One of my summer projects has been to read the book of Psalms as if it were a blog, which is why one of my pages is called David’s blog.  Looking at it in this different way has made me notice some things I hadn’t thought about before.  Last week, reading Psalm 119 I was reminded of how it is divided into 21 parts, each part starting with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet – aleph to tav.  It was David’s A to Z Challenge!  This, of course, means a whole lot more to me this year after doing my own A to Z Challenge for the first time.  Writers are writers, and apparently it is nothing new to stimulate ideas and creativity with challenges.

I’ve also noticed how many different writers are collected in the Psalms.  Lots of them are labeled “of David” but others have interesting introductions like “a maskil of Ethan the Ezrahite” and “for the director of music. According to gittith. Of the sons of Korah.”  One of my favorite writers was Asaph.  I wish there had been more written about who he was and what he did to inspire some of his writings. Some of the introductions sound like things I read today, but in much nicer language.  For instance this one “a prayer of an afflicted man, when he is faint and pours out his lament before the Lord” (Psalm 102). I’ve been in that place more than a few times and tried to express it in my writing.  I have a bond with that guy.