Psalms Of Faith Summary

Superior Essays
The book, Psalms of Faith by Ray C. Stedman is about one man’s interpretation of the book of Psalms and how one can gain insight into daily living from the book itself. The themes of each chapter come from certain Psalms, such as, A Song of Foundations, which covers Psalm one, or How to Handle a Bad Conscience, which is on Psalm 51. Each one of the Psalms has its own unique meaning and personal application on how one should apply themselves in certain situations. The book of Psalms itself was written by David and includes Psalms of lament, or mourning, and Psalms of thanksgiving to the Lord in times of happiness. They were used in the Temple as praise songs and still can be today. Stedman’s application of each Psalm is correlated with how he …show more content…
Perhaps this why this chapter and these Psalms mean so much to me as I have had many down times, or “blue moods in my life, as a result of, many circumstances impacting my life on so many different fronts. My health has been attacked, my family has been attacked, my relationships to a degree have been attacked as well as many other areas of my life. Because of all of these, my mood has suffered a bit at times, but this why this chapter and these Psalms were written. Stedman uses the example of the two types of mornings one experiences. The good mornings, where jumping out of bed is easy and we are ready for the day and the ones where we simply do not want to get up and are not ready for another day. As Stedman put it, He is working out His purposes and if you hang on you will yet praise Him. What I gain is, be patient, because God will work things out for you in the end. I may know this to be true, yet it is often hard nonetheless. In the book, More Psalms for all Seasons, by David Allan Hubbard, he is referring to Psalm 22, but his application seems to fit as well, “God’s past record gives us hope in our wretched present. Our confidence now is grounded on what he did then.” What this is saying is that, we can rely on God to get us through tough times, because He has been faithful …show more content…
Life for me can be a challenge to go through at times and being a full-time college student can be difficult at times. I have many responsibilities to attend to at school. I have my reading and assignments for classes, I have my work-study and chores I have to do with my roommates, but also keep an active prayer life with devotion to God. When I look at all of these tasks, which I have not listed all, it can seem quite overwhelming. It’s at times like these where I have to turn to God for guidance and give my worries over to Him. He alone can give me the peace my body and soul long for. I have tried to do things on my own, but usually I fall short and become tired and weary in what I’m doing. At times like these I can either collapse and sink into depression, or call upon God as ask for His help and strength to guide me. This can be done through simply reading God’s Word and as Stedman puts it so beautifully, “there comes a time in each of our lives when we discover for ourselves that the ultimate refuge of any believer is in the Word of God, in what God has said.” God’s word can and should bring peace into everyday life. In the book, Treasures in the Psalms, by Henry M. Morris, he says, “yet, even in tumultuous circumstances the believer can pray to “the God of my life,” confident of His grace and

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Acts Of Faith Summary

    • 957 Words
    • 4 Pages

    It was a pleasure to read the book Acts Of Faith. I found it to be a very well written, and easy to understand. The author’s main point is to emphasize the importance of interreligious dialogue, especially among youth. The author, Eboo Patel, writes this book as an autobiography starting when he was a child, and continuing until he is about thirty, and has founded the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), biased in Chicago. He begins the book by illustrating the London bombings that occurred on July 7, 2005.…

    • 957 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    John Swinton’s, “Raging with Compassion: Pastoral Responses to the Problem of Evil”, is the most informative book I have read regarding practical theodicy. Swinton’s pastoral theodicy does not try to explain or deny evil or suffering, but enables the Christian community to live faithfully despite the presence of evil. He explains that lament; forgiveness, thoughtfulness and hospitality are the four-core practices that form the bases of practical theodicy. As I reflect on the four-core practices, which Swinton describes in his book, I can honestly say that I have not witnessed or observed all four-core practices continuously working in any of the churches that I have attended.…

    • 1024 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    God has always been a part of my life, but my relationship with Him was always extremely me-focused. Every week we went to church, that’s just what my family did. There never was a moment when I ever questioned God’s existence; He was just an everyday part of life. Even though I had wonderful parents and was incredibly blessed to be in a Christian home, I struggled from a young age with anxiety and panic attacks. As I grew older I became increasingly unhappy.…

    • 234 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The overall significance of the parallelism of Psalm 1 is the manner in which the godly are continually blessed while the ungodly are condemned. Circumstances of the godly are described positively while the ungodly are described negatively. The choice to live godly brings forth fruit while the choice of ungodly brings…

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    They feel as if they cannot “stop time” in order for them to get their lives straightened out for the better. This poem is also a biblical praise that is used in worship. In the poem, however, it is said to be that they are more involved with each other than they are with each other in their worship. The praise and worship that they felt they needed made them feel something or someone that wanted them to be saved. It shows that they were more afraid of the bad and wrong than the light that made things better and made them feel something good.…

    • 955 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Psalms 8 Analysis

    • 937 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Psalms 8 is praise for God written in the style of David. It’s emphasize is on opening the eyes of God’s awesome and universal stretch to the reader—who was originally an Israelite and is now everybody (NRSV Bible, p. 739-740). It strives to give value and identity to individuals. This Psalm shows the fixed relationship between humanity and God. It is a guide for those who are seeking a sign of there being a connection and a way to relate with the LORD (The New Interpreter’s Bible, p.…

    • 937 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, “A Psalm of Life”, he expresses two key values: to be zealous about living and to appreciate life in its entirety. From the start of the poem, Longfellow contends that “life is but an empty dream!” and that it is not a fantasy, far-fetched, and difficult to create into a good reality. He believes “the soul is dead that slumbers”, because those souls have lost the motivation for life as they think “the grave is its [ultimate] goal”. I agree with Longfellow with this value, because if a person doesn’t have a passion to live, then he/she won’t have the will to accomplish anything. The passion serves as the hero of a person’s life, and without that passion we will be “like, dumb, driven cattle” who don’t have…

    • 269 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Psalm 143 Reflection

    • 1096 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Psalm 143 is most widely known as being one of the seven Penitential Psalms. As Psalm 143 falls into this grouping, it also means that it is considered a lament of repentance. While there is not an obvious transgression that David, the writer of the Psalm, is begging for repentance for, it is clearly shown through his words that he needs God to intercede in his life and save him from his transgressions and predicaments. Through his imploring of God to save him, David does not lose hope—he still continues to praise God for the goodness he has done and will do. While, by the end of the psalm, the inflection has grown more optimistic, Psalm 143 still contains the vital ingredients of a lament.…

    • 1096 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Psalms that I choice to look at for the poetic purposes of this discussion board was Psalms 24. Here in this chapter, we see phrases of true domain from the right about what exactly is the Lords and how what belongs to the Lord also belongs to his followers. Throughout these ten scriptures, we see where the writer establishes that the earth is the Lord no matter what anyone may think and everything in it. The writer also questions the reader as a way of setting them up to learn to true full nature of the Lord. This style of writing, creates a dramatic monologue and creates an anticipation in the mind of the reader to continue to learn about the power of God.…

    • 208 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Why I Want To Be A Nurse

    • 1075 Words
    • 5 Pages

    I can rely on my faith for my comfort after difficult days on the…

    • 1075 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Psalms 137 Analysis

    • 233 Words
    • 1 Pages

    Hello, Bonnie, you are right that the Psalms absolutely belong. Psalms shows us how to be worshippers like the book of Proverbs teaches us how to be wise. In Psalms 137:2 I would suggest that not only were they not willing to sing for their captors because it was the Lord’s song but also that they were so sorrowful that didn’t have the heart use them. They didn’t get rid of their incitements, they had hope that one day again they would have occasion to use them, so they laid them aside (hung on a willow) for at the present time they had no use for them; God turned their, feasting into mourning and their songs into weeping (Amos. 8:10). Negative psalm have its place because if the Psalms were only filled with positive messages that only show…

    • 233 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A message of hope, liberation, and inspiration is what comes to mind when reading 121st division of Psalms. This particular Psalm has been a source of inspiration when inspiring worshipers to worship God. It has personal inspired me to look past my hurts, pains, sorrows and situations to toward the source of my hope, God. This particular passage of Psalms reminds me that, the true and living, God never stop caring for or watching over his children. This Psalm, much like the 23rd division of Psalms written by David, the advantages of having a personal relationship with the Lord.…

    • 646 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Autobiomythography In the next couple of pages, I will be taking you on a roller coaster ride, to explain my autobiomythography so you can learn a little bit about myself, and the symbols that represent my life everyday. Sometimes we don’t take the time to see what is important for us until we draw it out on paper, and we realize that this symbols, quotes, or things, are a huge part of our lives. This symbols or pictures represent everything to us, so it is important to show others what we care about because we might have a lot in common with others more than we think. Frida Kahlo has always been my favorite artist I as a women identify with her in a lot of ways, her art is very inspirational and this is why my autobiomythography was based…

    • 1044 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2016) defines godliness as, “the quality or state of being spiritually pure or virtuous. ” Holiness, devoutness, and sanctity are all synonyms of godliness. Godlessness and unholiness are examples of antonyms of godliness. In Scripture, the Greek word eusebelia translates into godliness. The root meaning of eusebelia is broken down into two parts.…

    • 822 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Psalm 68 Analysis

    • 710 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Psalm 68 is an amazing poem written by David that gives insight into the character and qualities of God as sovereign king of both Israel and the world. What is more, the psalm bounces back and forth from speaking to God; using personal pronouns such as ‘you,’ and at the same time David is telling the reader about God. Both of these methods lend well for worship. In addition, David was a king, so his perspective of God as king and the role of the king for his people threads all the way through the entire psalm. Psalm 68 lists specific qualities of God as king, shows his primary activities on behalf of his people and parallels to how King Jesus lived while on earth.…

    • 710 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays