In some Christian circles one can miss either the realism or the balance the Psalms provide. The Psalms tell us that trouble is normal, darkness is possible, reverses are likely, and ordinariness is celebrated. There is a herky-jerky pattern to believing life in the Psalms, covering the waterfront of conditions. The Psalms make clear that we do not get to some “higher ground,” a sort of experiential plateau where we mostly live above life’s crud-line. Rather, there is only this ground where we stand, this frequently troubled, always changing, God-present ground.

We have a four-quart, hand-crank, ice-cream freezer stored in our garage. Some friends gave it to us some years ago, and we put it to use. But the effort in making one’s own ice cream means that one only does so occasionally, and the expense makes it prohibitive on a regular basis. When one tallies all the ingredients and collateral supplies needed for that gallon of ice cream—well, it’s a relatively costly affair. It’s much cheaper and convenient, if not tastier, to buy ice cream from the grocery. So the ice cream freezer sits on the shelf, nearly antiquated and solitary.

One wonders if Christians tend to treat the Psalms that way. After all, we have such a plethora of fine, up-to-date, bite-size devotional aids and helps. It’s understandable—why should contemporary Christians still give time to these clearly ancient, often unruly, sometimes alarming, frequently perplexing prayers and praises of Israel from more than 2,500 years ago?

So, do we really still need the Psalms? And if so, why?

One could come up with multiple reasons, but let’s simply zero in on one: we need the Psalms because we need to know the range and pattern of believing experience.

Lament, Paradox, and Blessedness

Let’s embark on a brief tour of the Psalms.

Psalm 3: Lament

Think of the significance of Psalm 3. It came out of the time when David fled from his son Absalom. It’s a prayer in trouble. Psalm 3 implies that prayer is the way we slug it through our troubles. The placing of Psalm 3 is telling. You first go through the double doors of the Psalms, where Psalm 1 tells you to settle your commitment, and Psalm 2 tells you to get a clear view of the kingdom—and then you walk straight into trouble (Ps. 3).

Scholars call this kind of Psalm a “lament.” Reading it, you realize that it isn’t without hope and confidence. But it is first of all about trouble. Is it not telling that more than a third and near to a half of the Psalms are laments? Are the Psalms not telling us that it is through many tribulations we enter into the kingdom of God? But today, even when believers do use Psalms in worship, they usually choose the praise selections. We seldom sing laments in our services. There’s one in our church hymnal, “My God, My God, O Why Have You Forsaken Me?”—based on Psalm 22—but I don’t think I’ve heard it used in worship. Maybe it’s because it doesn’t fit the upbeat, bouncy ambience praise bands want to create.

Psalm 27: Paradox

Or consider Psalm 27. In verses 1–6, David speaks of the confidence he has, and then in verses 7–12 of the trouble he faces. He begins with “Whom should I fear?” (v. 1b) but soon pleads, “Don’t leave me and don’t forsake me” (v. 9). The usual scholarly tack is to say these sections (vv. 1–6 and 7–12) were originally two distinct psalms because their tone is so different they could’ve never been a unity. (Of course, if that’s so, why did some doofus join them together?) But no, there’s a deliberate rub, and we must leave the “rub” of verses 1–6 side by side with verses 7–12. Then it’s not disturbing, but a paradox; two things, seemingly contradictory, yet simultaneously true. For now we see that a confident faith can become a battered faith, that an assured faith can also be an assaulted faith—the two sometimes go together. The one can soon turn into the other. This psalm implies it’s a short step from “blessed assurance” to “fightings and fears, within, without.” Cocksure scholarly pronouncements that there are two distinct psalms ruin the complexity of believing experience that Psalm 27 wants to depict.

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