A Psalms ‘taster’
Image courtest of Tim Wildsmith via @unsplash
CATHEDRAL NEWSLETTER - 1 May 2025
Friends in Christ, recently a younger new friend has started reading the Bible, and had read some New Testament books, some of the Gospels, and some of the Letters. He'd also begun in Genesis. But I wanted to encourage him to read the Psalms. After all, the Psalms are really the song book of Jesus. That's what all Jewish people in his era would have grown up knowing, and often singing.
But there are 150 of them! And although there is structure to the chapters, and some important themes and groupings, they don't have an unfolding narrative that's necessarily obvious.
So for better or worse I decided to pick just 15, 10% of the total, as a kind of introductory highlights orientation tour for my friend to read over a few times, before hopefully going on to read all 150 later on.
What would you pick in your top ten or fifteen psalms to help orient an inexperienced Bible reader to the joys and the variety of the psalms?
Here's my list of "Fifteen Psalms to introduce you to Jesus’ songbook (before you learn to read them all!)"
Psalm 1 Introduction: God’s law/instruction is essential
Psalm 2 Introduction: God’s Son and King on earth will rule!
Psalm 8 Humanity’s special place in God’s grand cosmos
Psalm 19 The wonderful ‘books’ of nature and scripture
Psalm 22 The suffering king and his eventual glory
Psalm 23 The Bible’s most famous psalm: the good shepherd
Psalm 42 Thirsting for God in the midst of turmoil
Psalm 51 Brokenness at our sin
Psalm 73 Doubts when the wicked prosper
Psalm 88 The saddest song in the Bible, yet still talking to God
Psalm 95 A call to worship and listen to God
Psalm 103 Praising the character and nature of God’s love
Psalm 110 The Messiah God raises is more than a mere man
Psalm 121 Help comes from on high (so you can go to sleep)
Psalm 139 We are each uniquely made by the sovereign God
I'm sure many of you will have a favourite I've left out. And I could have easily added another 5 or 10 to my list.
But if you have never read through the Psalms for yourself, why not start here?
Read the psalms on the list two or three times. Think about what they tell you about God, how they help you feel about God, how they address the variety of situations we can find ourselves in. Maybe see if you can find out a bit more about the original situations they were written for and about.
And because Jesus actually says the Psalms (along with other Old Testament Scriptures) testify about him, start to consider how these Psalms might point you to Jesus. If you've got a cross-reference Bible, you could even look up how the New Testament quotes some of these psalms.
I am sure that if you develop a habit of reading the psalms regularly it will enrich your life of prayer and praise with God, in the ups and downs of life as a follower of Jesus.
Warmly in Christ,
Sandy Grant
Dean of Sydney