I love the Psalms.
In my work as a pastoral counselor and occasional preacher, I talk about them a lot. The hope is that by developing an awareness of the Psalms, folks would feel free to start feeling their feelings, talking about their feelings, and perhaps even talking to God about their feelings. That would be a good thing.
But I didn’t know I talked about them this much. As is evident by the lists below, I’ve talked and sung and written a bunch about the Psalms. And I’m not stopping.
Because although the Psalms do not help us to become super Christians, the Psalms do in fact help us to become human Christians. And the world (and global missions) needs as many of those types as we can get…
Articles
The Gaping Hole in the Modern Missions Movement (part 1)
The Gaping Hole in the Modern Missions Movement (part 2)
A Missionary’s Call to the Psalms and Deeper Emotional Intelligence
Some thoughts on how to combine the Psalms with Discovery Bible Studies and inner healing ministries.
Here’s a three-minute video showing one way to interface with the Psalms. You can read more on this method here.
Podcasts/Sermons
Despair is Where Hope Lives (Psalm 130)
Pilgrim Songs (Psalms 120-124)
On Peace, Busyness, and Remembering that I’m Not God (Psalm 131)
Teleporting, Editing, and Borrowing (Psalm 31)
On Rest, Loss, and Revenge (Psalm 3)
The Posture of God (Psalm 116)
Songs
Follow Close (Psalm 63)
Spiritual Warfare Lullaby (Psalm 23, Psalm 91)
Psalm 13
One Thing I Ask (Psalm 27)
I have been reading a Psalm a day most days since 2001, and I have seen how they shape my prayer life, but never really put together how absent they are from the missions movement. I have used them in a very general way to point Asian friends to the legitimacy of emotions, especially anger and grief, but your articles have given me more to think and pray about. I really love the method in the video, which I think will be something I can use here in Nepal. Thanks!
I’m so happy you’ve found these musings helpful! If the method in the video ends up being useful in your context, or if you find any modifications that make it better, please do let me know; I would love to continue to modify and crowdsource this thing to make it more and more effective. Thanks again! — Jonathan T.