Power and beauty of Psalms
By the Rev. Christopher Rankine, Hamilton: Hillhouse Parish Church of Scotland. A few weeks ago I visited the ruins of Inchmahome Priory. The Priory is situated on an island in the middle of the Lake of Menteith in the Trossachs – supposedly the only‘lake’in Scotland.
On this tiny island, for centuries 15 men at a time would have lived a monastic way of life – spending most of the day in prayer and silence.
As part of their daily prayer, they would have recited the Psalms – the prayers written by God and put into our Bible to teach us how to pray.
It is amazing how so many varied traditions of the church have loved the Psalms.
In my own Presbyterian tradition, very different from the monastic life at Inchmahome, my ancestors would have sung the Psalms exclusively when they gathered to be church every Sabbath.
They would have sung them unaccompanied, learning them by heart, learning to live their lives according to their rhythm and beauty.
Praying can be difficult and at times frustrating. Many of the great figures of our faith have remarked on how hard prayer can be.
I have felt the same in my own prayer life at various times throughout my journey of faith.
This is where the Psalms come into their own. If we pray them, saying them every day, the beauty of their language and faith will seep into our bones, into our souls.
The Psalms teach us how to view creation as God’s gift, and as signpost to the day when God will remake the heavens and the earth in the new creation.
I would encourage you to read the Psalms daily. To learn them by heart. To sing them, to study them. But most of all, to pray them.
God gave us the Psalms so we could give them back to Him in prayer. In doing so we delight God and we will find ourselves changed.
There are Psalms for every season of life – for joy, for sorrow, for thanksgiving, for lament and for love.
The Psalms are one of God’s most wonderful gifts. Let us not neglect them but pray and sing them every day to the glory of God.