Song & Prayer —

Not only will we complete the book of Job this month, but we will also finish things off in the Psalms! While Job is a wonderful book that offers a deeper theological and moral insight, the Psalmists speak to our soul from a different perspective. Job is written from the third-person perspective and Psalms is from the first-person, both of which entail the praise and repentant worship of God through deep suffering, strife, and inner turmoil. But unlike Job, the Psalms offer a range of uplifting praise. It is often called Israel’s hymnal. Here we have the lyrics from the actual music that was regularly sung and played in Solomon’s Temple. God did not preserve the musical notes or music styles. Today, many musicians have taken these psalms and wrote music for them. The words are excellent, they are great to sing and exciting to pray.

My suggestion for those who are looking to enhance their prayer life and build better discipline when they pray, is to pray through the book of Psalms. There are 150 of these pieces of music. The longest chapter in the Bible is Psalm 119 with 176 verses, and the shortest chapter in the Bible is Psalm 117 containing two verses, meaning prayers can be short-and-sweet or long-and-hard. An element of beauty held within the Psalms is that it unhinges our soul to pour ourselves out before God. When we do pray the Psalms, the LORD hears us as we digest His Word and respond to us in His way.

Psalm 1 is a great beginning to understand the way of those who are blessed and the end of the ungodly. The six verses begin with “Blessed is the man…” and ends with “…but the way of the ungodly shall perish” (Psalm 1:1, 6). The book of Psalms is an outstanding way to hear and learn the ways of God. It is a great way to pray and a marvellous way to sing. In this world, where so much is going wrong, it is great to read, hear, sing, and meditate on what God has done.