Language of my soul

It was several years ago that I started reading the entire book of Psalms, a handful at a time, each month. There, I found the rich emotional and passionate vocabulary that I felt had been stifled in me. I feel big feelings, and a wide range of emotion, and I couldn’t place certain feelings of my experience within the context of my Father’s heart until I made a regular habit of ingesting the Psalms. Every emotion is there, along with a wide range of circumstances and experiences. Praise and thanksgiving meet remembering and rehearsing; lament and complaint mingle with cries for justice and curses on the wicked; high, kingly, majestic songs peek into the eternal realm. Whether I choose to see the Psalms as songs or prayers, they add a valuable depth to my understanding of our Father and His heart. Often, just one chapter holds a wide variety of experience, so that at least one verse will pierce my mind and heart or resonate with my spirit. It has been a rewarding and cherished practice to continue to feed myself on this delectable book.

Contemporary Christian music has had a revival of Psalms projects in the last few years. These have been beautiful, thoughtful compositions that put the words of the Psalms to different music. This is an easy way to hide God’s word in my heart, and memorize scripture, especially considering how I listen to music (on repeat, over and over again).

Here is Poor Bishop Hooper describing their EveryPsalm project. They have finished all 150 Psalms, and it was a beautiful journey with them each week during the process. I pray you’ll find a Psalm (or many) to minister to your soul and give you the language you need to express yourself eloquently and honestly before your Father.