An Audacious Goal

Dear Blog,

FIRST, a huge apology is in order for ignoring you for so long.   I have practically abandoned you for months and I am sorry.  And to make it up to you, I pledge to post something (I have a goal in mind) for the next few months as I ask you to hold me accountable.

SECOND, the goal is go the through the entire book of Psalms.  How would you like to journey with me through the book of Psalms?  Wait …you say – do you know how many psalms there are?  Yes and that’s exactly how I plan to keep you company as we go through that pilgrimage together.  Your role, dear blogger, is to ensure that I stay on track by writing 5 entries a week.  Promise to help me out?

Ready? 

Great!

FOR starters, the psalms are great.  Without question the Book of Psalms has been the single most influential and widely used book of the Bible in both the Jewish and Christian faith. We can easily identify with the authors of the psalms because in some fashion they express our heart’s cry.  Ever felt the desire to praise and thank God, in order words they express our own emotions and feelings before the Lord.  

 
DID YOU KNOW?

IT is the largest book in the Bible. It is comprised of 150 psalms and was composed over several centuries starting with Moses. David takes the lead with 73 psalms as Israel’s “beloved singer of songs”. Other authors were the sons of Korah, Asaph, King Solomon, and Ethan. The writers are often identified in the superscriptions.

The book of Psalms is divided into 5 sections and it has been said that they are arranged in a similar fashion as the Pentateuch (The 5 Books of Moses). They are arranged as follows:  Book I: 1-41, Book II: 42-72, Book III: 73-89, Book IV: 90-106, and Book V: 107-150.

No doubt in your own reading of the psalms, you have encountered a variety of psalms and theologians have labeled them as: psalms of laments to the Lord, messianic that point towards the Lord Jesus, psalms of praise and thanksgiving, royal, wisdom, affirmations, trust, penitential, and even imprecatory psalms calling down God’s wrath on the enemy.

Perhaps your desire is not to call for God’s judgment on your enemy but you are bound to find one or more psalms that echo your deepest desires when you lack the words to tell the Lord exactly what you feel from deep within your soul.

And so begins my pilgrim journey as I will take the road traveled by the psalmists as I look forward to learning how they accepted their trials and turned them to triumph, how they’ve failed, repented and accepted God’s forgiveness. But above and beyond that, I look to encounter the Most High God and Immanuel –“God with us”.

Got your backpack ready?  Let’s go.

"And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified”  Acts 20:32