Songs of the Heart: A Study in Psalms

“I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God” (Psalm 17:6a)

The Psalms express our hearts. They give us words to say when we don’t know what to say. They give words to our sorrows and our joys, to our anger and our fears, to our doubts and discouragement and guilt.

The Psalms also reveal the heart of God to us. We learn what He is like, that He is holy and just and gracious and longsuffering. He’s sovereign over all. He’s compassionate. We see over and over how faithful He is.

The Psalms speak to our hearts and change our hearts. We change as we sing them and as we read them and hear them and pray them. We may begin with complaints and then end with praise. We may start with questions and end with trust. The Psalmist begins with calling out for help and then closes with words of thanksgiving.

In Songs of the Heart, we’re going to look at seven different kinds of Psalms. There’s a lot of different ways to categorize Psalms, but we’re going to focus on seven:

1. Laments may include complaining, calling out for help, voicing our grief.
2. Hymns of praise, the opposite side of our emotions where we’re praising God for who He is and what He’s done.
3. Songs of remembrance or historical Psalms that recall God’s mighty works.
4. Songs of trust, declaring our confidence in God’s power and faithfulness.
5. Psalms of thanksgiving, where we’re giving thanks for God’s answered prayers.
6. Wisdom Psalms that teach us how to live, and show us the contrast between the righteous and the wicked.
7. Royal Psalms that speak of human kings, God as king, and Jesus the sovereign king over all of heaven and Earth.

This is going to be a survey of more than a dozen different Psalms. We’re going to only spend one or two days on each one, so we won’t be going into detail like we do when we take one chapter for the whole month. We’ll mark some and others we’ll copy. Some we’ll pray and some we’ll draw pictures for. Some we’ll read along, or we’ll sing and listen to them read aloud.

This study is listed as a level five study, (which involves more advanced study and bringing others along with you) but it’s actually appropriate for any level. You can work at the basic level, or if you want the extra challenge you can do the additional assignments that I’ll be adding to each lesson, where you’ll be going deeper and spending more time.

I am excited to get started. We’re spending a lot of time in the Psalms this year, but that’s a really good place to be with everything that’s going on in the world around us right now. I am hoping you’ll join me!

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