Write your own psalm
Let each of us write our own psalm,” I told my co-workers. It sounded strange to them, to think that anybody could write a psalm. Aren’t psalms inspired, biblical writings? Can anybody just write a psalm?
But everyone of my co-workers wrote a psalm, including those who said they didn’t have the flair for writing.
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Then we met and listened to each “psalmist” read their psalms. What a variety we had as each expressed deep feelings of faith, struggles, appreciation to God and confidence in the face of personal challenges!
The home-grown psalms we wrote were authentic; they read like those in the Bible, and it marvelled us.
But why write a psalm? Well, write a psalm because the process of addressing God with your written thoughts, feelings and longings is therapeutic. Writing a psalm is healing, relaxing, satisfying and comforting.
That explains why people turn to the scriptural psalms when they are down, sorrowful, confused, distressed or troubled at heart. It is because the psalms are curative and restorative.
And if readers of a psalm benefit mentally and spiritually, know for sure that the psalmist who wrote the psalm was the first beneficiary.
“The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid?” That is how David begins his wonderful Psalm 27 that has blessed many with hope and inspiration for centuries.
Sometime ago in this column when I tried to nudge discouraged writers to wake up and return to their writing, someone wrote to say that he was already awake.
However, he was not feeling so well; he was feeling under the weather, he said.
When a person feels tired, worn out, sick, discouraged, sad, or distressed, we say the person is feeling under the weather.
Another reason
Feeling under the weather is another reason why you should write a psalm. Years of writing have shown me how writing in general, and especially writing a psalm, is a therapy.
“Therapy” is healing, treatment, or a remedy. So, if we say writing a psalm is a therapy, we mean that writing that psalm is medicine that helps to heal, treat or cure a condition.
Cure a condition, yes; but what condition? We all battle life’s stressful conditions such as loneliness, sadness, fear, confusion, anger, fatigue, resentment, perplexity, hatred, melancholy and dislike for a bunch of injustices.
Those are some of the conditions contained in all 150 psalms in the Bible, and they inflicted the writers who penned those special poems, songs and canticles.
We are full of pretences and false appearances. In public we may display vibrancy and liveliness, but in the privacy of our lives when we are alone, our innermost beings cry silently and deeply.
Writing a psalm is an individual’s private communication with God – crying to him, lamenting, praising, worshipping, and drawing closer to our Father who loves us and our King who knows about us.
Therapy
Your psalm is a therapy, and anything therapeutic is relaxing, calming, satisfying, a tonic, helpful, remedial, restorative, and corrective – very insightful definitions that justify why writing a psalm is good for us.
A most restorative psalm in the Bible is Psalm 51. David, after a terrible bout of adultery, murder, and a prophet’s rebuke, found it therapeutic to write this psalm.
Writing it down enhanced the outpouring gesture of David’s repentance and confession. For generations, this psalm has blessed millions of people who have used it to pattern their own repentance and received God’s forgiveness.
David must have spoken the prayer out in deep repentance and confession. Then, when he experienced God’s forgiveness and favour, he wrote down the psalm – for himself and for posterity.
Yes, for posterity. Who knows – the psalms you write today will bless several people who read it later.
Psalms are songs and perceptive writings. Musicians will tell you that the lyrics of their songs first came to them as a personal therapy. If it is a praise-song to God, it is self-expressive, which is why they sometimes have tears in their eyes as they sing.
If the author of a psalm cries, so will the reader – and tears are a healing balm. David must have cried when writing Psalm 51.
We can learn from the biblical psalmists who offloaded their burdens to God through the psalms they wrote.
What difficult issues are you facing in life? Is it about personal health, marital matters, educational challenges, relationship problems or financial issues?
Write about them in a psalm! Get it out of your heart. No matter what you write, it will be therapeutic. Transfer your deep emotions from your system to the Lord by writing your own psalm!
Venting your concerns and frustrations on someone else could heighten the irritation. Instead, cast those anxieties on God through the psalm you write, and it will be your honest healing prayer.
