After a book (and a bit) of the Psalms, it is good to reflect a little more on how this blog is complementing my devotional times and helping me to properly think through God’s word for myself.

My intention in the first few months of 2019 has been to read all of the psalms at a rather quick pace. And so far, I have mostly kept to that intention. But, to be honest, it has been brutal. I am very busy, with a job that requires long hours, a busy schedule of voluntary church activities, and many other events (relating to work, church, and my wider social life) on every day.

In recent weeks, I have been averaging about two hours spent each day on reading through two psalms and writing and organising my thoughts and notes into a coherent format. Mostly, this has worked surprisngly well, but it has had two profound effects. Firstly, I have been getting progressively more exhausted from more or less only having sleep time as rest time. Secondly, I have ended up shoe-horning psalms together in ways that they really shouldn’t have been, or even basically ignoring one of the Psalms scheduled for that day out of convenience. This has also meant that even on occasions where the psalms do go together well – such as Psalms 42 & 43 – the result has been rushed and less clear.

Obviously, I am still involved in teaching psalms at a summer camp later this year, and I am keen to keep my commitment to going through the whole psalter and keeping up this blog. I have found it helpful in making me think through what the intended teaching of these Psalms have been, and to see the theological points that the author makes.

As a result, starting tomorrow, I am going to be changing the format and frequency of my blogs. The most immediate change is that, from now on, I will typically be reading one psalm per day. Only where space and theme permit will I expand to two psalms. The other change is that, with less intensity, I will take fewer breaks than I had planned; most obviously, I will now be posting on Sundays. My initial plan was to finish the second book of psalms on the 19th of February and continue with the third book from the 25th of February, as I have an important church event over that weekend. I no longer expect to have reached that point by that time, however I will still be taking that weekend (22nd-24th) off due to the busyness.

It is now, therefore, likely that I will finish this endeavour at the end of April or beginning of May. I will take a couple of days break when I get to the end of the second book, Psalm 72 on the 6th of March. I will use this time to think more carefully about how I get through the second half of the Psalms in the remaining three books.

The reflection on Psalm 44 will follow later this evening.