Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.
I recently met a friend who endured many difficult years, but is doing better now. When asked, “What was your turning point?” she replied, “Several years ago I started writing out psalms every day.”
That’s the power of the psalms. One hundred fifty poems in the middle of the Old Testament that tell us who we are and teach us how to pray. Poems that help us express our feelings to God. Poems that invite us to new places in life and faith.
If you find the psalms difficult, me too! There’s nothing easy about 3,000-year-old Hebrew poetry. In fact, let me suggest three good reasons to ignore the psalms.
1. Ours is a technical age. You can be best friends with a chatbot. Google can diagnose your medical issues. Alexis can turn on your lights. Hebrew poetry can’t compete with that!
2. Another reason for ignoring the psalms is our entertainment age. Baseball, football, and hockey meet our sports needs all year long. Netflix, Crave, and Disney stimulate our imagination with stories, documentaries, and escape. Polymarket and Kalshi let you place bets on almost anything. Hebrew poetry can’t compete with that!
3. My third reason for ignoring the psalms is that modern life is measured by action. Work hard, play hard, shop hard, and take pills to sleep hard. Who has time for three-thousand-year-old poems?
Maybe we should give up on the psalms! Remind me: where’s my cellphone? Have you seen the charger?
And yet, I am tired of the commotion of modern technology, of the restless spirit of entertainment, of shallow social media relationships, and the endless cycle of news.
The psalms help me get off the technological treadmill. They speak to my inner life. They lead me to deep truth. That’s why they’ve lasted 3,000 years. Here are some reasons I need them.
1. The psalms understand what it is to be human. First person shooter games, reality TV, Walmart, McDonald’s, and Facebook teach me to be a consumer, but not how to be human. The psalms penetrate below the surface of my busy life, deep into my psyche, forming me into the person God intended.
2. Another reason I need the psalms is because they understand something about God. I can rattle off the Apostle’s Creed: “I believe in God the Father Almighty.” But do I really believe?
The Hebrew poets, the psalmists, didn’t recite creeds. They encountered God as they reflected on Israel’s escape from Egypt, as they faced the terror of ancient ICE agents deporting residents from Jerusalem to Babylon. Or as they tended sheep, and rejoiced in the bounty of harvest, and confessed their sin, and praised God with music and dance. This I need. A vision of life that helps me interpret all my experiences.
3. A third reason I need the psalms is because they understand something about God talking to humans and humans talking to God. They understand despair–“My God, why have you forsaken me?” They express glorious heights of praise, “There is none like you, Lord.” They understand anger–anger at God, anger at evil, anger at myself. And they understand thanksgiving and joy and worship.
Let’s pray.
O Father, we prompt AI chatbots and they become our friends. But when we use the psalms to talk with you, you become our true friend. You answer us with wisdom. Sometimes speaking, often silent, you always hear us, you interpret our lives, you lead us in paths of peace and righteousness.
Artificial intelligence answers questions with truth, falsehoods, or hallucinations. But in the psalms, you initiate a conversation with us. You expose our hallucinations. You tear down our fantasies. You show us compassion and wisdom.
More than that, the psalms show us that you love us. You teach us to be human. Your faithfulness calls us to faithfulness. Your love invites us to love.
As we pray the Psalms, help us hear your voice. Help us to respond.
Amen.
I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.
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