Read an Excerpt
Chapter I The Psalms
A Psalm Of David For The Chief Musician
The Book of Psalms is the innermost sanctuary. It is the Holy Place of the sanctuary of the Bible. In the rest of the Bible we receive instruction from God on the way to draw near to Him. In Psalms, God opens the door of His secret dwelling place. He shows us how His believing people come to Him, speak with Him, and enjoy fellowship with Him. There we see the throne of grace surrounded with petitioners. There we learn to pray. There the grace of God is manifested in the most glorious way.
Praying With God's Words
Similarly, the Book of Psalms is like the lowest class of a nursery school. In the more advanced classes the teacher tells the children what they have to learn. They know how to work independently and only need the teacher's help from time to time. But with the youngest class, who are learning the -- A,B,C 's, -- a different method is needed. Every letter must be pronounced and dictated to them. The teacher must put the sounds for them in their mouth, until they learn to pronounce and know them for themselves. This is the way the Lord God deals with us in the Psalms. He comes as the Faithful One, nearer to us than in the rest of the Bible. He gives us the very words we need in order to come to Him. He is aware that we do not know how to pray. Therefore, He comes and tells us what we ought to pray for. When we speak His words, it is with the desire to understand them so that we can feel and pray as He has expressed them. Then He gives us His blessing, and His Spirit makes the words living and powerful in our souls. In these precious Psalms, God's Holy Spirit Himself teaches us to pray.
Prayers That Meet Our Needs
This book will become more precious to you when you consider the way the Lord God has dictated the words so that you can pray them. Has He sent directions from heaven for prayer as if He had ordained them there for us? If that were the case they would not be truly human, nor would they be relevant to our situations on the earth. The Holy Spirit has taught us to speak in the language of men, with the feelings of men, and from the heart of men. The Lord has used men with passions like ours, and sinners like we are, who have experienced every possible condition of human need and sorrow.
God has taught these men by His Holy Spirit to speak these prayers and commit them to writing. Now He offers them to us as a prayer book adapted to our needs. They are adapted to our needs because they come from His Spirit. Therefore they are divine. Yet they are just as human, because they come from those who are our flesh and blood, and are in every way like ourselves. For this reason the Psalms has been precious to sinners who are concerned about their salvation. It will also become precious to you if you earnestly desire to seek after God.
In other books of the Bible much is written about sin and conversion and the conflict of believers. In the book of Psalms you can see and hear the believers themselves-you have the key to their inner chamber. You can see them in their fellowship with God. You hear how they confess sin and ask for forgiveness. You can see how they praise God for His grace and pour out their heart before Him. You can kneel down and pray with them. Your heart will be kindled by their repentance and their faith.
Alone with God in the light of His presence, the writers of the Psalms lay all their life before Him. Like looking in a mirror you can see your life reflected in the concerns, problems and joys expressed in the Psalms. You can see the hidden conflict coming from the sense of guilt, as well as conversion and faith. You can see what it is like to be with a soul in whom God is working.
You will never learn to know sin, especially your own, until you have learned to agree with the deep confession of the writers of the Psalms. When you have learned to give praise and thanks with the poets of the Psalms, you will learn to glory in God and rejoice in His grace.
For this reason seekers of salvation have always loved the Psalms. For this reason many of the most distinguished saints of God have said that the Psalms become more precious to them the longer they use them.
Think of the Son of God. He taught us to use the Psalms and sanctified them for us. When He was in the heaviest stress of His conflict He cried, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46). Were the words of the Twenty-second Psalm written to meet His condition? When dying He cried, "Father, into Thy hands I commit My spirit" (Luke 23:46). Was that not a word from Psalm 31:5? If Christ Jesus needed the words of the Psalms to comfort and strengthen Himself in prayer to His Father, how much more must you and I have used these divine prayers to correctly draw near to God.
Praying With The Psalmist
The blessings that come from using these words are abundant. "The word is nigh thee, saith the Lord, in thy mouth, and in thy heart" (Romans 10:8). Whenever we take God's words and express them, a way is prepared for the Word to get from the mouth to the heart. Through the mouth the Word comes into the heart. You will see that the words of God are the living seeds which germinate, shoot out roots, spring upward, and bear fruit. Your heart is the soil. All you have to do is open it. Then you will see that it is the Word of God that works mightily in the believer.
I invite you to meditate with me on the Fifty-first Psalm. Let us learn to pray this psalm together. Let us think about it verse by verse. Learn it by heart and receive it into your spirit, then speak it before God on your knees. For David this psalm was the way out of the depths of sin to the joy of forgiveness. It was his way to a rich experience of the grace of God. Psalm fifty-one can also bring you and me into this blessing. It will teach you that confession is the road that leads to true forgiveness. Prepare yourself to learn by heart and to pray this psalm. The blessings it will bring you are beyond your present comprehension.
