As we headed into 2019 this book was being promoted by our church as a good read in the year ahead. The book itself is a day-by-day read giving a little bit of a Psalm to contemplate. At first I was, for various reasons, a bit sceptical. And now, in April, is it turning out to be a good daily companion or was I right to be sceptical?
The idea is that you read a page each day. What you get is a few verses from a Psalm, a commentary and then a little prayer, all on one page.
I think the general idea is if everyone is reading the same thing at church, there is a certain unity to that. It can be referred to in our church services in some way, or perhaps in some of the wide choice of other church meetings and we’ll all better appreciate what is being said. It is also a nice little ‘thought for the day’ book which is a real attraction.
When I was a child I remember being taken to an Anglican Church where Psalms were sung. It was a kind of chant, to a basic tune. To me as a young child this was a deathly dull thing to do and I doubted if I could understand or appreciate the Psalms in any way; certainly not in a church which I perceived as old fashioned, dull, dusty and full of old people. Therefore Psalms have often had negative connotations for me.
However in recent years they have grown on me. They are, of course, a huge mixture of writings which range from the writer crying out to God in anguish, through to praise and the sheer delight and wonder at God.
So what about the book. As I said, I was a little sceptical as it was heartedly recommended. Just because the Pastor reckons it’s a good book, it doesn’t automatically mean I will agree.
We started at January 1st with reading the first few verses from Psalm 1. That seemed okay, so we followed it up with the next day’s reading at breakfast time and quickly got into the habit. The book has really grown on me!
In the book’s introduction Keller writes “We are not simply to read psalms; we are to be immersed in them so they profoundly shape how we relate to God”. I find this quite challenging and yet I can find myself coming around to his way of thinking, he has made a really solid point there.
Some of the commentaries are spot on, some need a bit of thought and we sometimes discuss this at home. What is he driving at? What is he getting from the Psalm and is he right to interpret it this way? Well that’s all debatable and yet there is something reassuringly solid about the book which leads me to think of what might come the next day, the day afterwards in a kind of excited anticipation.
If there were to be a downside, I’d say it was the prayer each day. We are taught to say “Amen” after a prayer and this is a way of adding our agreement to the prayer. And yet I can’t always do this. Perhaps that’s my failing but let me give you an example. Today’s (8 April) prayer starts off as “Lord, ‘sharing my faith’ feels like a threatening duty, but it should not be that”. I just cannot say I agree with that. Sharing my faith is not a threatening duty at all. Yes it can sometimes be difficult, especially when it is not understood or it is to an antagonistic person, but I cannot say it is a threatening duty at all.
That aside, this is a good book. It does give you that little bit of discipline to read a few verses each day and to contemplate it. I like mulling these things over after we have read it and it does start the day in the right way.
Perhaps on the other hand I’m still a bit of a rebel and so I wonder how I will be shaped and moulded each day until 31 December. This book has the potential of making me grow and develop as a Christian, whether I like it or not!
And that, to put it bluntly, won’t be such a bad thing after all.
The book is available from 10ofthose – link