Tuesday, October 29, 2013

EMMDEV Snippets from Psalms

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your heart to God."

Good Morning!

For my first devotional I am simply going to tell you a little about the coming weeks and the series that I have felt led to write about.

I'm calling it "Snippet's from Psalms" and rather than tackling full Psalms, or an entire book, I am selecting key verses from a variety of the Psalms and unpacking a few each day. I'll be commenting briefly on the context of the entire psalm that the verse will come from, and would encourage you, if you find a moment in the day, to read through the rest of the Psalm.

The Psalms is most probably my favourite book in the Bible, and I believe it has so much to offer us. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of the great theologians talks about its unique place in the Scriptures saying that; "It is God's Word and, with a few exceptions, the prayer of men as well"

Some commentators have even argued that the entire message of the Bible is contained in the book of Psalms. Martin Luther (the great reformer) was one of these as he wrote that the Psalter "…might well be called a little Bible. In it is comprehended most beautifully and briefly everything that is in the entire Bible. It is really a fine …handbook."

But beyond its theology and scope, for me the psalms are intensely personal. They provide words and expressions and ways of relating to God when I find that my own words and ways fail. We find every possible human emotion captured from anger to praise, grief to rejoicing, confusion to clarity and apathy to encouragement. We find that while David and the other authors may have lived centuries ago, they faced the same struggles and heartache that we do, and so in their writings we find ourselves.

A little while back, I was reading through the Psalms in my quiet times and when I came across a verse that specifically spoke to me, I made it my facebook status and tweeted it (more for my record that anything else). I was amazed at how many people commented on these few verses and how much they had meant to them that day. It is many of these verses that I will be unpacking and exploring in these devotionals.

I pray in the next few weeks that you will be blessed by the words, poetry and prayers of the psalmists.


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