Like others in the last section of the psalter, Psalm 147 is a praise psalm. While it clearly calls us to a posture of praise, it also names a range of emotions.

Every night, my spouse and I climb into our son’s bed for stories and snuggles. After the stories have ended, we share in a ritual of prayer where each person has the opportunity to recall something from the day that was a high, a low, a grateful, and a beautiful. (We just recently added that last category.)

A ritual like this can be deeply formative, for both children and adults. It is an exercise in memory, remembering moments in our day to help each day have meaning. The ritual also allows us to capture the breadth of emotions that we experience in our day-to-day lives.

The psalmist says that it is a pleasure to sing and make beautiful praise to the Lord. Yet in the next breath, we hear about Israel’s exiles, those who are brokenhearted, wounds that need bandaging, the mystery of God, the poor, and that evil is a reality in the world.

This is what I love about reading the Psalms. If we spend any amount of time with them, the Psalms will reach into our lives and reflect back to us our deepest emotions. They keep life’s realities directly in front of us. They will call us to praise, yes; but they will also call us to deep lament. We will hear about anger, and we will hear about those who call to God from the depths of despair. The Psalms are a gift, especially if we commit to reading all of them.