151 days ago our curate suggested that before opening up our emails and social media accounts each morning, we should start each day by reading something from the Bible. The idea was to start our day with God rather than all the other things that we allow to bombard us day in, day out. I decided that I would take that challenge, starting the very next day. And as some of my quick-witted readers may have guessed from the start of this paragraph, this morning I read the final Psalm. I’m feeling pretty pleased with myself for sticking with it to be honest.
But now I’m thinking about what I’ve learnt, and what I’ll take away from this experience. I’ve shared a few of these take-aways with you below.
Firstly, and as a bit of a side-note, this challenge has definitely taught me the power of habit. To begin with I’d forget and would get half way through the day before heading to my Bible (ok, Bible app – I may be reading the Bible each day but I’m still a millennial). However, as the months ticked by I found myself forgetting less and less, and for the last 50 Psalms or so I think I remembered almost every day. Habit is a very useful tool!
Secondly, I discovered that the Psalms can be pretty repetitive, and very varied in length (one of them is 176 verses long while the shortest is just 2 verses). There is a lot of praising God in the Psalms! And a fair bit of re-capping what God has been doing earlier in the Bible. To begin with the repetition bugged me a bit. I found myself skimming through and paying lip-service to the challenge. But eventually I had to accept something: there is repetition because what is being said is important. It’s a message that needs to get through, and often that means saying it more than once.
It was the recapping that finally got the message through to me – God did amazing things, and people are still thanking Him for them. These phenomenal things, these moments of history when God reached out and changed the world completely for those that knew and loved (and very often, feared) Him, tell us that we know a God who is powerful, who intercedes on our behalf, and who won’t accept second best. They tell the story of a God who will do what is needed, for you and for me. When I’m having a bad day, that’s a wonderful truth to hold onto. That’s the sort of incredible news that keeps us going when the baby sobs through breakfast and then throws yoghurt at you, the traffic makes you late for work, the nap doesn’t happen, you break a glass and burn dinner. Or on the day you get bad news. God triumphs, no matter what. That message is loud and clear throughout the Psalms and it’s a good one at the start of your day. Much better than the airbrushed celeb or a dog eating a pizza (for example).
However, I also discovered that the Psalms are not all about triumph. There are a few in there that are pretty depressing. Psalm 88 is a good example. You read it, waiting for the uplifting moment in which God makes everything right, and it just never comes. Let’s put aside for a moment that sometimes the uplifting note comes in the next Psalm. Instead, I found it really helpful to be reminded that while God triumphs and works for good in all things, we don’t always see the outcome. Some moments are too bleak and too devastating for us to cling to a silver lining. Some of the Psalms tell us that this is OK. We’re not alone in our bleak moments. And each poor, incredible person who lives most of their life through bleak moments is not alone. For me, a few of the Psalms were a reminder that God is still here, even in the bleakest of moments, and that I can still cling to Him. He has something better for us – we might just have to wait a while, and we may not see better in the way we expect or during our lifetimes.
Lastly, the Psalms taught me to give in to the joy of praising God. Let go of decorum, sensible decibel levels or your worries about finding the right words (or the right note). From time to time, try simply throwing all of yourself at a moment of praise. Let your heart swell with the overflowing, overwhelming love God has for you. Let your mind marvel at the awe-inspiring power that is God. Just let go and tell God you love Him and are grateful beyond words for Him. And on that note, I think I’ll leave you with the very last verse of the Psalms:
Let everything that breathes sing praise to the Lord. Praise the Lord.