Psalms For A Weary Soul

Feeling stretched thin and spiritually tired, we turned to the Psalms—not to skim, but to slow down. What we found is both practical and profound: these ancient songs give honest words to modern emotions and lead us straight to Jesus. From the cross to the empty tomb, Christ stands at the center of the Psalter, and reading with that lens changes how we pray, how we hope, and how we face the day.

We start by asking why the Psalms matter for a weary soul and show how Jesus himself prayed and fulfilled them. Then we walk through a simple four-part rhythm—read, reflect, respond, rest—that turns a hurried quiet time into real communion. You’ll hear how Psalm 1 paints a rooted life beside living water, why Psalm 22 and Psalm 16 trace the arc from suffering to resurrection, and how Psalm 23 becomes a personal prayer when you slow down and speak it aloud. Along the way, we unpack categories that meet you where you are: lament for pain that needs honest words, praise to lift your gaze, thanksgiving to notice grace, and wisdom to guide daily choices.

This is a gentle, Scripture-saturated invitation to let God’s Word form your heart, not just inform your head. Try the weeklong challenge: one psalm a day, read out loud, reflected in a single truth about God, prayed back in your own words, and rested in for a few quiet minutes. By week’s end, look for the subtle shifts—steadier peace, deeper joy, resilient hope.

If this helped you breathe and re-center on Christ, subscribe, share it with a friend who’s overwhelmed, and leave a review so others can find the show. Then tell us: which Psalm are you praying this week?

Chapters

• 0:00 Why The Psalms Matter
• 2:10 Jesus In The Psalms
• 6:35 Messianic And Royal Psalms
• 10:20 Lament To Resurrection Hope
• 13:00 A Devotional Pattern: Read
• 16:10 Reflect On God’s Character
• 18:35 Respond In Prayer

Transcript

Jon: 0:08

Hi and welcome back to the Pleasing God Podcast, a show focused on helping Christians to think biblically, engage practically, and live faithfully for the glory of God. I'm your host, Jonathan Sol, and on this episode, I don't have a guest. I'm by myself in my office recording, and I want to think about something that's deeply personal, not private, but personal, and that's devotional reading of scripture, especially focusing on the psalms. We live in a world that is so fast-paced. We're just constantly busy. It seems like there's not enough hours in the day to get things done. And this can lead to a sense of feeling overwhelmed, constantly trying to keep up, but never getting ahead. It causes for a restless soul, a weary soul, a tired soul. And I can think this is I've gone through times and seasons in my own life, and I feel like I'm just maybe coming out of one of those seasons. And I want to share with you just practical ways in which I've been helped during these just times of feeling overwhelmed. And that's reading the Psalms devotionally. The Psalms have been a prayer book for God's people for over 3,000 years, but many of us maybe simply rush through them, kind of like our fast-paced, action-packed lives, instead of praying through them. And so I want to take the time on this episode and just slow down and look at why the psalms matter, how the psalms point us to Christ, and then offer a devotional approach for reading the psalms that can help you, wherever you are in life, to have a greater appreciation for them, and that it might be the necessary medicine for your soul in the season that you're in. And then we'll finish by looking at different types of psalms and how they are effective for us, no matter where we are in our journey with Christ and as Christians. So, why do the Psalms matter? Well, the simple answer is they're in the Bible. Yes, know that, but there's something deeply profound about the Psalms that they they don't necessarily speak to our heads as much as they speak to our hearts. They teach us how to relate to God with honesty and reverence. They're raw, they're real. Many of the psalms that David wrote, he's crying out to God. It's not your textbook Sunday morning prayers, but they are the prayers of a broken man, of a tired man, of a convicted man, of a man who's weary, of a man who longs for God. The Psalms give us language for everyday emotion, joy, fear, repentance, gratitude, and these are all good human expressions. We were created in the image of God. We were created to express these emotions. Another reason why the Psalms matter is because Jesus prayed them and he even quoted them in Matthew chapter 27, verse 46. When Jesus is crying out upon the cross, he cries out in Aramaic, I won't read that, but he says in our English Bibles, that is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Did you know that he was quoting the Psalms there? In fact, he's quoting Psalm 22, even while he's dying on the cross, Jesus' mind so saturated with the scriptures, and his pain and the anguish of his soul, it's the psalms that are on his mind. So when we think about them, all of the psalms, all 150 of them, like I said, they they're meant to shape our hearts, more so than even inform our heads. But yes, they do inform our our heads, but they help us to grapple with everyday life and everyday emotions. The psalms matter not to be neglected, but to be uh cherished and explored and studied and meditated on, and as we'll talk about here, to be read devotionally. And so I hope just even thinking just slightly about the significance of these, it would whet your appetite to get in and read for your own good, for your own edification, for your own uh filling of your cup, as it were. So the psalms matter, and it's also interesting because the psalms point us to Christ. Jesus makes this clear in Luke chapter 24 on the road to Emmaus in verse 27. He says, as he's speaking with the uh the disciples that he meets there, and beginning with Moses and in all the prophets, he Jesus interpreted them all in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself. Later on, Luke would record, Jesus says, These are the words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled. So how is it that psalms written a thousand years before Jesus point us to Christ? Where do we see Jesus in the Psalms? Now, I do not have the time to explain Jesus in every one of the Psalms or all the sightings of Jesus throughout the Psalms. That could be multiple episodes, but I do want to focus on a few. There are categories of Psalms as we read them, and some are messianic psalms. Take, for example, Psalm chapter 2. We read in verse 12, kiss the son lest he be angry with you and perish in the way, for the wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. And we must ask, who's the son? Well this is pointing forward to the messianic son of God, Jesus Christ. As I already mentioned, Psalm twenty-two, verse one, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me? Why are you so far from saving me from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night I find no rest. He continues, but I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who see me mock me. They make mouths at me, they wag their heads. He trusts in the Lord, let him deliver him, let him rescue him, for he delights in him. Here, even in this writing, David is pointing forward to Christ. These are a couple messianic psalms. Let me give you another one, Psalm one hundred and ten. The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Simply that verse right there. That was the proof text that Jesus used in the Gospels to stump the Pharisees. He asked them, if David is his Lord, how can he say? How does he call him Lord? They had no answer for it. Because they knew that the Messiah was the son of David. Well, David calls him Lord. And Jesus is saying this psalm here points to my Yahweh said to my Adonai, there's something messianic and royal about this, that Jesus is both Lord and God. And these messianic psalms, again, there's many more of them, what they do is they reveal the coming of the King, King Jesus. And so that's one category of how the Psalms point to Christ. But also there are royal psalms, psalms of procession. They show Jesus' rule as King. We also have psalms of lament. Well, these prefigure Jesus' suffering. Again, Psalm 22, as it's messianic, it's also a lament song, and it points to the cross. Whereas Psalm 22 points to the cross, Psalm 16 points to the resurrection. Preserve me, O God, in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, You are my Lord, I have no good apart from you. He goes on in verse 10, for you will not abandon my soul to Sheol or let your holy one see corruption. Peter quotes this in Acts chapter 2 to point to the fact that David did go to Sheol and his body went to the grave, but Christ could not be held down by the grave. It was impossible for death to keep him. So Peter rightly understands what David is saying here and applies it to Jesus to say, this is pointing forward to a resurrection. And it can it ends in verse 11 You make known to me the paths of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. It is the exalted Christ seated at the right hand of the Father, given the name that is above every name. He is the King of kings and He is the Lord of Lords, and at every that every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess this truth. So the Psalms don't just deal with us in the moment, but they point us to Jesus, which is our only hope in life and death. He is our comfort. So when we are reading the Psalms, let us not take the reader response method primarily. Let's read the Psalms and ask the question: How does this psalm find its fulfillment in Christ? And you will be blessed as you start thinking that way. So first and foremost, remember the Psalms point us to Jesus because everything written about him in the Psalms, it was to be fulfilled. But we also should not only read that way as though we are disconnected, as though it's just a book to show us simply the fulfillment in Jesus. Yes, but they are to minister to our souls as well. And certainly seeing Christ in the scriptures does minister to our souls. But I think a devotional approach to reading the Psalms will help us as we grapple with complex issues, difficult circumstances, trials that we never asked for, suffering that we're facing, even good expressions of joy and how to how to show gratitude. So all of the human emotions can be found there. So let me offer for you a pattern for reading the psalms devotionally. And I've got four R's. So we want to read, reflect, respond, and rest. So let this just again be cemented in your mind as you open your Bibles and you approach the Psalms. We want to first read. We want to read slowly and aloud. There's something impactful about actually reading and articulating the words. We can read with our minds, but to slow down and actually read the psalm out loud, it's important. It forces us, again, as I started, we're in this fast-paced, action-packed life that we just continue going to from one thing to the next, to the next, to the next, and we wonder why we're burnt out. Here's a way to stop that. Read slowly and out loud. It takes discipline. And as you do so, as you read any of the Psalms, notice repetition. Notice images that are coming forth. Let's take, for example, Psalm 1. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers. So here in verse 1, we're looking at a blessed man, and he's got three postures or three kind of movements walking, standing, and sitting. And then this is to encompass all of his life. And the blessed man is one who doesn't walk, who doesn't stand, and who doesn't sit amongst ungodliness. But the contrast is that his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. These words are on his heart. They are on his mind. All right, here comes the image. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does he prospers. So we have a tree. We think of a tree that is uh firmly planted. When the storms of life come, it doesn't topple over because its roots are deep. And with the streams of water that are nourishing it, he is meditating on God's word, he is being nourished, he is being strengthened for the day of difficulty. And all that he does is prospers. The wicked are not so, but they are like chaff that drives away with the wind. They have no bearing, they have no weight to them, wind will just move them around. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous, for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. So here we see these images of a tree and chaff, which is also parallelism. We're parallel there's there's a parallel between the blessings for the of the man who walks according to God's word and God's ways, and we see the judgment according to the wicked who disregard God's ways. So we read slowly, and this helps us to move to the next part devotionally to reflect. So as we're reflecting on this, what does this tell us about God's character? God delights in righteousness, and God also rewards righteousness. God blesses the man who delights in him. Now these blessings come in all different shapes, sizes, fashions. But the blessed life is the mind that is stayed upon the Lord, that it meditates on his law, and that is firmly rooted in the midst of storms, in the midst of trials. And so this tells us who God is. God is a righteous God who delights in righteousness. This shows us the psalm also shows us that blessing comes from the Lord. He is faithful. Well, then move to the third part. Respond. How then should we respond to what we have read slowly and as we reflect upon God's character and the meanings and the different things that are stated in the psalm? I would say respond in prayer. Don't just read the psalms. Pray the psalms. Turn the verses here into personal conversation with God. We've been looking at Psalm 1. How about we go to the one of the more famous Psalms, Psalm 23? We read, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul, he leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, and you anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. We respond to this in prayer. Thank you, Lord, that you are the good shepherd, that you were David's good shepherd, and that you are our good shepherd today. And what is true of David is true of everyone who is in Christ. Jesus is my shepherd, I shall not want. Jesus leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. And then rest. We looked at Psalm one, we looked at Psalm twenty-three. Rest in the promises. Don't be in a hurry to close your Bible and go off to the next thing. Yes, I know life is busy and there are demands of life, but rest. Linger in this truth. And the prayer should be let the truth comfort or convict me before I move on. And sometimes both conviction and comfort come at the same time. And that's a joyful thing. We long for that. Maybe a tip to as you're devotionally working through the Psalms, keep a small notebook. Write one sentence takeaway maybe per psalm. Keep a written notebook of the psalms. And then as you've worked through them, go back afterwards. Go back and read your reflections and see how those can also take you to a place of worship and adoration. So read, reflect, respond, and rest. This is a devotional approach to the Psalms. And there are, again, there are different types of psalms that for whatever we're going through that we can lean into. And so I just want to briefly look at a few of those. How we can use different types of psalms based off of where we are and where the Lord has us in whatever season of life we're in. There are lament psalms, and they teach us how to be honest in pain. Psalm 13, Psalm 42. Then there are praise psalms. These fuel our worship. I think about we looked at how the psalms began. I'm reminded of how the psalms end in Psalm 150. And this is almost a perfect bookend. As Psalm 1 begins, the blessed man, Psalm 150, as he's gone through this, the whole of them, it ends with praise the Lord, praise God in his sanctuary, praise him in his mighty heavens, praise him for his mighty deeds, praise him according to his excellent greatness, praise him with the trumpet sound, praise him with the lute and the harp, praise him with tambourine and dance, praise him with strings and pipe, praise him with sounding cymbals, praise him with loud clashing cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord, praise the Lord. We know what that psalm is about. This fuels our worship. Then there are psalms of thanksgiving, Psalm 100, where we're told to give thanks to the Lord. And it again continues to draw us back to who God is as we read, reflect, respond, and rest. And then there are wisdom psalms that are used to help shape our choices. I would categorize Psalm 1 as a wisdom song because it's the blessed man making wise choices. And so as you think through the different types of psalms, I want you to identify which type fits your current season and pray that back to God. You will not go into the psalms with an open heart and an open mind and walk away unchanged. As you honestly seek the Lord and you seek him in his word, the psalms will shape, morph, and mold you into the image of Christ, and you will find your comfort in the Lord and in his word. So reading the Psalms devotionally forms your heart, not just your mind. So let me challenge you. Why don't you pick a psalm a day this week and read it, pray it, and rest in it, and see if you after a week look back on your week and see how the Lord is shaping your heart and conforming you to the image of Christ. So just to recap the psalms show us honesty, the psalms show us Christ. The Psalms show us how we can relate to God, to others, and to the world around us. So read them devotionally and be encouraged as you seek to be faithful in following the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to thank you for listening to the Pleasing God Podcast. If you have any questions, I would love to hear from you. You could reach out at questions at pleasing Godpodcast.org and remember First Thessalonians 4 3. This is the will of God, your sanctification.