I’m sure you’ll all agree that the Psalms is a wonderful book of the bible. It literally has a bit of everything in it and no matter who you are or what you’re going through there is a Psalm for you. It strikes me however, that I’VE ALWAYS HAD A FUNNY RELATIONSHIP WITH THE PSALMS. You’re probably wondering what on earth I mean. Let me explain.

I’m sure we’ve all met people who love the Psalms. People who know just the right one to pray at a prayer meeting. People who can almost instinctively see the struggles of others and speak the truths of the Psalms to them immediately with such relevance and reverence. These people are such a blessing to the body of Christ but unfortunately, I can’t say that is my gifting.

There are also those who regularly take refuge from the storms of life in the Psalms. Maybe every day is a struggle for them and every day they prop themselves up on the Psalms. Truths of such magnitude. Words of such encouragement. Promises of such splendour. I can relate to this scenario a little more than the first, but only a little.

Having read the Psalms as a child, perhaps more often than any other book of the bible, I feel that my attitude towards the book as an adult was not always what it ought to be. Wrongly, the Psalms was often the last place I’d look for anything.

 As a teenager I can recall sitting in a youth meeting where the speaker tore out section after section of a bible. He tore out the Psalms and said, “WELL IT’S ONLY POETRY AND SONGS ANYWAY”. Don’t be too horrified, because of course it was an illustration, and the point was that if you have that approach to the bible, SOONER OR LATER YOU’LL HAVE NOTHING LEFT.

You’d have thought I’d have taken the advice, right? Well I kind of did and I kind of didn’t. For some reason, I always saw the Psalms as separate from the rest of scripture. Yes, I knew it was the word of God. Yes, I knew there was value in it. But for some reason, I rarely opened the Psalms and read them. Some of you might be able to relate to feeling this way at some point and now you can understand why I started by saying I have a funny relationship with the Psalms.

For me, PERHAPS IT WAS A BIT OF ARROGANCE AND IMMATURITY. Arrogance in thinking that the Psalms was almost ‘entry level’ and that I was too advanced for a book that children can read. Immaturity in thinking that the Psalms didn’t have depths of truth in them and that the other books of the bible were more valuable to study.

Ironically, you might say, Psalm 141 is basically a prayer for maturity. David prays “set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth”. If only I had read that earlier then I might realise just how stupid I’d been for several years. I might have thought about exactly what I was saying when I failed to see the true value of the Psalms. David also prays “let the righteous strike me…and let him rebuke me”.

IN THE SUMMER OF 2019 I WAS INDEED STRUCK AND REBUKED.

Having been booked to play at the Edinburgh Convention ran by The Faith Mission, each morning I accompanied the congregation as they sang. The speaker in the mornings was Christopher Ash and he was teaching on the Psalms. Naturally, I was told, that opened the door for us to sing the Psalms throughout the week. You might be questioning what it means to “sing the Psalms” and to be honest so was I.

It’s a rich tradition in the Free Church of Scotland that they sing the words of the Psalms though usually acapella. Their book “The Scottish Psalter” was originally put together in the 1600’s by Francis Rous. This was a privilege then, for me to be asked to accompany the 300 plus strong congregation for something so prestigious.

One morning we sang the words of Psalm 45. “You far excel the best of men”. THESE WORDS HIT ME HARD THAT MORNING. Such a wall of sound came from the congregation all united in proclaiming this truth about our Lord.

Jesus is better. He’s better than even the best of men. And that truth came from the Psalms! The same book which for so long I’d struggled to take seriously and had wrongly brushed aside.

This truth humbled me massively that day and forever changed my attitude to the Psalms. It’s what inspired me to start a video series entitled “The Psalms // Word & Song”, so I can share the Psalms in a way which some of you might find accessible and easy to listen to.

Hopefully looking back on the error I made, can help you avoid a similar mistake. Please read the Psalms. Be blessed by them. And let them transform you from the inside out.