What a comfort the Psalms are!
By Elizabeth Prata
The Psalms are personal, warm, and human. As Joni Eareckson Tada said, “The Psalms wrap nouns and verbs around our pain better than any other book.“
Here is Psalm 32:10, one verse out of the 2,461 verses in all of the Psalms.
The sorrows of the wicked are many, But the one who trusts in the LORD, goodness will surround him.
Charles Spurgeon in his commentary on the Psalms called The Treasury of David, wrote of Ps 32:10,
Faith is here placed as the opposite of wickedness, since it is the source of virtue. Faith in God is the great charmer of life’s cares, and he who possesses it, dwells in an atmosphere of grace, surrounded with a body-guard of mercies.
As Robert Godfrey said in his book Learning to Love the Psalms (teaching series and workbook available at Ligonier)
“In the Reformation, the recovery of the Bible for all in the church meant also a recovery of the Psalms. Luther had learned the Psalms early as a monk and continued to love them. He called the Psalter “a little Bible,” saying, “The Psalter ought to be a precious and beloved book, if for no other reason than this: it promises Christ’s death and resurrection so clearly and pictures his kingdom and the condition and nature of all Christendom-that it might well be called a little Bible.”
The value of the Psalms (aside from being God’s perfect word, of course) is that “…the Psalter explained the life they lived in relation to both the wicked who opposed them and to the God who sustained them,” said Godfrey.
As we are living in such a turbulent period of our human history here on earth, and as it is likely to become more turbulent in the days and months ahead, remember the Psalms. All of God’s word is sufficient for reproof, teaching, correcting, training in righteousness, but the Psalms allow us to sink into comfort like no other book. Stand firm on where to turn for help and comfort.
Martin Luther loved the Psalms. He said, “The human heart is like a ship on a stormy sea driven about by winds blowing from all four corners of heaven. The Book of Psalms is full of heartfelt utterances made during storms of this kind. Where can one find nobler words to express joy than in the Psalms of praise or gratitude? In them you can see into the hearts of saints as if you were looking at a lovely pleasure-garden, or were gazing into heaven. How fair and charming and delightful and the flowers you will find there.“
‘Heartfelt utterances’, Luther said. Do we sometimes forget that the Bible is populated with real people who endured real pain, trials, and successes? We will meet them one day. Until then, we can ‘meet’ them in the pages of God’s holy word, to see their humanity and perhaps to see ourselves in it too; and to learn how they turned to God for help in of trouble. Our God is a very present help.
Troubles don’t change, because sinners don’t change. Life in Luther’s time, life in Paul’s time, life now, all the same. They dealt with wicked rulers and leaders, injustice, apathy, rejection, atheism, idolatry, beatings, wars, famine…the list is endless of the troubles humans endure on this earth. The Psalms give us a taste of our union with former believers and the view of God’s help in them.
As Spurgeon wisely said,
May it be given to us of the Lord at all times to believe in the mercy of God, even when we cannot see traces of its working, for to the believer, mercy is as all-surrounding as omniscience, and every thought and act of God is perfumed with it. The wicked have a hive of wasps around them, many sorrows; but we have a swarm of bees storing honey for us.
Remember that in the days ahead.
