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

by Timothy J. Keller

Because psalms were not simply read, but sung, they penetrated the minds and imaginations of the people as only music can do. They so saturated the heart and imagination of the average person that when Jesus entered Jerusalem it was only natural that the crowd would spontaneously greet him by reciting a line from a psalm (Mark 11:9; Psalm 118:26).

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.

Athanasius, wrote, “Whatever your particular need or trouble, from this same book [the psalms] you can select a form of words to fit it, so that you . . . learn the way to remedy your ill.”

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.

Gordon Wenham concludes that using them repeatedly is a “performative act” that “alters one’s relationship [with God] in a way mere listening does not.”5 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.

The psalms also help us see God—God not as we wish or hope him to be but as he actually reveals himself. The descriptions of God in the Psalter are rich beyond human invention. He is more holy, more wise, more fearsome, more tender and loving than we would ever imagine him to be. The psalms fire our imaginations into new realms yet guide them toward the God who actually exists. This brings a reality to our prayer lives that nothing else can.

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

Many find modern devotionals to be either too upbeat or too sentimental or too doctrinal or too mystical because they reflect the perspective and experience of just one human author. The psalms, by contrast, give us a range of divinely inspired voices of different temperaments and experiences.

Christians have their attitude toward God changed from one of duty to free, loving self-giving because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. So to know how to meditate on and delight in the Bible is the secret to a relationship with God and to life itself.

Lord of the Word, don’t let me be seduced by the world—either naively going with the crowd or becoming a hardened cynic. Help me meditate on your Word to the point of delight.

In reality, liberation comes only through serving the one who created us. Those people and forces that appear to rule the world are all under his Lordship, and one day they will know it. God still reigns, and we can take refuge in him from all our fears. So to be intimidated by the world (Psalm 2) is as spiritually fatal as being overly attracted to it (Psalm 1).

David shows us straightaway. He doesn’t say, “I will take refuge in God,” but rather shows that he already has, that he is already safe. How can he feel that way before he knows whether the smear campaign will be thwarted? The answer: if we trust in God’s wisdom and will, then we have peace regardless of the immediate outcome.

Lord, so many of my problems stem from not remembering you. I forget your wisdom and so I worry. I forget your grace and so I get complacent. I forget your mercy and so I get resentful of others. Help me remember who you are every moment of the day. Amen.

Lord, keep me from being either naive about human evil, self-righteous about it, or cynical before it. Don’t let me ever get used to injustice or, worse, become complicit in it. That takes constant vigilance and reflection about how I am living. Keep me loving what you love and hating what you hate. Amen.

Lord, I am surrounded by people whose words are either fawning and flattering or malicious and stinging. Don’t let me imitate them. Make my words honest and true, economical and few, wise and well chosen, calm and kind. Give me so much love and grace that this kind of conversation comes naturally to me. Amen.

Fools cannot bear to have anyone over them, and so they ignore God or deny he exists. Some of this rebellion exists in every heart. Every sin is a kind of practical atheism—it is acting as if God were not there. That also means that belief in God must be a gift.

Lord, I want the gifts of your hand more than the glory of your face.

A perfect God could have nothing less than perfect communication with his people. It is we who read hastily, skip prayer, and fail to meditate on his Word, who find it confusing. The best gift in the world, next to the Word incarnate, Jesus himself, is God’s written Word, and it will ignite your heart if you give it a chance.

Those two things—unconditional obedience and prevailing prayer—are the constituents of “waiting eagerly” for God.

we are afraid of so many things. 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 to discover the things you love more than God.

Even in this life the greedy will be at least spiritually poor, while the generous will have a rich life whether they are wealthy or not.

4 Blessed are those you choose and bring near to live in your courts! We are filled with the good things of your house, of your holy temple.

There is nothing more evangelistic, nothing that will win the world more than glorious worship (Psalm 100, 105:1–2).

The psalmist has spent the earlier part of this hymn of praise recounting great deeds of God in the past. He is now filled with gratitude and confidence. It is our part to remember these deeds and praise God, so that our hearts remain confident and trusting in all circumstances.

20 Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!

“Purity of heart is to will one thing.”

Psalm 67. 1 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us— 2 so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.

If you truly enjoy something, you instinctively want to help others to praise it too. Praising it to others “completes the enjoyment.”52

1 May God arise, may his enemies be scattered; may his foes flee before him.

5 A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. 6 God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.

9 You gave abundant showers, O God; you refreshed your weary inheritance.

19 Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens. 20 Our God is a God who saves; from the Sovereign LORD comes escape from death. 21 Surely God will crush the heads of his enemies, the hairy crowns of those who go on in their sins. 22 The Lord says, “I will bring them from Bashan; I will bring them from the depths of the sea, 23 that your feet may wade in the blood of your foes, while the tongues of your dogs have their share.”

29 Because of your temple at Jerusalem kings will bring you gifts.

Lord, may your church never become beholden to any particular human culture, but let it grow more and more international, multiracial, and culturally, richly diverse.

This final chorus of praise is characterized by almost uncontainable excitement, one of the marks of true worship. It also exhibits the two poles between which biblical worship incessantly moves—awe and intimacy.

Let my life be marked by both holy awe before you and glad intimacy with you.

The more holy we are, the more our heart is bound up with

others and with God and so the more we feel the sadness of the world. Jesus, the perfect man, was “a man of sorrows.” Godliness leads us to be both far happier and far sadder at the same time, though the final note is always joy (Psalm 30:5).

The world does not understand the Gospel of grace, in which holy living is the result of humble, grateful joy, not a way to earn heaven. The world therefore sees all righteous living as self-righteousness and bigotry.

Whenever we pray, it is appropriate for us to be passionate and desperate but also willing to wait for God’s timing. Nothing makes us dependent on God’s sovereign love and wisdom like having to persevere in prayer and wait for the time of his favor.

Lord, if you patiently bore the pain of unanswered prayer for my sake, then I can be patient with what seems to be unanswered prayer for your sake. The cross proves that you love me and so I can trust that you are listening to me and handling my request the way I would want if I had your wisdom.

22 May the table set before them become a snare; may it become retribution and a trap. 23 May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever. 24

Praise to God is an antidote to the self-absorption that can overtake us when we suffer. This not only honors God but also encourages others (verse 32).

When we receive healings and deliverances now, they are small windows into the great things to come.

4 But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your saving help always say, “The Lord is great!”

Circumstances can drive us to seek God, yet even before they change (verse 5) we can say, “The Lord is great!” when we find that God himself and his salvation (verse 4) are enough.

Lord, how poorly I pray! Either I pray vaguely and halfheartedly or I pray heatedly, accusingly telling you exactly what you have to do. Teach me to pray with discipline and passion and yet also contentment with your love and will. Then through my prayers you will do much good in the world and in my heart.

14 As for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more. 15 My mouth will tell of your righteous deeds, of your saving acts all day long—though I know not how to relate them all. 16 I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, Sovereign LORD; I will proclaim your righteous deeds, yours alone. 17 Since my youth, God, you have taught me, and to this day I declare your marvelous deeds. 18 Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, my God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come.

20 Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up. 21 You will increase my honor and comfort me once more. 22 I will praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, my God; I will sing praise to you with the lyre, Holy One of Israel.

1 Endow the king with your justice, O God, the royal son with your righteousness. 2 May he judge your people in righteousness, your afflicted ones with justice. 3 May the mountains bring prosperity to the people, the hills the fruit of righteousness. 4 May he defend the afflicted among the people and save the children of the needy; he will crush the oppressor. 5 May he endure as long as the sun, as long as the moon, through all generations. 6 May he be like rain falling on a mown field, like showers watering the earth. 7 In his days may the righteous flourish and prosperity abound till the moon is no more.