The Psalms: Window and Mirrors
In the Psalter we have both windows and mirrors.
- Through them we observe humans in interconnectivity with the Creator and His creation.
- By them we see deeply into our own humanity.
Immersing ourselves in the Psalms we begin to ask, “Am I reading the Psalms or are the Psalms reading me?”
All the realities of human life are embraced in the Psalms.
To understand the Psalms, one must be interacting in real time with God, God’s creation, humans and the self.
The effectiveness of the Psalms is directly correlated to Biblical self-awareness.
Frederick Buechner accurately states, “The story of any one of us is in some measure the story of us all.”
“Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.”
― Frederick Buechner, Now and Then: A Memoir of Vocation
In listening to the lives of others and our own, we might see a synthesis of Paul Ricoeur’s work as presented by Walter Brueggemann.
“Our life of faith consists in moving with God in terms of:
- Being securely oriented;
- Being painfully disoriented; and
- Being surprisingly reoriented.”
Praying the Psalms, Walter Brueggemann, page 2
| Being securely oriented | Being painfully disoriented | Being surprisingly reoriented |
| Psalms of Praise | Psalms of Protest | Psalms of Thanksgiving |
| Psalm 145 | Psalm 22 | Psalm 103 |
“But there are those (and this is our primary concern here) who have regular access to the psalms of high celebration but have been so numbed to their own experience that the words of the psalm have no counterpart in their own life experience.” Praying the Psalms, Walter Brueggemann, page 2
The Psalter is a window into the orientation, disorientation and reorientation of others.
The Psalter is a mirror into the orientation, disorientation and reorientation of our selves.
Thus we shake off any and all numbness to our own lives and fully embrace our own psalms of praise, protest and thanksgiving.