The Psalms

Today’s Reading: Psalms 1-3; Acts 17: 1-15

Psalms has always been one of those books that I have kind of taken for granted. It wasn’t until recently that I started to understand how valuable they are.

Proverbs are my bread and butter. Part of it comes from my background in philosophy and my outside studies of different books of wisdom. But also another part of it is the form that they are written in. The Proverbs are very specific and direct. They provide guidance, advice, and instruction in a way that is undeniable and unambiguous.

The psalms are quite different. I am starting to understand their importance in my life in a very specific way. They provide me with guidance but in an emotional and spiritual sense. This isn’t to say that the proverbs don’t do this, but the Psalms speak directly to my heart. Much like Job, they articulate things that I have felt but couldn’t express. They are filled with joy and sadness, pain and pleasure, fear and courage.

They are a collection of the range of human experiences and emotions. It is impossible for anyone to read them and not see themselves in at least one of them.

That’s pretty powerful for works that are thousands of years old.

It wasn’t until I started really facing my feelings and my fears in an honest way that I was able to feel what the psalms were talking about. The honesty in them requires a certain level of openness and courage within the reader to face all aspects of who they are. That is something that I am still working on.

So hopefully you will enjoy them as I am learning to and feel free to teach me what I don’t know.

Cause oh buddy is there a whole heck of a lot that I don’t know.