Roadmap alongside Psalms

Graeme Chiswell

14 September 2020

WHAT'S ON YOUR ROADMAP?

The roadmap out of lockdown for the state of Victoria has been outlined. It still feels like a long road ahead. Patient endurance will be required for some time yet. I’m so glad that our attention is being focussed on Psalms in this time through our current teaching series. Psalms is a book provided by God for our prayers, praise and perseverance. Hearing God’s word through the Psalms will feature on my own roadmap out, and I have a suggestion to help you suck the marrow out of Psalms in this season. How about you commit to reading a Psalm with another person once a week for the next two months? Let’s call it ‘Alongside Psalm Reading’.

ALONGSIDE PSALM READING

Jesus wants us all to play our part in building his church to maturity by speaking the truth (the Gospel) in love. One way to do this is by reading the bible with another person. The purpose for doing this is to know and trust Jesus more. “Alongside” is a way of expressing a peer relationship of mutual encouragement. “Psalm Reading” indicates the content of the encouragement—a Psalm read together. It doesn’t require lots of preparation; just a simple shared approach to a passage and a willingness to apply it to life and pray for each other.

These three questions will help give some direction to your reading:

  1. What does this Psalm teach about God (who he is, metaphors for him, his character, what he has done)?
  2. What does this Psalm teach us about living as God’s person or people (attitudes to have or not have, things to do or not do, modes of praying)?
  3. How does this Psalm express hope (thankfulness, promises, pointers to Jesus)

HOW TO GET STARTED?

Approach someone to read a Psalm with you each week over the next couple of months. It might be a friend, a fellow Gospel Community member, a fellow ministry team member, or a person new to church. You could share this blog post to explain what you’re proposing. As part of this conversation, talk about what you will do in each 30-40 minute session.

A simple structure for the session could be:

  1. PRAY that God would meet you in his word.
  2. READ the Psalm from the church’s daily bible reading plan with the questions in mind.
  3. DISCUSS what’s in the Psalm using the three questions above (or similar)
  4. CONNECT the Psalm to your everyday lives. You may not have exhausted your thoughts about the Psalm yet, but it is important to make sure you get to talking about this.
  5. PRAY for each other in the light of what you’ve talked about.

Let’s find fellow travellers to help us on our road out!

Graeme Chiswell

Graeme is the Discipleship Minister at City on a Hill Melbourne. His passion is equipping Christians to be firmly established as disciples of Jesus—able to help others become and grow as disciples too. He and his wife Nicky have been married for nearly four decades and they are the parents of two married sons. Alongside immediate family, going to the movies and golf, the loves of his life at present are his two granddaughters.