Artwork Credit: houseoftitus.wordpress.com
Editor’s Note: We continue our series of blogs for those who are reading the Bible with us cover-to-cover this year. Interspersed with our thoughts on our daily reading, we want to provide some tips about reading the Bible in general.
Psalms: Intense Personal Intimacy With God!
By now, if you are reading along on our reading schedule, you have sensed the amazing intimacy David and the other writers have with God. They take everything to God – joys and heartaches, triumphs and tragedies, friends and fiends.
As we step into book 2, we remember the focus of this section of the worship manual for Israel:
Book 2 – Psalms 42-72 include a mixture of several authors including David, Asaph and even Solomon. As the reader journeys along with Israel we gain a deeper appreciation for the intense personal intimacy the psalm writer feels with God. Truly one can share everything with God through a range of emotions and feel that the Great Creator is listening and somehow suffering with His child.
As you delve deeper into the ethos of the people of God, we hope you will see that it is alright to bring it all to God – every raw emotion, every deep pain, every bleeding wound to your soul and body are all ingredients for your ongoing friendship with God. As you read Book 2, consider some of these examples:
- Consider how you could emulate the longings of the lambasted as the sons of Korah reach out to God in Psalm 42.
- Contemplate how you could imitate the abundance of the overwhelmed the sons of Korah seek to express the glories of Messiah in Psalm 45.
- Weigh how you would express the shame and failure of your evil and wickedness as David attempts to gain forgiveness from God in Psalm 51.
- Work out how you would relate the pain and torture from the hatred and terrors from your enemies as David expresses his trust in God in Psalm 55.
- Imagine how you would verbalize the passionate pursuit of God as David gives voice to his joy and thirst for God in Psalm 63.
- Envision how you would give voice to the watch care and compassion of an unfailing Lord of love as David seeks to capture His majesty in Psalm 68.
- Conceive of how you would frame the desperateness of your situation when attacked without cause as David pleads with God in Psalm 69.
- Reckon how you would proceed in the presence of the King of Glory as you enter His unreserved presence as Solomon does in Psalm 72.
In reading these psalms slowly, we come to a huge reality: God cares and longs for us to enter His presence no matter our condition and emotion. As we do, He longs for us to be honest, forthright and even raw when in that condition, for He is a Father who cares and longs to love and care for us as we are, not as we might pretend to be!
It is our hope that this background information helps a bit as you read on in the Bible.
For daily insights into the passage we are reading together each day, you can follow Dr. Smith on Twitter and on Facebook.
You can obtain more help from the FREE Bible reading schedule on our resource page. In His Image is a daily devotional that also follows our reading schedule and expresses the Biblical truth: “God Created You to Love You.” You can find this resource on the side bar of our website.
Host a Reaching Your Community In Your Generation Seminar!
The world around us changes approximately every 18 months! Such change brings great challenges to our mission. Eagles In Leadership has designed a weekend to help you energize your congregation or organization to fulfill the Great Commission in your community. You can bring this weekend to your church or organization!
The weekend revolves around four key messages:
- Help! My Community Is Changing!
- What’s Your Dream for Your Church? (And How Do You Reach It?)
- Healthy Churches Grow!
- It’s All About the Mission!
