PRAYING THE PSALMS

PSALM 1

The Way of the Righteous and the Wicked
Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.

ARTIST’S COMMENTS

Trees are some of the most vivid symbols of life and death that we are invited to contemplate throughout scripture. In my study, I’ve noticed a contrast between two trees: the tree that represents eternal life and flourishing and a tree, or what is left of a plant or tree that dies, chaff, which represents death and transience. I come upon both trees in Genesis 1-3, I find truly everbearing and healing fruit trees in Ezekiel 47, and I see another mention of these trees in Revelation 22. In his lectures on Genesis 1-3, Dietrich Bonhoeffer argued that Jesus on the cross is the new tree of life, the tree from which we eat and gain eternal life.

The eternal, in-dwelling Holy Spirit makes us more like Christ. Therefore, I, like him, am a kind of tree. I have potential to bear fruit. Recently, a friend pointed out to me that a tree does not bear fruit for itself, but for others. This is the beauty of self-giving, a self-sacrificial love. A feeding of one another in love, because we too have been fed. There is no fear of scarcity here. “Will I have enough?” is not a question I have to ask. Because the believer is “planted by streams of water,” the believer “yields fruit in [their] season,” and the believer’s “leaves do not wither.” What a promise to make in the face of human transience!

PSALM 25

Teach Me Your Paths
To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
O my God, in you I trust;
let me not be put to shame;
let not my enemies exult over me.
Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame;
they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.

Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation;
for you I wait all the day long.

Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love,
for they have been from of old.
Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions;
according to your steadfast love remember me,
for the sake of your goodness, O Lord!

Good and upright is the Lord;
therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
He leads the humble in what is right,
and teaches the humble his way.
All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness,
for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.

For your name’s sake, O Lord,
pardon my guilt, for it is great.
Who is the man who fears the Lord?
Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose.
His soul shall abide in well-being,
and his offspring shall inherit the land.
The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him,
and he makes known to them his covenant.
My eyes are ever toward the Lord,
for he will pluck my feet out of the net.

Turn to me and be gracious to me,
for I am lonely and afflicted.
The troubles of my heart are enlarged;
bring me out of my distresses.
Consider my affliction and my trouble,
and forgive all my sins.

Consider how many are my foes,
and with what violent hatred they hate me.
Oh, guard my soul, and deliver me!
Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.
May integrity and uprightness preserve me,
for I wait for you.

Redeem Israel, O God,
out of all his troubles.

ARTIST’S COMMENTS

At the time I worked to illuminate this Psalm, I was also studying Medieval labyrinths and their elaborate symbolism. One of the things that struck me about these labyrinths is that their path is singular. You cannot forge your own way through the labyrinth without missing the point of it entirely. There is only one path. In a sense, God teaches us this throughout our life. There is but one way to reach him, and he is the one way to reach true joy. The believer gains wisdom in life as they learn through relationship with Christ and other believers. These experiences shape us and should remind us to seek a heart of humility. We should look to God for guidance and mercy, asking him to teach us his ways instead of trying to forge our path, walking the one path, the one that leads to him.

PSALM 32

Blessed Are the Forgiven
Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah

I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

Therefore let everyone who is godly
offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found;
surely in the rush of great waters,
they shall not reach him.
You are a hiding place for me;
you preserve me from trouble;
you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding,
which must be curbed with bit and bridle,
or it will not stay near you.

Many are the sorrows of the wicked,
but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord.
Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous,
and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

ARTIST’S COMMENTS

Psalm 32 is the first Psalm I ever illuminated years ago, so it was fun to come back and illuminate it a bit differently. While studying the Psalm and reading commentary from Charles Spurgeon’s Treasury of David, I read a section where Spurgeon expounded on the three levels of sin mentioned in the Psalm and the ways that Christ eradicates all three. Because Christ paid our debts, our sin nature, called iniquity, is not charged to our account. Because Jesus shed his blood as a sacrifice on our behalf, our heart’s tendency to place its hope in anything other than God, called sin, is covered and utterly hidden from sight permanently. And because Jesus lived the life we could never live, perfect, sacrificial, and sinless, even to the point of death on the cross, our transgressions, or acts of omission and commission, are borne away forever.

When I read this Psalm and really allow myself to feel the weight of it, I often find myself in tears as I consider the way that Jesus so completely paid my debt. He suffered and died so that I can rejoice. He felt the heavy hand of justice as it crushed him, and I get to feel freedom and joy. And all of this is for God’s eternal glory. At times my own sin feels like an impossible obstacle, but when I read a Psalm like this I remember that through repentance, my sins are utterly blotted out forever by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. What greater hope could exist in the world?

PSALM 8

How Majestic Is Your Name
O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

ARTIST’S COMMENTS

There is something in the vast beauty of nature that reminds me of the God I serve and inspires me to worship. When I behold the glory of the stars undimmed by city lights, there is a part of my soul that “remembers” what it felt like to perfectly bear his image in communion with him. This memory is intense but it is hard to see the real shape of it: it is a homesick longing for a place I’ve never actually been. Yet, it manages to feel more real than anything I have ever experienced. The Germans have a word for this feeling: Sehnsucht. This longing drives mankind to create and seek beauty, to recite poetry, to dream deeply. I believe this longing inspired David to write this Psalm.

The ancient Greeks used the term Mikros Kosmos to describe the human soul. This phrase, translated, means “little world.” Since ancient times, mankind has lived with the paradoxical feeling that they are transient and small, and yet immense and immeasurable. That God would make mankind in his image is mysterious and wonderful: we seem so ephemeral compared to the stars and the seas and the creatures that live in these places. What kind of God sets his glory above the heavens and yet makes earthbound beings his image-bearers?

Jesus, fully God and fully man, is the crowning glory of mankind: he is called the last Adam and the firstborn of all creation. He was crowned, too, with thorns. Charles Spurgeon called the Crown of Thorns the “Crown of Sin” and said that this crown represented Jesus’s usurping of the power of sin and death. Having conquered sin, he now wears its crown for all eternity in glorious majesty. He is the true Son of Man, and he has dominion over all things.