So I posted how my plan to hike the Appalachian Trail across Virginia is a pilgrimage for me. I also posted about figuring out meals to pack on the trail. Maybe it is time to write more about the focus of this pilgrimage: I want to stop, read and pray with a different psalm five times a day wherever I am on the trail. That means by the time I come back, I will have prayed through the whole book of Psalms (150 of them) three times.
Why am I choosing the Psalms on which to focus? The trail seems a fitting backdrop on which to consider the Psalms. Rocks, storms, trees, thirst, darkness, sun, water, shelter, deer—the Psalms are full of nature images. And full of concerns and dangers. I don’t expect to encounter the lions of Psalm 104 on this trail, but it is wise to take precautions for snakes, bears, and ticks, as well as to keep an eye out for lightning storms on the mountain.
The Psalms are musical prayers, and I love music. The Psalms were Jesus’ hymnbook. When people gathered to worship in Jesus’ community, it was a psalm that would have been sung. In the Gospel accounts, Jesus quoted the Psalms more than any other book of Hebrew scripture (eleven times). That is not surprising. We know from experience how what we sing sinks deep into our bones. Jesus, for example, prayed from Psalm 22 while on the cross, suggesting the significance of the Psalms in Jesus’ life. In faith communities we turn to hymns in difficult times, in joyful times, in times when we need to be inspired, and when we need to be reminded who God is and whose we are. Hymns—and in this case, the Psalms—shape our faith.
Another reason this pilgrimage will focus on the Psalms is that many Christians throughout the centuries have chosen to stop throughout the day (as many as seven or more times) to pray with the Psalms. That’s difficult to do unless one is on retreat or living in a community that has chosen to observe these daily prayer offices together. I’m curious: how might the observance of praying Psalms throughout the day affect my life? The three months on sabbatical, two of which will be walking, give me a chance to explore that prayer practice.
Finally, I was drawn to spend time with the Psalms because a good portion of them are either prayers of trust in God or expressions of struggling to trust God in the midst of tough circumstances. In our congregation, we are being challenged to trust God in new ways. The larger church and the surrounding culture are also changing in significant ways. The Psalms may prove a rich resource of encouragement and strength to us as we take risks and new steps of faith to serve our community in the name of Christ. In that sense, our congregation is on its own spiritual pilgrimage. What psalms will we sing that will inspire us to step into God’s future?
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