Teaching your Church to love the Psalms

One of my greatest regrets in life is not getting to grips with the Psalms until much later. Actually, that's probably not entirely accurate, unlike Frank Sinatra my regrets are not too few to mention. 

But I digress. What I mean is that I wish the Psalms had been a staple diet in the Churches I attended both singing and reading but they played a tiny role, if any, in my upbringing.

I wish I had decades of reading and singing the Psalter. Playing catch-up is difficult when you struggle to remember what you went into the kitchen for; so memorising these poems, songs and prayers is hard, really hard.

But I've been wondering how can I help my church to love the Psalms? 

The first thing is to preach on them. That's probably a given. The way I approach them is to preach mini series in-between other series,  with an occasional odd one thrown into the mix (okay not ideal as they have been deliberately arranged in order) and I deliberately cross reference from the Psalms as I preach through the Bible. It seems a natural way to me now. I hope my church gets excited about what I get excited about.

The second way is too sing them. I confess someone approached me recently and said her heart drops when I say this is a new one.

Fair enough, I'm caught between wanting to sing them all but aware that I might be overdoing it. 

On this point of singing I think it's important to explain what we're singing before we sing it. Just as it's easy to eat junk food, it's easy to sing many modern songs without thinking; Psalms take a lot more thought and effort.

Thirdly, I read them publicly. We've just finished a three year reading of them on Sunday mornings. Psalm 1 and 2 have been described as two doors that open into the Psalter, hence to my way of thinking Psalm 150 must be the back door. So I quietly let myself out, or actually noisily as it is Psalm 150, and have just re-entered through the front doors again. I want this to become second nature although it's a challenge to get everyone to join me.

And fourthly I try and let my prayers be shaped by them. This is of course a huge challenge, it's not an easy thing to do, I'm very much learning.

In all honesty I'm not too sure my plan is working! I'm not convinced people are following me. But I do hope over time folk are drawn in and begin to enjoy them as I enjoy them and develop a spiritual depth in their walk with the Lord.