The Songs of Jesus: A Year of Daily Devotions in the Psalms

by Timothy J. Keller

We are not simply to read psalms; we are to be immersed in them so that they profoundly shape how we relate to God. The psalms are the divinely ordained way to learn devotion to our God.

Psalms, then, are not just a matchless primer of teaching but a medicine chest for the heart and the best possible guide for practical living.

We are, in a sense, to put them inside our own prayers, or perhaps to put our prayers inside them, and approach God in that way.

What is essential in prayer is not that we learn to express ourselves, but that we learn to answer God.”

Most of all the psalms, read in light of the entire Bible, bring us to Jesus.

So to know how to meditate on and delight in the Bible is the secret to a relationship with God and to life itself.

Many of the psalms begin with desperate “laments”—cries for help from deep within. This is uncensored prayer, straight from the heart.

The LORD looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.

If you want God, it is because he wants you to find him.

How can we always keep a clear conscience? There are two parts to it. Do the right thing. But when you don’t, immediately repent, knowing that you are “the apple of [God’s] eye.”

Remind my heart that when you look on me you find me “in Christ” and see beauty. Let me rest in that.

God’s Word was what sustained God’s incarnate Word when he lived and when he died. Accept no substitutes.

Lord, let your word be not merely something I believe but something that dwells richly inside me, so it reshapes all my thinking and feelings and even the very foundations of my heart.

The LORD confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.

We must be so immersed in God’s written Word and truth (verses 4–5) that we are trained to choose rightly even in cases to which the Bible doesn’t speak directly.

David’s supreme priority is “to gaze on the beauty of the Lord” (verse 4). “Gazing” is not a one-time glimpse but a steady, sustained focus. It is not petitionary prayer but praising, admiring, and enjoying God just for who he is. David finds God beautiful, not just useful for attaining goods.

To sense God’s beauty in the heart is to have such pleasure in him that you rest content.

If our hearts delight in God and his face, then we can contemplate losing earthly joys without fear.

If our greatest treasure—communion with the living God—is safe, of what can we be afraid?

So our fears can serve an important purpose—they show us where we have really located our heart’s treasure. Follow the pathway of the fear back into your heart t...

It is only when we uncover and admit our sin (verse 5) that God is willing to cover it (verse 1).

The happiest (most “blessed”) people in the world are those who not only know they need to be deeply forgiven but also have experienced it.

How can we be delivered from all our fears (verse 4)? The answer is comprehensive. Build an identity that gets its significance (“glory”)—makes its “boast” (Jeremiah 9:23–24)—not from your accomplishments or racial identity or talent or moral efforts or family but from God (verse 2). Then and only then is the foundation of your self-worth secure and not subject to fears or shame (verse 5).

We must forsake our idols (verse 7). Idols are often good things that have become ultimate sources of meaning. Good things need not be removed from our lives, but their place within our hearts must be transformed.

1 Praise the LORD, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. 2 Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits— 3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, 5 who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Here is how to work the Gospel into one’s own heart until it transforms. It happens through inward dialogue, speaking directly and forcefully to your own heart (“my soul”) rather than just listening to it.

Biblical meditation, unlike the popular varieties, is not a relaxation technique for emptying the mind but rather one that fills it with truth, using thought and memory to set your heart on fire.

Here David dwells on the truth that God forgives sin and eventually will remove all suffering and diseases. When we ask, we get forgiveness now (1 John 1:8–9), but we may not get suffering re...

That is because while sin always blocks our relationship with God, su...

Lord, I confess how much of my fear, anger, anxiety, and discouragement is wholly due to my forgetting your benefits, forgetting all you’ve given me and promised me in Christ. My mind knows but my heart forgets I’m forgiven, delighted in, guaranteed a crown, a feast. Forgive me, and help me speak to my soul until strength is renewed. Amen.

6 The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. 7 He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel: 8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. 9 He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; 10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

Lord, I do not honor you merely by obeying you. The way to glorify you the most is to enjoy you. Help me (oh, please) to revel in all you are and have done for me until it awakens joy in my heart. Amen.

While those activities may also have practical purposes, in some deeper sense these creatures know the joy and freedom of doing what they were “formed” to do by God. We too can know joy and fulfillment only as we live according to God’s design.

Lord, disobeying you is easy in the short run but hard in the long run because I am violating my own nature. And so obedience to you can be excruciating to start but is wonderful in time, because by it I become my true self. Oh, help me to remember this when things get hard! Amen.

Lord, give me the peace that comes from knowing that nothing in this world is truly home. Give me the strength that comes from visiting my future home when I know your love and presence in prayer. I praise you that you will bring us someday to the true country we have been looking for all our lives. Amen.

But they soon forgot what he had done and did not wait for his plan to unfold.

In the desert they gave in to their craving; in the wilderness they put God to the test.

Lord, I confess my overconfidence about my ability to manage life through planning, knowing the right people, reading the right books. But then “out of the blue” comes a storm and I am lost. Teach me how to depend on you and lean

on you moment by moment. Without you I can do nothing.

We become like the things we love most.

Do what you have been doing—staying in the Word and praying honestly and fervently, as we see here. When suffering comes, prayer and Bible reading are the first activities to go. In reality they are your only life preservers.

Lord, let me be so immersed in your Word that, as they did for Jesus, your words spring to my mind, interpreting my moment, guiding my choices, and strengthening my heart.

Give me the energy for study of your Word that comes from a deep sense of the value of what I will find there.

I lift up my eyes to you, to you who sit enthroned in heaven.

2 In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat—for he grants sleep to those he loves. 3 Children are a heritage from the LORD, offspring a reward from him. 4 Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth. 5 Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their opponents in court.

We so often approach God only for what he can give, rather than simply to rest in his presence.

Lord, you tell me to bring you my needs. But help me also to rest in your presence, joyfully content to just be with you.

God’s love is his most amazing trait, and likewise love should be his followers’ most evident mark (John 13:35). Is it yours?

But my eyes are fixed on you, Sovereign LORD; in you I take refuge—do not give me over to death.

Lord, I ask for two things. Make me a friend who can speak the truth in love. And give me friends who are willing to do this for me—to exhort me lovingly but candidly, lest I be hardened by the deceitfulness of my own heart