Living with the Psalms

I recently finished John Bell’s Living with the Psalms, a much enjoyed, if at times challenging, read. It is not intended to be a comprehensive working through the psalms, but rather explores key themes which impact on our lives just as much as they did on that of the psalmist so long ago. Bell recognises that “the Psalms are the common property of a faith community keen to record the ways in which God and believers interact. They are not primarily pious texts for purely personal devotions.”

He picks out a few psalms for a more in-depth exploration, weaving that into his examining key and relevant themes which includes prolific quoting from the psalms, usually linking brief quotations from a range of different psalms.

I especially liked the three chapters in which he considered more carefully a specific psalm, these being 23, 88 and 137. I was most struck by his engagement with the difficult emotions expressed so strongly in Psalm 88. It is not a psalm to which most people, and I include myself, are likely to turn. Bell describes it as “one of the bleakest psalms in the collection” with “no trace of reassurance or respite.” However, as he points out – “what we need when we feel that nobody knows, nobody understand and nobody cares is not an instant answer, but a deep hearing” and he cites instances of when folk, in a moment of deep despair, have found that in this psalm.

I also found some of the broad points that he made to be of considerable interest, but in a way that got me thinking as to what that might say to me. So, for example, he notes that “almost half of the Psalms deal with life gone wrong.” He also makes the point that “of the 150 psalms, forty-three deal in one way or another with the destructive power of the tongue when it lies or spreads misinformation.”

He wants to emphasise the impact and breadth of the psalms – “the Psalms are not composed primarily of poems for personal devotion. Rather, rising out of concrete political and social realities, they have the ability to address the injustices in society at the same time as they proclaim the just rule of God.”

He also notes, surely significantly, the place that they must have had for Jesus – “I believe that Jesus’ spirituality was rooted in the Psalms. In their words he celebrated the culture and history of his people, acknowledged the magnificence of the created universe, learned from the experience of ancient poets and entered into communion with his co-religionists by sharing these well-loved texts.” He further comments – “I believe that in the Psalms Jesus would have found a vocabulary for prayer that would come alive for him in a host of situations, such as when confronted with malicious gossip, when appalled by the avarice of the wealthy, when looking for words of assurance and when gloriously aware of the joy of being among other believers.”

In many ways, the psalms are unique amongst the writing that forms the Bible. Bell certainly renewed my interest in the psalms and helped me to see a little more of what they can contribute to me. Perhaps not least, I was impressed by his expansive knowledge of the psalms which has led me to wonder whether I ought to spend a little more time with them.