“…be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord
with all your heart, giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Ephesians
5:18-20
For years I have been getting into bed and before going to
sleep I read a psalm. It helps me go to
sleep with the Word of God in my mind and heart. I use an iPad so I don’t have to hold a heavy
Bible. Plus,
I can make the print as big as I want – and every year I make it bigger!
I am still reading through Psalms every night, but this
time I am reading a book (on my iPad!) with each Psalm. The book is by Dane Ortlund, who also wrote Gentle
and Lowly. I have recommended it
to you in the past. His book on the
Psalms is called In the Lord I Take
Refuge: 150 Daily Devotions through the Psalms. Dane prints out each Psalm and then gives us a
meditation on it in a couple of paragraphs.
His words are very encouraging and help me sleep in peace as I reflect
on who God is in every circumstance and reminding me that Jesus is with me all
the time. Dane Ortlund’s books (hard
copy and Kindle) are available on Amazon.
I
also recommend W. Robert Godfrey’s book on Psalms, Learning To Love the
Psalms. Dr. Godfrey is writing
commentaries on the Psalms now (published by P&R). He has written two volumes so far. Look for them and read them when you can.
I
have learned that reading and meditating on the Psalms has greatly enriched my
life. I have memorized a few – I recite
Psalm 23 every morning to myself before I get out of bed – but, sorry to say, I
have memorized only a few others. I used
to pay my children ten dollars for every chapter of the Bible that they
memorized. You can be sure that the
first chapters they memorized were Psalms 117, 131, 133. Only a few verses in each one. I encouraged them to memorize Psalms 23 and
100 by singing them. Of course, Psalm 1
is the most important one to memorize because it not only introduces all the
Psalms but tells us how to live our lives if we want to be blessed – that is --successful
and happy.
Of
course, if you want to go deeper and study PSALMS with some others by using the
Rafiki Bible Study, I definitely encourage you to do so. Since the 150 chapters of Psalms are divided
into five books, I would suggest that you start with Book 1 (Ps. 1-41) which
has 16 lessons. That means about four
months study. Then take off and study another
book of the Bible before coming back to Psalms Book 2. You can find out all about the Rafiki Bible
Studies on Rafiki’s website (www.rafikifoundation.org).
Did
you know that in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARP) they used to
sing only psalms? I’m not sure if that
is true today, but their whole hymnal was the Psalms put to music. I thought it was a wonderful way for church
members to learn the Psalms and I asked for a copy of that hymnal. I sometimes still use it to sing – to
myself. That’s ok since I live alone
now.
The
Psalms have blessed my life and they will bless yours too. I pray that you will read, study, and even
sing the Psalms.
Thank you for this, Rosemary. These are some good book recommendations. I bought "Gentle and Lowly" based on your earlier recommendation, enjoyed it and passed it on. I will consider these others as well. Thank you for continuing with your blog. I look forward to it every week. (Do you think you might want to change your age in the About Me section of your blog). :D
ReplyDeleteRosemary, This week we will do lesson 8 of Psalms, Book 1. The ladies have had a difficult time because of Covid. There have been many deaths and the African American churches were closed until recently. The comfort of Psalms and fellowship has encouraged them.
ReplyDeleteThank you for another book recommendation. I'll need to order that.