Yelling, Crying, Screaming, & Praying the Psalms

 

Sometimes, I hear people talk about the Bible as though it's a book of rules or instructions. As a result they tend to walk away from the Bible.  

There's also a really good amount of stories that doesn't really come with a PSA at the beginning or end of said story saying, "All that stuff you just read, yeah, don't do that stuff." We have to come to that conclusion based on a holistic reading of the whole narrative of the Bible. 

By the way, the word Bible comes from the same origins of the word library. When's the last time you've been to a library? Did you remember that all of the books were textbooks and rulebooks? Of course not, there was poetry, fiction, non-fiction, inspirational, instructional, drama, mystery, informational, etc. The Bible is a library of books--all different kinds of books. It's important we learn HOW TO READ THEM.

One of the books is Psalms. 

Have you ever read the Psalms?

Have you ever read the Psalms and thought to yourself, "This is an instruction for how to live my life?"

Have you ever read the Psalms and thought, "This guy (these people) has/have issues!" 

Maybe it was a mixture of both.

Instruction for life? Maybe that's not so cut and dried. It seems like most of the time it's just a person or a collective of people crying out to God--sometimes happy--but mostly sad and exhausted. Wait a second, what if that can actually be a model for how we communicate with God? What if reading someone else's wrestling with God can actually serve as permission for us to wrestle with God at times?

Issues/Emotions? Absolutely. In some ways, it's comforting to know that the ancient people of God struggled emotionally with how to connect to God through struggle. Does that sentence make sense? 

When going through a time of unknowns, perhaps READING THE PSALMS can be a way of not only connecting to God, but also healing. 

So, read the Psalms. But also cry. And wrestle. And yell. And scream. And laugh. Because if the Psalms are a rule book at all, then they are the rules for how we go through our many emotional expressions to connect to God.

If you're looking for more resources on the importance of the Psalms, check THIS out.

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