How to Find Yourself in the Psalms
Poetry Reminds Us
One of the things I love most about the psalms is that I can find myself in the psalms. My story and struggle is splashed across every page in the psalms (and so is yours). The angst, doubt, and weakness. The confusion, despair, and desire to give up. The self-reminders to find strength in Christ and follow God no matter what. The deep abiding joy as we remember the presence and grace of God.
If all we did was find ourselves in the psalms, however, we’d leave depressed and discouraged. I love the psalms because we find ourselves, but even more significantly, we find our Lord in the psalms. We find the beauty of his faithfulness, patience, power, wisdom, and grace.
As a believer in Jesus Christ, there is no healthier place to be than to remind yourself of who you are and who your God is. That’s what the psalms do so well, that’s what a good devotional life is meant to stimulate.
What you are about to read is a poem, an honest meditation I wrote as I reminded myself of who I am and who the Lord is. This writing is my spontaneous response to my journey of faith, meditations that have been generating and marinating for years. It is a transparent interaction of one man with the Savior. I pray you will find yourself in these words, and find your Lord in them also.
My Heart Cries Out
Paul David Tripp
Paul David Tripp shares his celebrations, disappointments, cries for help, confessions, and confusions in the form of 120 poems written as he experienced God’s grace in various seasons of his life.
Here
You’re not absent,
you’re near.
You’re not distant,
you’re here.
You’re not separate,
you hear.
You’re not passive,
you reign.
You don’t just watch,
you intervene
again,
and again,
and again.
You don’t just sit
above what you have created.
No.
You move down among us in
grace,
glory,
wisdom,
power,
and love,
to bestow upon broken creatures
what we could not earn,
what we could not achieve,
and what we’ll never deserve.
You step in the mess we created.
You touch what we have broken.
You restore what we have destroyed.
You give life to what we have killed.
You’re not absent,
you are near.
You’re not distant,
you’re here.
You’re not separate,
you hear.
You’re not passive,
you reign.
You don’t just watch us,
you intervene again,
and again,
and again.
The meditation in this article is adapted from My Heart Cries Out: Gospel Meditations for Everyday Life by Paul David Tripp.
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