“Search me, O God, and know my heart:
Try me, and know my thoughts:
And see if there be any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.”
(Psalm 139:23–24, KJV)
“For my brethren and companions’ sakes,
I will now say, Peace be within thee.”
(Psalm 122:8, KJV)
For Jia Qiong
“Return unto thy rest, O my soul;
For the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.”
(Psalm 116:7, KJV)
The richness of the Psalms is beyond estimation. In their depth of language and emotion, in their ability to capture the human heart, mind, and soul, they surpass the most impassioned speaker, the most accomplished poet.
There is nothing that the spectrum of the Psalms does not comprise, from abject sorrow to ecstatic joy – psalms of praise, of thanksgiving, of agony, of anxiety, and of victory, all addressing God as the Savior to our troubles, all serving as affirmations of our faith in him as our source of inner peace and joy.
The Psalms are a cornucopia, an overflowing treasure-chest, of God’s abundance and benevolence, all presented to us humbly in black marks on white paper.
While I had known of the Book of Psalms since my youth, until adulthood I had only directly come across Psalm 23, the most famous psalm, mainly as a result of my literary studies. A search, generated by the unceasing vicissitudes of life, for inner peace, brought me to explore the Psalms as a whole, to read them with attention and appreciation. The result was sheer awe. It was as if I had once heard a beautiful song by a band and been told that they were a “one-hit wonder,” and upon listening to their entire canon, had discovered that every song was a masterpiece.
To read through the Book of Psalms on a regular basis, as I have done since and shall continue to do, is to experience an overcoming feeling of reverence, humility, optimism, and serenity. Such feelings contrast sharply with the world in which we live – a world that glorifies fame and fortune, a world where speed and impatience compete in a vicious cycle, and a world where mankind has more and more comforts yet is less and less happy.
As an author in the self-help genre, I thought it helpful to the person who is searching for inner peace, reassurance of a better life ahead, or happiness, or likely all three, to walk him or her through Psalm verses that contribute to making our lives more peaceful and joyful.
It is my firm belief that inner peace is our highest station. We can never let that peace depend on our external circumstances. Inner peace is when the instability and suffering of life do not affect your outlook or your spirit; when you greet the positive with joy, and adversity with acceptance; and when you simply retain the willingness to keep going, inspired and reassured by faith.
For the Psalms are not just poems or songs or speeches, but are testaments of faith; they are prayers to an Almighty Being and also serve as empathic phrasings of what we want to say in our inner selves. When we are not sure what to say to God, and even when we are, the Psalms are there to say it for us. Expressed with candor, the Psalms never cease to find that sweet medium between the formality due to God and the raw thinking language of the mind of Man.
Hence, I offer the book that is in your hands. I pray that you will find it welcoming and helpful on your journey towards peace and faith. Please feel free to open the book to any page and start reading. With the exception of the last, the chapters are not in a particular order. As with the Psalms, there is a central message that far transcends any need for a sequence.
And that central message from the Psalms is hope: hope that this suffering will end, hope that one can have the strength to go on, hope that God will hear our prayers and our praise. It is a hope for inner peace, the hope that God will come into our lives more deeply, that we will build a relationship with him that will give us the strength to make it through a life that defies all attempts at understanding. We are blessed to have our God, and blessed that he has given us the words through which to ask for his mercy and his peace.
“My soul, wait thou only upon God;
For my expectation is from him.
He only is my rock and my salvation.”
(Psalm 62:5–6, King James Version)
We must ask ourselves, “What will give me peace?” Inner peace – that state of contentment and calm, of freedom from anxiety, of enjoying the present while trusting in the future – is something which we are all searching for, often unconsciously, in the frenetic pace of 21st century life. Reaching for our cell phones as soon as we wake up, checking messages on the phones while typing at our computers, going from thoughts of work to family to bills in just a few seconds – we have been brought so far from the idea of inner peace that the concept seems unrealistic. We have been conditioned to think that peace is temporary, coming in small units of time, and that once that time or feeling runs out, we have to somehow buy it again.
But inner peace cannot be bought. In fact, the messages of the Bible destroy the idea that money can buy anything permanent. While the inner peace offered to us by God cannot be acquired through money, it is also the only inner peace that lasts forever. Jesus says, in the Gospel of Matthew, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28, KJV). Likewise, the speaker in the psalm says to his own soul, “wait thou only upon God,” adding, “He only is my rock.”
There is no pill, no drink, no retail therapy that provides this permanent inner peace for the soul, or salvation for our future life. That stable, steadfast feeling of inner peace in this life and the next is only fully achieved through having faith in God and growing closer to him. And we grow closer to God through prayer, through reading the Psalms and other books of the Bible, through thinking deeply about God’s work, and by acting in the way the Lord has instructed us.
I like the way the psalmist says, “But my expectation is from him.” The word “expectation” has gathered a negative quality over the years; it sounds like a demand. However, in its nature, the word is positive. “Expect” comes from the Latin words ex and spectare, meaning “out” and “to look.” Hence, to expect is to look for, to seek, to hope for. Part of our relationship with God involves looking out for his grace, looking out for the peace that he will bring to us. We do not “demand” these things – it would be pointless to demand anything – but we should look for this peace, ask for it, and have the faith-based certainty that it will come. To feel expectancy is to feel faith, and faith is our defense against fear. It is also the root of our optimism that life will get better, and that a better life awaits us with God. The more we “expect,” or look out, for God,
