This Lenten season we are striving for spiritual growth and development by taking three steps during our devotions. We want to resolve to take action; to recharge to have the strength to succeed; and to renew our minds to approach living out our faith in a new and vibrant way. But we also want to think about the nature of our sin and the gracious plan for redemption that God has provided. To do so, let’s look at some reasons for studying the Psalms.
Why study the Psalms at Easter? Don’t we usually look to Isaiah or the Gospels? Remember for a moment that the Psalms were written as music.
One of the reasons for studying the Psalms comes because music touches the soul by acting as a bridge between your emotional, psychological, and spiritual self. Music is capable of weaving a tapestry of notes and words to evoke deep feelings of emotion, reduce stress, and trigger memories. It serves as a source of comfort, healing, connection, and challenge. Music pours a cement foundation of unity.
The Power of Music
Research from Northshore University Health System in Chicago asserts that music stimulates memories that wrap themselves around us. Music increases levels of serotonin and endorphins. These chemicals elevate our mood and relieve depression. Music reduces blood pressure and lowers the stress chemical cortisol.
This Easter I want my emotions and mind sharp and stirred. Music stands a great chance at swinging my mood and emotions.
I became convinced of the power of music when I was a youth minister. When we would take trips in either a van or a bus, I noticed the mood and behavior of the kids would vary by the kind of music they were listening to. I challenged them to “tithe” their music time to God. If they would listen to 10 songs during the half hour, one of the songs needed to be Christian. If they were hooked on one kind of music, I volunteered to help them find Christian music of a similar style.
During an extended trip, each student was “tithing” at a different time. The attitude of the group dramatically changed.
If your attitude and mood is raised, what difference will that make in your motivation and behavior as you prepare your heart for Easter?
Music Helps Us Remember
The second reason to choose the Psalms for our study is that music helps us learn and remember things. Can you recall learning your “A-B-C’s” with a jingle? When a tune comes on the radio in the morning, does it stay in your head for a long time? Music solidifies things in your mind.
When I was in high school, a teacher asked us to memorize the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence. I did not like to memorize lengthy passages of prose or verse. It took too much time and focus. There was no way that I was going to memorize the words.
One of my favorite groups during those years was The Fifth Dimension. From Up, Up and Away to The Age of Aquarius, I listened to the Fifth Dimension several times a day. (I met Marilyn McCoo once, but that is a different devotion!) On their fifth, and relatively obscure album titled “Portrait” and released in 1970, the group included a song by Julianne Johnson, Rene’ DeKnight, and of course, Thomas Jefferson. The preamble to the Declaration of Independence is forever etched in my brain.
Are there biblical truths that you need to be woven into the fabric of your soul? Learning them through the Psalms will help your heart embrace and embody the important foundations of the faith.
Reasons for Studying the Psalms
Finally, we are going to study the Psalms because we want to restore the energy and vitality of our faith. We want restoration because we have somehow drifted a little farther from God than we would like to be.
Did you ever go to Florida and play on the beach when you were a little kid? Mom and Dad stayed on the shore while you and your brother wandered into the ocean. Swims and splahes, waves and wonder filled your moments in the water. Then something happened, slowly – silently.
You looked up and you could no longer see Mom or Dad. Did they blend in with the other hundreds of other people? Did they get tired and leave? Where did they go?
The tides and the currents subtly changed your lattitude. Each step seemed so small, even reasonable, unnoticeable. You drifted. You worried. Panic was written all over your face.
Fortunately, your father had his eye on you the entire time. Before you know it, he had left the sand and came splashing through the water to reel the two of you back in.
In the Psalms, your Father is splashing through the water, heading for your drifted feet. His Son is walking on top of the water.
Let the Psalms tug you back to the shore.
Drifted
We all have been there. Maybe we have drifted a few days or a week. Perhaps we have allowed months or more to pass. Crashing wave after crashing wave, we look back to the shore and see the Father.
But with each jump and splash, His image gets a little weaker, a little smaller. Our feet have wandered; our love has cooled. Our eyes have dimmed. We need restoration. We need to be brought back to the shore.
The Psalmist etched his words in your mind.
The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
Beside still waters, he leads me.
He restores my soul.
You KNOW that Psalm – that music.
Our Lord not only specializes in saving the lost, He specializes in restoring the saved. He is the good shepherd. Setting the ninety-nine safely aside,
He comes looking for the one … looking for you.
He knows you by name, and calls it out. The hairs on your head numbered. Behind the trees, He looks under rocks and moves mountains.
Yea, he looks even beyond the valley of the shadows of death.
Do you know how far you drifted? How strong were the currents? How deathly afraid have you become?
Gracious Restoration
“For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to restore the heart of the contrite (Isaiah 57:15).'”
With open arms, He welcomes you back.
No expectations. No demands that you never drift again.
There is no assurance that He won’t be back in the water tomorrow.
Just gracious restoration.
Oh … my soul!