If the Bible had a hymnal, it would be the book of Psalms. This diverse collection of 150 poems and prayers runs the gamut of emotion and experience, from songs of highest praise to the deepest depths of lament, from prayers for help and salvation to vehement curses against the psalmist's enemies. We will not cover all the psalms in this podcast, nor take them in order. But my hope is that each episode will help you connect more personally with the riches of the Psalms. All biblical passages will be read from the New International Version, unless otherwise noted.
First Episodes
Episode 1: Why read the Psalms?
In 2020, the year the COVID-19 pandemic threw my family and the world for a loop, I began my practice of reading and journaling on the Psalms every morning. They have ...
Episode 2: Soundtrack
What we call the Old Testament was what Jesus had as Scripture, and he quoted from it frequently, particularly the Psalms and Prophets. In this episode, I propose that...
Episode 3: Call to worship
Where should we begin our exploration of 150 psalms? We’ll come back to Psalm 1 soon, but here, we’ll begin with Psalm 95. It’s a short psalm that illustrates well som...
Episode 4: Call to listen
Some psalms are songs or poems of praise; others are songs of lament or complaint. And often, both praise and lament are woven together in the same psalm. Psalm 95 is ...
Episode 5: The fork in the road
If you were given the task of organizing 150 psalms into a collection, where would you begin? What psalm would you put first? Psalm 1 is the first psalm for a reason. ...