Waypoints: Soul Songs

The Psalms help us live a continuous life of worship to God! God wants us to live in a 24/7 authenticity. He gives us all we need to not get caught up in pretense and to not fall into the trap of compartmentalizing God. And as God’s people start living a life of worship then everything changes… Sunday’s are different! The Sunday Worship gathering experience becomes an overflow, not a show or a tradition. We live…
 

• A 7-day relationship with God, not a one-day a week program,
  
• an on-going lifestyle, not a sporadic liturgy,
• an overflow, not an outer show,
  
• authentic, not automated!

 
I don’t believe anyone understood this better than the Jews. They knew what it was to
worship as a lifestyle. In fact, they have a whole book describing their worship journeys – the book of Psalms. It is the history of their life of worship! It is full of personal worship and corporate worship – it is a book about how they celebrated God in an authentic way, 24/7!
 
In Psalms you have, in poetic and musical form, the history of the Hebrew people. From Moses to David and beyond, much of the feeling behind the events is contained in this “journaling.” You see, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2 Kings, as well as 1 & 2 Chronicles contain the events; Psalms contains the heart cries. And these writings – many of which are prayers, praises, and songs – were written as a response to the everyday occurrences going on in their life and nation. Psalms is a peek into how these people lived before God, such as…
 
…how they responded to him in times of tragedy (Psalm 88 and 91)
…how they praised him in times of victory (Psalms 92 and 66)
…how they conversed with him in times of confusion and anger (Psalms 73 and 58)
…how they cared for each other in times of need (Psalm 23, 37 and 42)
…how they repented and confessed in times of disobedience (Psalm 32 and 51)
…how they found God in times of loneliness (Psalms 71 and 62)
...how they felt about the law of God (Psalm 119)
 
Just to name a few! Why are the Psalms so popular? I think it is because they are so personal. In the books of Samuel we read of mighty King David’s many exploits and battles, but it is in the Psalms that we hear David’s heart crying out to God in weakness and trembling. The Psalms are humanity’s cry to God, but they are also God’s answer to our cries.
 
The Psalms are the soul songs of life. They are honest and they connect us to our God.
 
Singing together God’s Songs,
Pastor Nick