Why I love the Psalms...

In last week's blog post, I shared with you my favourite Bible verse - a lovely verse from Psalm 46. However, this isn't the only verse I think about when I need encouragement. I also think about a variety of other Bible verses too, which are mostly from the Psalms. Today I wanted to share with you why I love the Psalms and find them so helpful in my life.

To start off with, the Psalms have so many encouraging and positive verses in. There is an abundance of lessons and guidance which we can gain from them. I find that the Psalms are generally easy to understand, and contain so many memorable verses.

The Psalms provide lots of variety - some are short and others are long. They cover a range of different topics which I find really uplifting and encouraging. Main themes of the Psalms include:

God's care

God is a refuge

Trusting in God

Guidance from the Bible

Hope and comfort

How we can turn to and pray to God for help.

Another reason why I love the Psalms is because they are very relatable. The Psalmist often shares how they feel when they are going through trials, and also how they feel joyful and uplifted at other times. When I am struggling I can relate to the feelings of the Psalmist in their struggles. Likewise the positive encouragement of the Psalmist encourages me too.

To demonstrate these reasons why I love the Psalms, I wanted to share some more encouraging verses with you from the Psalms.

In Psalm 30:2 we read: "O LORD my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me."

In Psalm 18:6 we read: "In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears."

Also, in Psalm 28:1, 6-7 we read:

"Unto thee will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit.

Blessed be the LORD, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications.

The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him."

All of these verses show how relatable the Psalms are for us. The Psalmist shows us in these verses how he was in distress, how he was mentally or physically ill, and how he was really struggling and feeling desperate for help. However, he contrasts all of these bad feelings with positives which help him - God has heard his prayers, God has healed him and has been his "strength" and "shield". This contrast between the struggles of the Psalmist and positive encouragement is an aspect which is often found in the Psalms. This are why I love the Psalms - because I can relate to the Psalmist's struggles, as I struggle and feel in distress sometimes too. Also, I love how that amidst all the struggles of the Psalmist they always give positive encouragement which really helps me too, just like it helped the Psalmist...

In both of my self help books - "Casting all your care upon him...", I have written on many occasions about the Psalms. In book 1, Day 137 is based on the Psalms as a whole, and gives you an activity to complete - writing out an encouraging Psalm. Both my books are intertwined with activities for you to do, to help you to enjoy reading and learning more about the Bible, and to gain benefit from it.

Also, in my 2nd book on Day 226, I have expanded more on Psalm 28 - focusing on the encouragement we can gain from Psalm 28:7.

More information about my self-help books, can be found by clicking on the Self-help books section on this website. In addition, if you have any queries feel free to contact me, using the details on the contact page.