I never fully understood the spiritual importance of the Psalms until I grieved through them myself.
While in college, I was in a serious, long-distance relationship that lasted for nearly two years. During this time, I fell in love with the future my boyfriend and I had dreamed up for ourselves. He was at a military institute with a career in the Air Force to follow, so I started to prepare myself for what I thought my “MilSpo” life would look like once we both graduated. Close to our two-year mark, however, the guy I thought I would be spending the rest of my life with confessed some things to me that broke my heart. And then he ended our relationship.
It was devastating and I wasn’t sure that life would ever be the same again. In the immediate weeks to follow, his empty promises, my broken dreams, the “should-have-beens”, and the “what-ifs” all overwhelmed me. I was not sleeping, barely eating, losing weight, and my final exam grades were suffering. It was so hard to focus on anything but my grief.
One of my mentors encouraged me to surrender my heartbreak to God by grieving through the Psalms. I knew the Psalms were one of the first places people would go when they were hurting, but I did not realize just how relevant they were until I decided to give them a go. I’m so glad my mentor advised me to do this because it’s what ultimately led me to a beautiful place of healing and breakthrough. It took time, but God held me close and gave me permission to feel it through and take all the time I needed.
Each night, I would grab my Bible, a highlighter and a pen, dim the lights, light a candle or two, and turn on some worship music. Then, I would dive in and read the Psalms aloud to myself, highlighting the verses that gave my heart a sense of the healing to come.
As I made my way through the Psalms, I could not believe how spot-on they were. At times, it felt as if the writer had spoken into my exact situation. How is it that something written centuries ago, by a man from a completely different time and culture, can still speak to our innermost feelings, fears, and hopes?
If this isn’t proof that the Scriptures are divinely inspired, then I don’t know what is.
The Psalms are God’s medicine for a broken heart (I’m living proof). They are a lifeline of promises; a living and active language that sustain us. They show us what it’s like to be human and in a relationship with our Creator. They assure us that it’s okay to cry out to Him in our despair, loneliness, anger, and frustration; to doubt His plan and ask hard questions. They teach us how to praise in our pain and sing in the midst of our sorrows.
In doing all of these things, the Psalms illuminate the greatness of God, affirm His faithfulness to us in hard times, and remind us of the truth and authority of His every word.
The truth is, no matter what kind of season we are in- whether we are celebrating victories or doing our best just to get through the day- we all need the Psalms. My prayer for you today is that you would give greater attention to them and allow their timeless truths to breathe life into your being and carry you through.
