Welcome to the Club! “What club?” you ask. “The Psalms Reciters.” We’re a diverse group spanning three thousand years with Psalms on our lips. Here are some of our past and present members:
• King David, who wrote a large number of the Psalms including the beloved Ps. 23.
• Jesus Christ, who quoted the Psalms on eleven occasions according to the Gospels, including Ps. 22, while dying on the cross.
• The Apostle Paul, who chanted Psalms in prison at midnight (Acts 16:25) and who quoted them in his letters.
• John Huss, who in 1415 went to the stake while reciting Ps. 31.
• Martin Luther, whose 16th century hymn “A Mighty Stronghold is Our God” was inspired by Ps. 46.
• Thomas More, who repeated Ps. 51:1 repeatedly while waiting for execution: “Have mercy upon me, O God!”
• The Puritans, who sang Psalms while sailing to the new world and who named their first settlement, “Salem,” after a verse in Ps. 73.
• Delegates of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, who were sobered in their great task by quoting Ps. 127: “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.”
• Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who told an interviewer from the New York Times in 1995 that he gained relief from political fights through the Psalms.
• The monks of New Camaldoli Hermitage south of Big Sur, who chant dozens of Psalms each week.
• An infamous Reality TV Star and her husband who just named their newborn son “Psalm” this week.
And now the Valley Church Family, who will be studying, reading and singing them over the next twelve weeks in our new series called “Cries of the Heart: Psalms for Summer.” Welcome to the Club!