Singing the Lord’s Song
I started really understanding the Book of Psalms more deeply when I went through what I have determined so far to be THE MOST HORRIFIC EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE: my daughter attempted to unalive herself more than once. Not quite the break-up heartbreak story with a dusty situationship one may expect from me, this was far worse—the kind of worse that only God can deliver me from. THAT is the Book of Psalms, where God meets you heart to heart. Feeling hopeless after the first time she attempted to end her life, I picked up a bible study guide on the Book of Psalms on the way out of church one day looking for the answers to my nightmare; but what I found instead was God right there in the trenches with me, heart to heart. He saw me, and He saw her scars. But He knew something I didn’t, this would be her testimony one day.
When I was in the emergency room with my daughter after her last attempt to end her life, playing with her hair while I sobbed with snot dripping down my nose, I whispered to her “I love you, please don’t go.” Her response made me wail, “I’m sorry you love me,” she said. I lost it, I grieved more in that moment than I had ever grieved. I retorted, “I’m not!” I got to praying, praying the hard prayer, “Father, please save my baby girl!” I sobbed, wailed, and prayed so hard that even the nurse got teary-eyed. I didn’t care, I knew this was one of those moments that ONLY GOD can save you from. The kind of moment that the only thing you can do is pray with ferocity, a ferocity I didn’t even know I had inside. Having studied the Book of Psalms up through that moment, I knew I had to go hard in prayer, as hard as the Psalmists, with a heart like David.
Lessons of the Past
The Book of Psalms is comprised of five books: Book One, Psalms 1-41; Book Two, Psalms 42-72; Book Three, Psalms 73-89; Book Four, Psalms 90-106; and Book Five, Psalms 107-150. The five books of Psalms reflect the five books of the Torah: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. As I analyzed the reflection of the Torah and Genesis, I realized that Psalms was structured with the same formula as the Torah but in a different time. Book One, like Genesis, sets the tone of Psalms by presenting the dichotomy between the path of the righteous and the way of the wicked.
Like Exodus, Book Two is about God’s presence in the deep moments of longing and lament yet an ultimate hope in God’s sovereignty. Book Three questions the prosperity of the wicked and the promise of God’s covenant, which resonate with the importance of the laws established in Leviticus. Book Four is a plea to God’s eternal sovereignty as the only safe refuge in a brief and broken world, mirroring the events in Numbers as the Israelites were on the way to the Promised Land. Book Five concludes the Psalms as a return from exile, which was the sentiment in Deuteronomy when the Israelites finally entered the Promised Land.
Meet the Psalmists
The Book of Psalms is mostly written by King David, as well as by Levite temple musicians of the time. King Solomon also wrote two Psalms (Psalm 72 and 127), which makes sense as David’s son and subsequent king; but more interestingly, Moses—who is not of that time—wrote Psalm 90 and more than likely Psalm 91 too as it seems to continue from Psalm 90, which further indicates the relationship between the Torah and the Book of Psalms. Let’s be real though, like the rest of the Holy Bible, the real MVP of the Book of Psalms is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit transcends time, as depicted with the prayers and praises in the Book of Psalms.
Some of the most notable examples of the strongest prayers included in the Book of Psalms are David’s famous Psalm 23, “The Lord is my shepherd;” heavy-hitter Psalm 91 by Moses, THE prayer of protection; and Psalm 51, “a psalm of David when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone to Bathsheba,” one of David’s biggest cries for mercy. David’s cry for mercy was so hard—and so public—that David’s son with Bathsheba would be none other than King Solomon, the one who builds the very first temple in Jerusalem. When we pray to our heavenly father, not matter the circumstance, He will deliver us and make a whole testimony out of it.
Never-ending Worship
It can feel terribly easy to fall into the narrative of “why do bad things happen to good people?” or “why do good things happen to bad people?” then direct that narrative as anger toward others and even God, but the Psalmists remind us to pray to the One who will deliver us when we cannot deliver ourselves; and to be honest, we can never truly deliver ourselves. David wrote many Psalms asking God to save him from his father Saul who was trying to kill him, and David praised the Lord so LOUDLY after God delivered him from death attempt after death attempt. When you surrender what you cannot control and have faith that God will deliver you and yours, He is faithful to those who love Him. There is peace with knowing that God is the ultimate Judge, and His scales are just; so, praise be to God!
The Psalmists not only teach us to pray, but they further encourage us to pray without ceasing and with thanksgiving, as the Lord who reigns hears and delivers His people (1 Thessalonians 5:16-17). As we read the Psalms, we are reminded of the power of that which is good, even in the lament and even when it seems like evil is winning. By obeying God’s good laws, we are protected and delivered by His just sovereignty; “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). No matter the circumstance, surrender your burdens to God and have faith that this too shall pass.
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