One of my habits is to listen to something stimulating while I’m exercising or on a long drive — and this morning I hit a hybrid between a lecture and a sermon which is absolutely fabulous.
It’s about praying the Psalms, and I found it extremely insightful. If you’ve ever wondered why so many of the Psalms are downers, or how we can pray some of the more vengeful Psalms as Christians you need to listen to this. Gordon Wenham
talks about much more than just that, but the listening is worth it just for those nuggets.
And if you desire to create worship songs yourself, this is a must. The Psalms have always been the food of worship writers, and anything that helps you understand them better will help you compose better songs yourself.
http://www.sbts.edu/MP3/spring2006/20060328wenham.mp3
Just download it and burn it to a CD so you can listen to it while driving or throw it in your iPod for when you’re jogging or whatever.
If you decide you want to begin praying the Psalms, you can either pray one a day (which will take you through the Psalter about twice a year) or you can pray 5 a day (which will take you through the Psalter in a month). A slightly different plan that takes into account the length of the Psalms (so that 119 stands alone, for example) is at http://www.bibleplan.org/ps/niv/
(ht: Justin Taylor)
I agree that the psalms make for good worship songs — there are lots of variations out there yet we don;t sing them anymore because they are seen as too old. Ah well.