Windows to Life

Back in 1993 I found myself facing the challenge of teaching the Book of Psalms as part of a first year course in Biblical Theology. I had read and loved the Psalms for many years from a devotional point of view, but teaching them as part of a theological college course was another thing.

For a number of weeks I immersed myself in the study of this great collection of spiritual songs and prayers. As I did so I came to appreciate them as never before - as an expression of the faith and heart longings of the people of God in the myriad of their life experiences. The individual psalms were like so many windows allowing us to peer into the souls of men and women of faith in the old covenant era.

I came to see there were many angles from which the Psalms could be studied. From one point of view they offered a summary of covenantal theology as lived and confessed by godly Israelites. From another, they offered a directory for God-centred worship. From another still, they offered peerless insight into the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect or ideal Israelite. All of these perspectives were included in the course I eventually put together and taught.

The particular aspect of the Psalms that has continued to grip me is their portrayal of true spirituality - or life in relation to God. In the prayers, praises, laments and historical recitations of the Psalms we see how men and women are meant to live with God. True, as written in their historical setting they reflect spiritual life prior to the coming of Christ. In that sense they do not develop fully the richness of the life we enjoy in the Spirit today. Nevertheless, the fundamental dynamics of spiritual interaction with God remain the same. And it is these dynamics that enthrall me and provide such help in my own life of faith.

In this blog site I want to identify and reflect on aspects of relationship with God as they emerge in individual psalms.Given the nature of the Book of Psalms, there is a great deal of repetition. I'm not intending to expound every psalm, or every verse of individual psalms - only, to identify key dynamics that help us understand what it means to walk with God today in Christ through the Spirit.

These reflections are integrally related to those that I'm recording in other blog sites. In many senses these are designed to feed into the others and provide biblical parameters for more practical applications in areas of preaching and Christian ministry.