I spent this past week teaching at the Kentucky Christian String Camp, a Christian music camp founded and staffed by faculty from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. I was asked to give a short "hymn devotional" to the elementary and high school students and their families in attendance. The following is adapted from my remarks: Where do we learn how to love and obey God? If you know the children's catechism, you'll likely have a ready answer: in the Bible alone. The Bible has so much to teach us about who God is, and how we should live our lives in light of who He is. One of the most wonderful ways to drive the truths of the Bible into our hearts is to sing the Bible. God gave us a special hymn book in the Old Testament (the Book of Psalms), and many of the greatest hymns take language directly from the psalms as well as other parts of Scripture. One such hymn is Henry Francis Lyte's Praise, My Soul, The King Of Heaven. This hymn is a free paraphrase of Psalm 103, which begins with the psalmist addressing his own soul, saying "Bless the Lord, O my soul … Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits" (Psalm 103:1–2). Similarly in Psalm 43, we find the psalmist questioning, "why are You cast down, O my soul," encouraging it instead to "hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God" (Psalm 43:5). Do you ever have difficulty controlling your own soul, like the psalmist evidently did? Do feelings of despair, discontent, or disappointment ever feel out of control inside of you, like they might overwhelm you? It is in moments like these that we need to cling to the truths of Scripture, using them to remind us over and o