There you have it--

What is the shape of your soul? How would you describe your soul? Whatever your answer, the psalms are for you because they are soul-shapers. The psalms are serious about life. You will find your deepest needs met--regardless of the kind of soul you have. In the psalms, we experience life in its many facets. At times ours is a soul of praise, honor, searching, worship, reflection, doubt, confidence, confession, suffering, concern. At times life disorients us, and we need psalms of orientation. At times life is too orienting and comfortable, and we need the psalms of disorientation. This process of orientation, disorientation, and reorientation is one of the great wonders of the psalms.

The psalms are favorites for other reasons. They are poetry, beautiful, memorable. They are man speaking to God. They are personal, they are devotional. They have many applications. This poetry speaks to the soul.

Here we see our reigning Lord, we hear the wedding celebrations, we share the prayers, the praise, the psalms of worship. These are impassioned, vivid, concrete, poetic, unforgettable images, simile, metaphor, word pictures.

Here is communication, man listening and responding.

There are several different kinds of psalms--hymns of praise (Israel's hymnal), royal psalms proclaiming God as king, lament, thanksgiving, penitential, psalms of nature, worship, wisdom, character.

I do not know how familiar you are with the psalms, but I want today to suggest to you something of the nature of this unique book, to increase your love and appreciation, perhaps to spur you to deeper study, to know the psalms as the great devotional literature and strength they have been through the centuries. I am not certain that is our shared life, in part because of our NT emphasis. So, we touch the OT today.

I. Psalms of orientation.

II. Psalms of disorientation.

III. Reorientation.