On Sunday 8 July, Joshua Newington continued our series called, 'Honest to God'. This week we looked at Psalm 123.

When the Reformer John Calvin wrote his commentary on the Psalms he referred to it as “an anatomy of all parts of the soul.” When we read the Psalms though we can find ourselves shocked at its contents—we can read the Psalmist accusing God of abandoning them (Psalm 29), or even expressing passionate desire for bloodthirsty vengeance (think Psalm 137). But should finding these things in Scripture be shocking to us? Are our own hearts really so different from the Psalmist's? Or is it the case that we somehow expect someone writing parts of the Bible to be different to us, somehow more spiritual?

Perhaps this is understandable, that we should desire Scripture to always point us towards the better parts of our nature. The risk though is that we might become fake, hiding or not acknowledging parts of our struggle as human beings. Ultimately one of the things that is so valuable about the Psalms is how human they actually are, and the way they map what human relationship with God looks like. There is nothing fake or inauthentic about it, because it looks like inviting God into real life. So for the next month or so we’ll be taking another look at the Psalms and examining how they might shape our real, human, spiritual life, and our relationship with God.