If you open your Bible in half, you will most likely find yourself in the Hymnbook of the Saints. In the Pentateuch, you’re in God’s law court, where He lays down the moral principles of His world. In the History section (Joshua–Esther), you see the way men responded to God’s law, usually by trying to break it. There you see the big picture—conquest and kingdom-building, the rise and fall of empires, the gathering and scattering of nations. After the Psalms, we’ll stand on wind-swept heights with solitary prophets calling out for equity and justice, for repentance and restoration. But here, in this five-book collection of 150 psalms, we feel the heartbeat of faith. We’re inside the people, sharing their heartaches and victories, their doubts and deliverances. What was it like for Moses to be shut out of the Promised Land, for Asaph to see his wicked neighbors prosper while he struggled, for David to grieve over his sin with Bathsheba, even for our Lord to hang upon the tree? No need to guess. In this volume of sacred songs and laments, the authors let us in on their most private thoughts and feelings. T.S. Eliot explained why he thought “most religious verse [was] so bad.” He wrote, “People who write devotional verse are usually writing as they want to feel, rather than as they do feel.” Not so the psalmists. Thankfully they not only composed in happy times; they sang the blues, too. As R.E. Harlow used to say, “Everyone has a psalm.” Whatever your circumstances, you’ll find an answering psalm. Here’s the shortest psalm, but with all the key elements just the same: “Praise the Lord,…all you peoples! For His merciful kindness is great toward us, and the truth of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord!” (Ps 117).