The book of psalms is a collection of 150 poems, prayers and songs. They were written by David mostly, two by Solomon, one by Moses, fifty anonymously and the rest by temple singers and musicians.
The shortest psalm in the bible is Psalm 117
1 Praise the LORD, all you nations.
Praise him, all you people of the earth.
2 For his unfailing love for us is powerful;
the LORD’s faithfulness endures forever.
Praise the LORD!
At the other end of the scale Psalm 119 is the longest with 176 verses, and it also is an acrostic. The first letter of the 22 sections are the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. It covers many themes:
Love for God’s Word – The psalmist delights in it more than riches or food.
Guidance – God’s Word is described as “a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (v.105).
Strength in Suffering – The psalmist often faces hardship but finds comfort in God’s promises.
Obedience – A longing to live faithfully, not just know the Word.
Prayer – Almost every section includes a prayer asking God for teaching, understanding, or help.
Faithfulness – God’s Word is eternal, unchanging, and trustworthy.
I imagine that at the time the psalms were being written and collected people were going through similar situations to those that we are going through today: Grief, anger, frustration, awe and wonder at God’s majesty, despair, elation and joy… to name but a few.
So, we deduced that with just a bit of effort on our part it ought to be relatively easy for us to open our bibles and find a psalm to fit in with anything and everything that we are experiencing today.
This realisation led a few of us to wonder why, with so many of the psalms we already have fitting into our daily lives, shouldn’t we have a go at writing our own?
The outcome was an invitation to anyone who wanted, and in particular to anyone who wished to deepen their connection to God to come together here at MBC and creatively, through drawing and writing come up with their very own psalms, prayers, pictures or poems.
Such was the success of the evening that we are now planning more of these get togethers, and although times and dates could well change, for now the suggested timetable is 7-9:30 on Wednesday 24th September, Wednesday 22nd October and Wednesday 26th November.
