How Marvelous, How Wise, How Great

 In Shaped by God: thinking and feeling in tune with the Psalms, author John Piper lists three concepts that all of us should understand about this wonderful book of the Bible:

1. Psalms Are Instructive

2. Psalms Are Poems

3. Psalms are From God

#1 is today's focus, #s 2 and 3 in future posts.

Piper's thoughts: "The Psalms are meant to be instructive about God and human nature and life... Some poetry makes no claim to instruct the mind, but the Psalms do. One of the pointers to this instruction (among many pointers, including the doctrinal use made of the Psalms in the New Testament) is that Psalm 1 introduces the whole book of Psalms. The book begins, in a sense, in Psalm 1:2, "His delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night." The word for law is torah, and the general meaning for torah is instruction. In other words, the Psalms cover the whole range of God's instruction, not just legal ordinances. The entire book of Psalms is introduced by a call to meditate on God's instructions."

Candy's thoughts: Generally when we think of instruction manuals, we envision boring textbooks or endless lists of vocabulary definitions related to the area of teaching that we are researching. How amazing is it that God designed something far better and more beautiful for us - an amazing array of different types of Psalms that display the human soul on a grand scale? This reminds me of a verse in a hymn that we sing during worship:
       

"How marvelous, how wise, how great, how infinite to contemplate: Jehovah's saving plan." 

(Hymns For A Modern Reformation, James Boice)

Apparently part of God's 'saving plan' is to help His people understand, process, and adjust to the emotions that He gave to us in the first place. In refocusing our often confusing and contradictory feelings, we can then be led back to Almighty God through the reading and singing of the Psalms.