Wyatt Graham

Faith | Books | Culture

Psalms

How to Complain Christianly

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Welcome Images. No modification. License.
Welcome Images. No modification. License.

The Psalms also teach us to talk to God, to pray. They teach us how to complain to God and to praise God. How to accuse God, how to honour God. How to lament to him, how to thank him.

Many of us probably feel comfortable praising and honouring God, but it feels intuitively wrong to complain, accuse, or lament to him, and yet the Psalms often teach us to do just that.

We need to be very careful here, because simply telling God how you feel in all its ugliness can be a recipe for darkness, despair and God’s displeasure. The Psalms avoid these dark paths, and they instead lead us down a road of sorrow, reconciliation, and praise. They supply divine words to our distasteful experience. By speaking the words of the Psalms to God, we are really using words supplied by the Holy Spirit to work through our relationship with our Father. [Read more…] about How to Complain Christianly

How to Feel Emotions Christianly

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By Phillip Cappe without change. Click picture for license.
By Phillip Cappe, without change. Click picture for license.

Have you ever wondered if there is a Christian way to feel? All of us experience deep seated anger, depths of depression, and delights of joy. Sometimes we let emotions overwhelm us without giving it a second thought. Yet there is a distinctively Christian way that we should experience these emotions. It is the Psalms that teach us how to handle times of joy and sorrow.

The early Christians understood this. Consider the words of Saint Athanasius in his Letter to Marcellinus on the Psalms: “These words become like a mirror to the person singing them, so that he might perceive himself and the emotions of his soul” (§12). When he reads the Psalms he sees himself as if looking into mirror, reflecting back to him the emotions of his soul. When the Psalmist cries, Athanasius sees his tears; when the Psalmist shouts with joy, Athanasius sees himself smile. [Read more…] about How to Feel Emotions Christianly