A Psalm of Praise
Is anyone happy?
Let them sing songs of praise.
— James 5:13
It’s happening! I’ve almost finished making all twelve pages for my website, PrayingwiththePsalmists.com!
This is a website to go with my not-yet-published book, Praying with the Psalmists, with one page for each chapter. But the goal of the book is to get people experiencing the joy of writing their own psalms. And I think you can pick up tips from the website even if you haven’t read the book. I’ve got a page for each of the ten types of Psalms in the Bible, so on each page I link to this blog so you can see examples I’ve written, and use the comments to post your own examples when you try it out. (It’s much easier to use the moderation in WordPress for comments, plus with blog posts I can continue to add examples.)
But I was all set to post the page for Psalms of Praise – only to discover I haven’t posted any such example psalms yet.
I was honestly surprised to discover this. But when I looked back over my Praying with the Psalmists category, it turned out that every time I’d thought about writing an example psalm of Praise, it turned into a Thanksgiving psalm or a Salvation History psalm or a Creation hymn or a Blessing psalm. The fact is that all the types of Psalm include praise, but the ones I put into the category of Psalms of Praise (Psalms 29, 47, 48, 92, 93, 97, 98, 100, 103, 113, 117, 145, 147, 149, and 150) are the ones I was left with, where the whole point is Praise.
My very favorite Psalm, Psalm 103, is a Psalm of Praise. (Here’s the story of why it’s my favorite.)
I think part of me is leery of praising too loudly when my life is going great and my dreams are coming true – when there are serious issues in the world around me. I don’t want to fall into hash tag #blessed and casually imply that if you were spiritual like me, you’d have a great life, too. Or maybe it’s an aspect of “foreboding joy” that Brene Brown talks about. Sometimes we don’t dare relish our joys, because we’re afraid they’ll stop.
But, on the other hand, there’s that verse in James I quoted above. I am happy! God is granting me some desires of my heart! If this is not a good time to write a psalm of Praise, what is?
Psalms of Praise, unlike Thanksgiving Psalms, are more about God’s character and attributes than specific things God has done. But I’m especially happy today because I recently got an agent for that book I mentioned, Praying with the Psalmists – and this week an editor asked to see the full manuscript! What’s more, the editor who asked edited not one but two of my Sonderbooks Stand-outs in Christian Nonfiction from last year!
As if that weren’t enough, I’m going on a dream vacation to France in about a week, to see Mont Saint-Michel and Giverny, places I’ve always wanted to see but we never quite got to when I lived in Europe. (You will hear about my trip on this blog, I promise!) And I still love my job and have dear friends around me, and my small group has a habit of noticing joys – and they’re just piling up!
So yes, this is a good time to write an example psalm of Praise.
The key concepts found in the Psalms of Praise in general (not every concept in every Psalm, but some of them in every Psalm) are:
Praise
Joy
Music
Majesty
Goodness
Faithfulness
Love
I’m honestly not sure where to start, so I’m going to play off my favorite, Psalm 103:
Praise the Lord, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise God’s holy name.
Praise the Lord, my soul,
and forget not all God’s benefits –
who redeems all my mistakes
and comforts all my sorrows,
who doesn’t give up on me,
who is faithful when I am faithless or flighty,
who fills my life with good things
and crowns me with love and compassion,
who pops joys into my life
until I can’t help but notice,
who blesses me with gifts
I never dreamed to ask for,
and grants above and beyond
the things I do ask for.Father, my life hasn’t turned out
anything like I thought it would or should,
but through every detour,
You were faithful.
Through every hardship,
You compassionately pulled me through.And now you’ve led me to
a vocation doing what you made me to do –
buying great books for children
to read freely,
singing your praises in the choir,
meeting with friends in a life group
to pray and study your Word,
even playing games with friends,
doing puzzles,
walking in nature,
traveling to beautiful places,
and even writing books.
Truly my cup overflows.You let humans mess things up in this world –
yet you teach us and guide us,
you love us and walk with us.
Let us sing to you in grateful praise!
Praise the Lord!
Okay, the disclaimer: Part of the reason I write these example psalms is to show readers that they do not have to be very good! I don’t claim to be inspired by God, but sitting down to write them does me good and lifts my spirits – and that’s what I want for you.
Try it yourself! Paste a psalm of Praise into the comments.