Do you have a favorite passage from the Psalms?

[Josh]

Do you have a favorite or well-loved passage from the Psalms?

What is it and why do you like it?

[Josh]

I like Psalm 13 for its honesty... and God's understanding for including it in the his plan for the Scriptures:

1 How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? 2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? 3 Look on me and answer, O LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death; 4 my enemy will say, "I have overcome him," and my foes will rejoice when I fall. 5 But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. 6 I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me.

Psalm 42 is another like this that I have really benefitted from in times of fear or doubt.


My favorite backpacking Psalm is Psalm 29.

[sarah]

Psalm 139
For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.
1 You have searched me, LORD,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, LORD, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.

19 If only you, God, would slay the wicked!
Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!
20 They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, LORD,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.


So there are lots of others as well, but this is the first that came to mind. I love the reminder that God knows everything about me.....and that it is a good thing!

[Josh]

Sarah, we'll be using as a guide C.S. Lewis' Reflections on the Psalms, and interestingly, your Psalm is one he spends signficant time on.

Especially interesting is his chapter called "connivance" where he discusses potentially troubling sections of the Psalms like:

21 Do I not hate those who hate you, LORD,
and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.

[stevekimes]

I love Psalm 22 for it's accurate representation of Jesus' death, and a pointer to His resurrection.

I love Psalm 37 for giving hope to the poor.

I love Psalm 73 for being honest about anger against the rich and powerful-- both the fact of it and the sin of it.

I love Psalm 8 for the helpful, poetic interpretation of Genesis 1.

I love Psalm 2 and Psalm 110 for their theological insight on Jesus.

But my favorite (section of a) Psalm is Ps. 119:32-40-- a wonderful prayer in seeking God's interpretation of His word.

(My children most love Psalm 117 because it is short)

[shirley]

Psalm 23 Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for though art with me. Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me...

I know this is a really well known psalm so its almost cliche to even mention it, but it is special to me for other reasons. The above portion is my favorite part when I feel nervous or afraid. But this last part

Surely Goodness And Mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.

My name is Shirley Grace. My mother wanted to name me Surely Goodness (because of the psalm). The midwife said you can't give her Goodness for a middle name. So she changed it to Grace(I don't have much of that either). The midwife said you cant spell surely like the word. So she spelled it like the name.
A year later another child was born stillborn. She was named Ann Mercy.
When I worked at BurgerVille years ago, my manager did not know this but thought it would be funny to put Surely on my name tag. I wore it with pride.
My mother had a cassette tape with songs from the psalms that she played over and over and would sing to us. My ex-church made up a lot of their own songs to fit their doctrine. When I sang the psalms I felt like I could believe what I sang.

[christopher]

That's an awesome story Shirley. I love your mom's creativity there. I can see how that psalm would hold a special place for you.

[Josh]

Since when could a person not have goodness be a middle name?

[Douglas]

My personal favorite chunk of Psalms is 120 to 134 the Psalms of ascents. If i remember right there were Psalms that were traditionally sung as the people were on the road to Jerusalem for the annual festivals. I have this picture in my head of the people singing them back and forth to each other as they went to celebrate before the Lord. its a pretty cool image. they deal a lot with hardship and suffering while at the same time declaring the faithfulness of God to his people. There is also a repeated call to the community to trust in God and wait for his salvation. The communal aspect of faith is one that calls to me the most and think that is why i connect with these so much.

Blessings

[Josh]

Thanks for sharing, Douglas.

In a few weeks I'm going to talk about a related idea- that the Psalms about Jerusalem/ Zion/ the Temple have a secondary meaning very relevent to us today, that those three places are pointers to the church; that we can claim these songs for our own very real experience in the church today.