Today marks the end of this journey through the psalms, which began on 12/27/2024. So it took me 327 days to walk through 150 psalms or a little over 2 days for each psalm. Overall, I am happy with the progress I made; I stuck to my task. In the process, I learned a lot. Reading Matthew Henry’s commentary alongside reading the psalms helped illuminate my understanding. It’s very interesting to engage in a conversation with someone who encountered the psalms three centuries before me. His observations are as relevant today as when they were originally written. I was surprised by how much he gleaned from each psalm and challenged myself to spend more time and think more deeply about them.
I did not choose the timing of the completion of my read through the Psalms: I simply read through them as consistently as I could. Yet, it’s very appropriate that I concluded this read through of the Psalms in November, because I wrote about the significance November had to why I began reading through the psalms in the first place, which grew out of a practice of expressing thankfulness. I also find it interesting that I wrote about Aristotle’s reference to finding the mean in life in my introductory blog post about this practice of reading through the psalms, as Matthew Henry references finding the mean, as well, in his discourse on Psalm 39, which is the psalm that marked the conclusion of this journey of my read through of the psalms.
This doesn’t mark an end to my practice of Reading Through the Psalms but an end to this particular journey. Now, I hope to distill some of what I learned over the past year and share those observations with you. For now, I thought it would be worthwhile to repost my initial post from last year, when I began my journey. I hope you found something worthwhile and may be challenged to complete your own read through of the psalms. Thank you for joining me!
Original Post – “Reading Through the Psalms: A Practice”
My daily practice of reading through the Psalms grew out of a desire to focus on thankfulness. One November a few years ago, in anticipation of the celebration of Thanksgiving, I had been reading various blogs where authors challenged themselves to commemorate the holiday by noting each day, over the course of the month, one thing they were thankful for. As someone who thinks and (over)analyzes a lot, I thought it was a good idea to participate, because, all too often, I ruminate over some thing that is bothersome, in order to resolve the problem, and end up tarrying too long on things that do not bring happiness. Dwelling on and over problems has always been a part of my makeup; it’s what made me a good accountant. But, as Aristotle points out in Nichomachean Ethics,
“one ought to choose the mean, and not the excess or deficiency” (102).
As is often the case, multiple things came up around the same time which pointed me to participate in actively recounting all my blessings on a daily basis. While I was reading the blogs on thankfulness, I had also been reading Charlotte Mason, a nineteenth century educator, who wrote on a variety of topics related to home education, including how to help a child learn the habit of attention, which
“is simply the act by which the whole mental force is applied to the subject at hand” (Mason 145).
Further, during this time, I had also been longing to spend more time in the Word and was pondering the command to actively
bring “into captivity every thought” (2 Cor 10:5, KJV).
Lingering over all the lovely things I was thankful for in my life sounded much better than continually stewing over stressful thoughts. I endeavored to spend some time each morning recording in a notebook specific things I was thankful for. Through the process of pondering all the blessings received at the hand of our Creator, blessings became more obvious. It proved a fruitful time, and I noticed a marked improvement in my state of mind. Problems still came to my mind, but I made an effort to catch unruly thoughts before they stampeded out of control and steer them back to the good. None of this is new. Who hasn’t heard the old adage, ‘count your blessings’? The difference for me was moving from hearing it to actively doing it every day (or as near to every day as possible).
This continued for some time, but, eventually, I wanted something to anchor my habit to. What better anchor than the Word? So, I began reading a Psalm each day and recording the attributes of God I found in the respective Psalm, as a daily reminder of all the reasons there are to be thankful for such a good, good Father. Again, the habit proved fruitful, as my focus on God elevated my thoughts heavenward.
I made my way through all the Psalms and decided to keep going, when I finished. After repeating the journey through the first forty Psalms, I decided to add another dimension to my study by perusing Matthew Henry’s Commentary related to the Psalm I was reading for the day, thereby learning from a fellow Christian, who has since passed through this world, and gleaning from his laying down of
“those great and sacred principles which [he went] upon, and [was] governed by, in this endeavor to explain and improve these portions of holy writ” (xcix).
Is his commentary applicable to this era? Yes! And what follows after this introductory post, is a collection of a twenty-first century mother’s thoughts on a sixteenth century pastor’s “bold undertaking” (xcix).
Works Cited
Aristotle. Nichomachean Ethics. Translated by Joe Sachs. Hackett Publishing Company, 2002.
Mason, Charlotte. Home Education: Training and Educating Children Under Nine. Charlotte Mason Research and Supply, 1989.
© 2024 Angela Hormberg
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