The Songbook of a Nation – Introduction

Introduction

During the year we will be looking to the Book of Psalms for our on-line readings, which we hope will encourage you to dig deeper. As an aid we would like to share with you a few quotes that you might find helpful to keep in mind when reading this book.

A person reading through the Bible knows from the first lines of Psalms that he or she has entered into a new and wonderful part of Scripture. It is poetry written for and about God. Psalms explores the full range of human experience and emotion. People meet God in the Psalms, and they discover a lot about themselves as well.
John MacArthur – Introduction to Psalms; MacArthur Study Bible

The Psalms are a unique part of the Bible in that they are the words God has given us to speak to Him…they are the Word of God given so that we will be directed in how to speak to Him and think about Him and respond to Him. And therefore, not to know the Psalms is to lose the key pattern that God has given us of praise and of prayer…And I think almost anyone who has spent time with the Psalms begins to sense their unique appeal. It’s a little hard to put into words, but one is increasingly drawn into them. I think the more one gets into them, the more one appreciates them and the greater blessing they become.
Dr. W. Robert Godfrey is a Ligonier Ministries teaching fellow. This post was first published on September 4, 2019, Tabletalk magazine by Ligonier.

I have found a few things helpful when studying the Psalms. One is to recognise that the Psalms come to us from God to help us express ourselves to God. God gives us words to speak. In that sense, He is really like a father or a mother with young children who need to learn vocabulary. When you read through the Gospels, one of the wonderful things you realise is the extent to which Jesus’ thinking about His relationship to God, His own life, His affections, and His emotions are all impressed with the language of the Psalms.
This transcript is from a live ‘Ask Ligonier’ event with Sinclair Ferguson, January 2023

The Psalmists address us at points of need and often points of failure. Where we tend to draw back and question God, they moved forward into Him; where we retire hurt, telling ourselves how awful life is, how disappointed, ill-used and disillusioned we are, they had the discipline, determination and good sense to ‘take it to the Lord in prayer’.
Alec Motyer – ‘Roots: Let the Old Testament Speak’ page 136