I think as of late, we can all agree that there has not been much good news. Every time we listen to the news broadcast it stirs about anxiety and fear. As I was reading my Psalm today verse 7 really stuck out to me:
He will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord. Psalm 112:7 NIV
This stuck out to me for two reasons, the first being that it reminds me of our Virtuous Cowgirl in Proverbs 31:25, which is one of my favorite descriptions of her. The second reason it stuck out to me was because it resonated with my soul. Earlier this year I felt that anxiety and fear over what has been taking place in our nation. Every time I go to either the gas pumps or the grocery store, I would get a catch in my throat at the amount that was needed to be spent, meanwhile income does not follow to the increase. Not to mention the rising cost of hay and feed for the horses.
I quickly saw myself in turmoil and not wanting to face the next day. My soul was not at rest within me and when it really began to bother me I finally had to look at it from a different perspective. I asked myself, "self, if I was someone coming to you with all that is on your soul, what would you tell them." Well, I would tell them they need to get into the word more and take the burden to the Lord. So, I decided to needed to start reading the scriptures more in depth as I had gotten lax in that, and that I needed to pray them back to the Lord, for this is the best form of prayer.
I decided to read through the book of Psalm, not my favorite book. Don't get me wrong, there are passages in there I like very much, but the poetry...ech. Give me a good battle scene where God saves the day and I'm good! Show me the strength of His hand through His miraculous works and I am shouting His war cry! But no, I decided to be disciplined and make myself more familiar with one of my least favorite books of the Bible. Has it ever been a blessing. I would encourage all of you to do it.
Have I struggled? Yes. Have I persevered? Yes. Have I found my favorite Psalm? Yes. Have I found a new appreciation for this book? Yes. Is it now my favorite book? No, that title still belongs to the book of Isaiah. But here are some things I learned that helped me through this difficult for me to read book:
It is organized into 5 different books
Book 1 - Psalm 1-41
Book 2 - Psalm 42-72
Book 3 - Psalm 73-89
Book 4 - Psalm 90-106
Book 5 - Psalm 107-150
They each have a theme that could be titled as follows:
Book 1: Confidence in God's Care
Book 2: Commitment to God's Kingdom
Book 3: Crisis Over God's Promises
Book 4: Comfort in God's Faithfulness
Book 5: Celebration of God's Salvation
So far Book 4 is my favorite and Book 5 is becoming a good second. What I struggled with the most working my way through the Psalms was when they Psalter was crying out to the Lord for deliverance from the enemy. David wrote many of the Psalms and had a very real, physical enemy, working to destroy him in earnest. I don't have that so that was hard for me to put into words back to God. But then I realized I do have an enemy who wishes to destroy me, or at best my ministry. So I prayed about him as my enemy and remembered Ephesians 6:12. That helped me navigate through those Psalms.
I now encourage you to do the same. Read a Psalm each day and pray it back to the Lord. Go verse by verse back to Him, or go section by section. Each Psalm is broken into stanzas which make it easy to group several verses together. Or just take the truths you learn about God in each Psalm and praise the Lord for His mercy, compassion, and faithfulness.
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