Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Psalm ~ An Open Invitation

Anybody who has kept up with The Faith Log soon discovers that a lot of what I write about is instigated by some passage in the Psalms. I've been praying through the Psalms for over 15 years now, and it really has become an ongoing conversation between me and Yahweh. Psalms lend themselves so wonderfully for that because that is exactly what they are — living conversations between the LORD and His people.

There is the “give and take” of relationship, and the psalm-writers don't hold anything back. Sometimes they are exuberant in praise, sometimes they whine and complain, sometimes they breathe out venom on their enemies.

Sometimes there is a real wrestling with God, Jacob-style. I like the title Mark D. Roberts has given to his book about the Psalms — No Holds Barred: Wrestling With God in Prayer. VERY appropriate. Sometimes there is confusion and disappointment. Psalm 88 does not have a happy ending –“The darkness is my closest friend” (NIV).All these things are held in tension. In Spirituality of the Psalms, Walter Brueggemann describes it as orientation, disorientation, reorientation. But it all becomes part of the Book of Praises (Hebrew tehillim), as the Psalms are called, because it is all brought to the LORD for Him to deal with.

Does that entice you? The Book of Psalms is an open invitation for you to come and lay out all the issues of your heart before the LORD. In the process, you will discover the heart of God.

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