The Psalms

we need the Psalms! In a world that either allows emotions to rule or attempts to rule over our emotions, we are in desperate need of a biblical theology of emotion. Since the Psalms show us what prayer and worship looks like in every conceivable emotional state, they give us divine permission to bring all our emotions into the presence of God. The Psalms show us God welcomes us no matter our emotional state. In fact, he gives us the language we often lack to understand and navigate our confusing and troubling emotional life. When we read the Psalms in the context of all of Scripture, we discover that the Psalms were Jesus' prayer book. They are the prayers of his heart whereby he redeemed all the emotions of human experience.

Though we won't find the word "emotion" in Scripture, many have recognized that the Psalms have long served as a primary "emotional handbook" for Christians. 

• “In the other books one hears only what one must do and what one must not do… but in the Book of Psalms, the one who hears, in addition to learning these things, also comprehends and is taught in it the emotions of the soul” (Athanasius).
• "For the early Christians the Psalms were also the unique emotional handbook for personal use of what might be termed “psalmno-therapy” (Bruce Waltke). Though the analogy isn't perfect, reading and praying the Psalms is like having God for your therapist! Who wouldn't want that?!

As we deepen our personal and corporate prayer life together this year, let's allow our emotions to move us past a surface relationship with God into a deeper trust, hope and love for Him and deeper joy for the comprehensive redemption of our humanity in Christ.

A few takeaways from our study so far for you to reflect on:

• Our emotions shouldn't be (and ultimately can't) be denied. Our emotions simply "are". God knows about them already. He wants us to bring them all to Him in prayer. 
• Our emotions shouldn't rule over us. But they often do - consciously or subconsciously. Prayer is inviting God's rule into our emotional lives through prayer. 
• Our emotions are part of what it means to be made in the image of God. 
• We mistakenly equate being spiritual healthy with always being happy or being emotionally flat. David - the man after God's own heart! - was anything but emotionally flat. Jesus - the Greater David - was anything but emotionally flat.

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