angry, or turning away from me, or loss of approval, or even rejection. But those unspoken things can put up an invisible wall, even if only I know it’s there. With God, I find it much easier to just say what I’m really feeling, because I know He already knows anyway. There’s no hiding my private thoughts from Him. Yet He wants us to say it to Him because He wants relationship with us. Distance from God can grow when we don’t share what we’re really feeling; not that He turns away, but we will feel distant from Him.
Susan, Your answer to question 12 resonated with me. When my sister-in-law (who was a widow with 3 children) died suddenly at age 40 the grief was huge in our family and my husband was the one most responsible for arrangements so we spent a week back in our hometown handling it all. I remember feeling a constant weight inside. After returning home to our own community one evening we were together with close friends from our church who were people who were praying us through our difficult times and laughing openly and freely for the first time after her death It was a feeling that lifted my soul. I was surprised by it but in a safe group to express it.
Your comment is so beautiful, “ it was like God showed me that I was not standing there alone, forlorn, and that He was expecting me to dance. Instead, He was taking me into His arms and dancing with me.”
Oh Bev, I can’t even imagine the heartache your family endured at the sudden death of your sister-in-law. Thankful you had such caring, loving friends to pray with you and support you through it.
Susan, in 12, I appreciate that picture of God not expecting us to dance, but He is taking us in His arms and dancing.
I love what you said about how its like we are dancing with God. He doesn’t expect us to put on a show. He wants us to engage with Him in it. Love it.
Susan, your answer to 15 is so good. Though we think are thoughts are hidden inside us, they still build the wall that divides.
Love this from Susan:
Many years ago, while grieving the loss of my nephew, I turned to the psalm that talks about God turning our mourning into dancing (Psalm 30). The way I was feeling at the moment, I thought, no way. How can this be? I am so sad right now, and I don’t understand how I will ever feel happy again. I remember eating dinner with my family and one of the kids saying something funny, and I laughed, and immediately felt guilty, as in why are you laughing when your nephew is dead? Through praying that Psalm, during that prayer it was like God showed me that I was not standing there alone, forlorn, and that He was expecting me to dance. Instead, He was taking me into His arms and dancing with me.
2. Why did Yancey hate the psalms?
They didn’t “cure” his depression, or ease his pain and in most cases made his struggles worse. He couldn’t understand why most believers used it as a medicine cabinet for their soul.
3. What did he try to do to like them better that failed?
He studied the Psalms systematically. On an intellectual level he enjoyed the details rather than at a heart level so he had a grasp of it but without enjoyment.
4. What discovery opened his eyes?
He discovered that the Psalms doesn’t fit into a spiritual “grid”, for they are personal letters to God and the intended audience wasn’t other people; the intended audience was God. These are written by a variety of people in fluctuating moods.
5. Can you identify with Yancey’s frustration? Why or why not?
I don’t recall if I was frustrated or not. In the early 1990’s I learned about the different structures in the Psalms. In the Psalms that were written in chiastic structure, it was important to find the central point of what the Psalmist is wanting us to learn about God, and the psalmist’s heart. However, not all of the Psalms had a central message about God, and some started with depression and ended in depression with no turn, so I was perplexed. It wasn’t until I saw that the Psalms aren’t books we want to dissect to find out what God is trying to tell us, and then stop there. They are books that expose the heart of the psalmists who are communicating with God. It actually comforted me to know that they are just as messed up as I am, and didn’t try to hide it from God. Instead they let it all out before God whether it was a lament, thank offering, or anything else. I think that is what God delights in.
I signed up a few days ago but messed it up so badly, I withdrew. If possible and there is grace, I’d like to try again. I’ve been reading the posts and the insight and transparency is soooo good that I just want to soak it in.
Beth – I’m glad you are here. 🙂
Rebecca – I agree. They let it all hang out and that is so comforting.
Welcome back, Beth. Of course!
I echo, welcome back, Beth!
Yes! : They are books that expose the heart of the psalmists who are communicating with God. It actually comforted me to know that they are just as messed up as I am, and didn’t try to hide it from God. Instead they let it all out before God whether it was a lament, thank offering, or anything else. I think that is what God delights in. 🙂
Wednesday: Honest to God
▪ What stands out and why?
When he said that “the 150 Psalms are as difficult, disordered, and messy as life itself. Oddly, that fact gives me great comfort.” We live in a time when everything we see from our friends’ social media is a highlight reel, but there is so much loneliness and I keep hearing about more and more suicides. And I ask myself, why are we ashamed of being real with each other? But I am, too. And scared of being real, too. The Psalms, as dissonant as they are from one to the next, are a connection to the realness of a life of faith.
▪ Why did Yancey find it comforting that the psalmists struggled with questions? Was that part of your spiritual journey or not? Explain.
Absolutely. So much brokenness in my family, and pain from consequences of poor decisions when my unhealed self was running the show. Consequences I still live with. Lots of questions and doubts. But ultimately, they have pushed me even closer to Jesus.
▪ Describe the contrasting juxtaposition of Psalms 22 and 23. What does this teach us?
That there is space to hold both despair and hope in the same heart. Like we were created to hold both, and both lead to God. Honestly, I’ve had days where one day was like Psalm 22 and Psalm 102 and then the next was like Psalm 23 and Psalm 103. So different. But same life, same circumstances.
▪ Why do you think God wants us to be honest with Him? Do you think you are? Has this helped you hear from God? Explain.
I think He wants us to be honest with Him because He wants a relationship with us and He wants us to be close, with nothing in between us, an unobstructed view. I would like to think I’m honest with God, but I think my “honesty” comes out in complaints and anger. Constant conversations with God but all about me and my problems. I realized I needed to stop and listen. You know that marriage therapy exercise where one person puts on a blindfold and the other person says everything they need to say without the blindfolded person saying anything but instead just listening? I thought about that and realized I needed to be quiet and listen. That was helpful for me in kind of recalibrating how I was praying. It also makes me think of what Mother Teresa said about prayer once – a reporter asked her what she prays about and she said she doesn’t say anything she just listens. And the reporter asked her what God said to her, and she said, he doesn’t say anything he just listens. And that really struck me. God wants to commune with me, and maybe that means no words, more often than I think. Yet so often, I treat Him like my own personal genie.
Interesting responses from Mother Teresa, Ali. I remember reading she didn’t want her prayer journal published, but they still did, and people were shocked at some of her despondent prayers!
Wednesday: Honest to God
Read through the middle of page 5 to “The Cursing Psalms”
11. What stands out and why? – It surprises me, I think, that Prof Bloom’s undergraduate students could not come up with one evil person. That saddens me that history is not being remembered and used as a learning tool.
12. Why did Yancey find it comforting that the psalmists struggled with questions? Was that part of your spiritual journey or not? Explain. – He found it comforting because Jesus himself has had the emotions of injustice and then a loving thought. It may help to see both points of view and to know that we don’t have to feel bad when we are struggling.
13. Describe the contrasting juxtaposition of Psalms 22 and 23. What does this teach us? – Psalm 22 shows David struggling and crying out to God for an answer and Psalm 23 shows that God has rescued him and David knows that God will provide for him in his want.
14. How about 102 and 103? – Psalm 102 has a weakened man feeling abandoned by his friends and alone. Psalm 103 has a man remembering that God is the one who provides and is with him.
15. Why do you think God wants us to be honest with Him? Do you think you are? Has this helped you hear from God? Explain. – God knows we are human and have emotions. I think he wants to hear us speak to him about what bothers us so he knows we are paying attention to the outside world. He wants to see our righteous anger and asking him for help in dealing with these things. I think I do speak out to him and ask him why Lord, I don’t get it Lord. God spoke things in to existence and we need to speak to him as well. And the more I speak to him the more I feel his presence him my life and hear him in my thoughts.
From Julie:
And the more I speak to him the more I feel his presence him my life and hear him in my thoughts.
11. What stands out and why? The idea that cursing Psalms, angry Psalms are in the Bible at all. I never thought much about that. It gives me some peace, that when my heart matches that vibe, it’s not wrong to cry out to God as these pilgrims did.
12. Why did Yancey find it comforting that the psalmists struggled with questions? Was that part of your spiritual journey or not? Still is, there are horrendous experiences that make no earthly sense. Recently in my circles a young mother/wife/Christian committed suicide. The wreckage and questions for those who love her cause seismic after effects that those I love will wrestle with for a long time. Walking through the death (brain cancer)of a close family friend’s 8 year old daughter, walking that out, having to believe on faith God would redeem even as she lost physical ability and would ask me to go on adventures. The contrast of a little girl who would ask me to go on a walk or go swimming but her body could no longer do those things and a good God, absolutely tore me apart. My only response was to jump by faith that cliff of circumstance and believe what I couldn’t see, couldn’t feel, that God was good and trust.
13. Describe the contrasting juxtaposition of Psalms 22 and 23. The contrast is viewing God in truth, and viewing God through the filter of our experience. It teaches us that it’s a very normal experience to wrestle with the truth of who God is and wh He can feel like given our valid and true experience. Like that picture you gave us in your book Idol Lies, when we have been given Ipecac to vomit out the vile poison of our idols God would seem a cruel Father, as opposed to when He holds us close to comfort and console us while we are sick.
14. How about 102 and 103?
15. Why do you think God wants us to be honest with Him? Do you think you are? Has this helped you hear from God? Explain. A genuine relationship means honesty, I am honest with God, but only as honest as I am with myself and sometimes I need to give Him space to be able to reveal to me my own heart. I don’t know if it’s helped me hear from God but it has helped me to enter into deeper fellowship. As I am honest it seems to open the emotional door for Him to enter more deeply into the inner rooms of my heart and mind.
Tammy, the examples you gave in your answer to #12 are certainly very hard, even impossible, to grapple with. I mean, what do we do with such horrible tragedies? I also remember something Dee wrote in her book, The God of All Comfort, and it was that if we turn away from God, we let go of our only lifeline.
Oh Tammy so many hard things to deal with, I’m so sorry. I remember my older sister, not a believer, yet, ask me how I could seem to be at peace with my other sister’s sudden death. I told her there will always be questions we don’t have the answers to or know why, but that I have to trust God that he does. She seemed to think about it at least.
I am sorry for your loss Julie, may God continue to give you peace in the unknowing.
Thursday: Cursing and Praising
Read up to the middle of page 7 and stop at “Third, the psalms give me a model of spiritual therapy.”
16. How did C. S. Lewis see the cursing psalms, but what problem is there with that view?
—He thought the reactions of the Psalmists in their cursing were wrong. He felt the “cursing Psalms” expressed spiritual immaturity by the religious Jews of the Old Testament and that it was corrected by the New Testament citing verses like “love your enemies” and “forgive them for they know not what they do. His argument was kind of complicated and could not be carried through because New Testament authors Paul and Peter supported and affirmed some of those cursing Psalms.
17. How does Yancey see the cursing psalms? Do you find this helpful? Explain.
—He sees them as prayers and says they have to be considered in their literary context. Prayers that we are overhearing.
I do find it helpful and I like that Yancey says “God has a high threshold of tolerance for what is appropriate to say in a prayer. He can “handle” my unsuppressed rage. I may well find that my vindictive feelings need his correction—but only by taking those feelings to him will I have that chance for correction and healing.” That comes back to the honesty factor. We have to be honest with God for correction and healing in our lives.
18. What did C. S. Lewis first misunderstand about the psalms of praise when he said, “I don’t want my dog to bark approval of my books.” What did he come to understand?
—Frankly, I don’t quite understand Lewis’s analogy about his dog and it is a bit lost on me. I have trouble applying it. But I agree praise should be an instinctive and natural response to God and is a shared enjoyment with God. Psalm 22:3 in the KJV says “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.” Other versions use the word enthroned on the praises. In other words God is or should be the very heart of any praise and becomes an active participant not just an object of praise. We praise a living God who by his holiness and splendor provokes a response of praise when we truly see him as he is.
19. How did the ancient Hebrews respond to God’s glory? (Our Laura-dancer will like this!)
—Very enthusiastically. Yes for Laura, dance included!😀
And with instruments and even loud music. I love many styles of music but I have to admit I just simply cannot stand still when I sing or hear good melodic music with a beat. I like the rhythm of music and great harmonies. So for me singing praises to God is a wonderful experience of worshipping him.
I had to think about the dog barking too!
But I think Lewis is remembering in one sense we are grasshoppers compared to the Lord and He really doesn’t need our approval.
16. How did C.S. Lewis see the cursing psalms, but what problem is there with that view?
He seemed almost embarrassed by them. He contrasted the spirit of vengefulness in the cursing psalms with the model of forgiveness in the NT. He felt that though the psalmists’ reactions were natural, they were wrong. He also wrote an article about how the Jewish people, due to being God’s chosen people, became self-righteous.
17. How does Yancey see the cursing psalms? Do you find this helpful? Explain.
He first reminds us that when we read the psalms, we are overhearing prayers addressed to God. In that way, the cursing psalms, says Yancey, are “spiritual therapy” (to the max!). They give us a solution to the problem of being wronged. Instead of hurting another person back, or repressing our feelings of hurt and anger, we can take them to God, trusting Him to be the just Judge. He says it’s best to take even our worst feelings to God, because we’re not gossiping when we’re telling God all about it, nor are we cursing people to others. Yancey sees these psalms as a model for how to deal with evil and injustice, which is to take our feelings, in all honesty, to God. I do find this helpful. I can tend to want to complain to somebody else about what someone did to me, which is gossip, if they were not a part of the problem. When I go to God and talk it through with Him, He often reveals something to me about how to handle my feelings. Like Yancey said, sometimes I need to be corrected.
18. What did C.S. Lewis first misunderstand about the psalms of praise when he said, “I don’t want my dog to bark approval of my books?” What did he come to understand?
He seemed to not understand the purpose of praise? He used the example of his dog, which seems like because dog/owner is kind of a master/servant relationship, that the dog “has to” bark approval of his books. We shouldn’t praise God because we “have to” or are expected to. Then Lewis said that praise can be like pausing and enjoying the beauty of something, almost as if kneeling before it, and then wanting to announce it to others. I think he came to understand that it naturally flows out of us when we stop to appreciate what God has made or done for us.
19. How did the ancient Hebrews respond to God’s glory?
They would dance with abandon with loud musical instruments and incense. I think of how David danced with all his might before the Lord. He wasn’t worried about carrying himself in a dignified manner as befitted the king of Israel.
I like this, Susan. I remember Keller saying the reason Job didn’t get in trouble for all his anger was because he always brought it to God and not to others.
Thursday: Cursing and Praising
▪ How did C. S. Lewis see the cursing psalms, but what problem is there with that view?
It sounded to me like CS Lewis thought we should filter ourselves to avoid doing wrong. I think the problem is that things in us that aren’t exposed, continue to grow in the dark. For me personally, this is the reason I’ve done so much therapeutic writing over the past four+ years during a time of intense personal dismantling and rebuilding in my life. If reactions, urges, anger, rage go unacknowledged, they grow in me. I put words to things and shine light on things and they lose their power. Not sure who said it first, but I love the statement “Shame can’t hide in the light.” That’s been my personal experience, too. Expose what’s growing in the darkness and it loses its power, gets smaller, and God comes in with compassion. Being honest, even if it’s messy and ugly, has been profoundly healing for me.
▪ How does Yancey see the cursing psalms? Do you find this helpful? Explain.
It sounds like he sees them as prayers of people who are taking their anger to God and placing it in God’s hands, for God to deal with. I do find this helpful. Grudges, anger, rage, and hatred have become idols for me, just as much as success, wealth, and approval can be idols. I can, and have, spend large hunks of my life fixating on my grudges, the wrongs done against me, the pain someone caused me, and it gets in between me and God. It becomes more important to me to feed the grudge or the pain than to submit and surrender to God’s plan, God’s way of dealing with it. So expressing my anger and pain to God and placing them in God’s hands is surrendering them to Him. It’s hard to let go of. But the alternative makes things even worse.
▪ What did C. S. Lewis first misunderstand about the psalms of praise when he said, “I don’t want my dog to bark approval of my books.” What did he come to understand?
I like the distinction that your heart welling up at seeing a beautiful painting, hearing music, or being blown away by nature is a form of praise. I’ve struggled with praise. A lot has gone wrong. I tend to look at the wrong and the bad. But I don’t acknowledge how joyfully overwhelmed I have been by the wonders of the Creator, and the inspired acts of the created. I have a post-it note on my desk that says “You are the Creator. I am Your creation” to remind me who I am and Whose I am. I love it when God’s beauty puts me in my place.
▪ How did the ancient Hebrews respond to God’s glory?
Beautiful music, poetry, any outpouring with their whole being comes out through their hands, their voices. I love that. I WANT to lose control like that. I want to surrender to God’s joy in me. Frederick Buechner said, “We have God’s joy in our blood” and I LOVE that. I want to understand what that looks like for me. I’m so buttoned up and filtered all the time. But the Creator made us in His image, and I think that means we are created to create, too. Creation challenges the impossible. Maybe with God’s creative “gene” in us, we can do that, too. I want to make space in my life for simple expressions of joy and praise with the abilities God gave me. Maybe also what comes out of me will help others feel less alone, too.
Would you say, Ali, that your journaling is a way of praying to the Lord?
Yes, I think so. Definitely part of an ongoing conversation with Him. I write on my computer but also I have a journaling app on my phone that has a dictation option so I can talk and it will type for me, and I use that while I’m walking or driving. Many times I’ve turned it on when I’m praying.
Ooohh I sat up straighter when I caught mention of Frederick Buechner in your post! I read his book, The Sacred Journey. I read it twice. It’s worth reading again. What books have you read of his?
Also, I can relate to your struggle with grudges, having trouble letting go of the wrongs done against me…I remember things like from grade school. A few weeks ago on Dee’s blog, we listened to a Tim Keller sermon that was eye opening for me. He talked about two women who broke up with their fiancé. One was able to get over it, the other not so. For the one who was able to forgive, he said that God’s love was like a sweetness in the bottom of her “cup” (as in her heart) that didn’t let the bitterness get all the way down, while the other woman – God’s love was abstract to her.
Susan, I’ve read “Telling the truth” and “Secrets in the Dark.” I want to read more. I will check out “The Sacred Journey.” I have loved everything of his that I have read!
Excited to learn more deeply how the Psalms can impact my day to day life.
Everyone — Sarah is a young neighbor with amazing potential and maturity — welcome her with me! She may be our youngest — though I am not sure. Sweet mother to 3 littles: Lily, Daniel, and Boaz.
Hi Sarah, welcome to the blog!
Hi Sarah!