What Are the Psalms?

The word Psalm means “sacred songs.” The Psalms are a hymnal in the middle of our Bibles.

It was the hymnal of the Jewish people. It was the hymnal Jesus and the writers of the New Testament would have grown up with, which is partly why the New Testament quotes from the book of Psalms quite often.

In the early church, and throughout church history, the church would sing or chant the Psalms during their worship services.

The music they used has not been preserved, so we’re just left with the lyrics which were prayers written in poetry.

This tells us something about God: That he uses beauty to communicate.

It’s interesting to think that the Holy Spirit could have inspired the Bible to read like anything. The Spirit could have inspired the scriptures to read like the manual for your car. And it would have been dry and boring and only searched when your dad couldn’t fix something on the first try.

Instead, the Spirit inspired poetry. Why?

Because he loves us & wants to prove that he knows us.

The creator wants to speak to us and talk to us about the human experiences we have that we cannot explain.

After all, that’s what Poetry is. Poetry is an art that expresses concepts and experiences we have no ordinary words for.

Poetry takes the words we DO have and structures them in such a way as to lift the veil on the unexplainable. And there are a lot of unexplainable things about God.

Just try to answer this question, “How good is God?” Or this one, “How long does God’s love last?”

Can you put the greatness of God’s grace into an ordinary word?

No.

You need a poem for that. Like this one:

Psalm 136:1 Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.

2 Oh, give thanks to the God of gods! For His mercy endures forever.

3 Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords! For His mercy endures forever:

Notice the repetition? Yeah, It goes on to say “His mercy endures forever” 23 more times in this one Psalm.

It’s like God is so good, so mighty, so merciful, so gracious, and so slow to anger you could never just describe it with a basic sentence. Poetry uses things like repetition to paint a picture that ordinary words can’t even sketch out.

What else is unexplainable? The human experience. Take for example despair.

Can ordinary words express how it feels to destroy your life with sin? Can you express, with ordinary words, the fear you feel when you’re facing a huge threat & do not sense the presence of God? Can ordinary words portray how you feel when your child is terminally ill?

No.

So the spirit has inspired poetry. Check out this verse:

Psalms 6:6 I am weary with my groaning; All night I make my bed swim; I drench my couch with my tears.

Medically speaking, there is not enough water in your tear ducts to fill up a room and submerge your bed. But have you ever felt so much despair, agony, depression, or fear that it was like you were drowning? Most of us have.

Now, how do we know we have felt that way if we don’t have ordinary words for it? How do we know we’ve shared this experience if it’s unexplainable?

Through sharing poetry.

And here’s the astounding thought we’re unearthing by recognizing that the Psalms are poems: How does God let us know that he knows that we feel this way?

By inspiring poetry!

Poetry that can be read, prayed, set to music, and sung.

It all boils down to this astonishing, beautiful truth: The Psalms are a way in which we can walk with an unexplainable God during unexplainable circumstances.

God loves us so much. He wants us to know that unexplainable experiences do not separate us from him.

• We may be bewildered, but he is not.

• We may be at a loss for words, but he is not.

• We may fall silent, but he can speak.

• We may not sense his involvement, but the Psalms beautifully reveal that he is very near to the brokenhearted.

What are the Psalms? The Psalms are God-inspired poems that show how God relates to us in our human experience and show humans how to relate back to God.

Even when everything is unexplainable.

Reading the Psalms in a Month

Many people have a favorite Psalm, including myself. Even more people have a favorite verse from a single Psalm. That’s great.

However, focusing in on a single Psalm, or a single line from a Psalm, is great in the way having a sea shell is great. It’s beautiful, it’s special, you can make jewelry out of it and wear it wherever you go.

But when we behold the entire book of Psalms (The Psalter), understanding the reason these poems, songs, and prayers are ordered the way they are, and how the various sections of the Psalms work together — it’s like we have the whole ocean, along with the entire shoreline.

We understand our favorite Psalms more richly when we see that it’s just one chapter of a book (The book of Psalms). And that book has a message. That message is the good news that God is with us when the waves are raging or when the sea is calm and tranquil.

Not only is he with us, he is bringing us through the waters. He turns disorientation into reorientation. He turns our burdens into blessings.

He does this through prayer and he does this through a king like David (JESUS!) who conquers the enemy and reigns with mercy and justice.

This Summer may be a good season to read all the Psalms and see how the Psalms are all about Jesus.

Here’s a guide, based on the Book of Common Prayer, that will help you do just that.

Keep Telling your stories

Psalm 107:2 says, "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy."

This call to share our testimonies is more than just a suggestion; it’s a spiritual discipline that can transform our lives and the lives of those around us. Whether in church, in Griggs groups, in daily conversations, or even on social media, sharing our stories is a powerful practice. Here’s why…

1. It's Biblical

The Bible is filled with exhortations to share what Jesus has done in our lives. Psalm 66:16 says, "Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul."

Similarly, Psalm 40:10 declares, "I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation."

Psalm 34:1-3 says, "I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together."

These passages highlight the importance of verbalizing both our experiences in salvation and sanctification. Sharing our testimonies is, at least partly, God’s will for what we talk about.

2. It's Evangelistic

In our daily interactions, we’re going to encounter differing beliefs and opinions on the supernatural.

Take, for instance, a conversation I had once as a teenager with a lady in downtown Indianapolis who said, “Whatever your soul believes, that's what happens to it when you die.”

She was saying that if your soul believes in reincarnation, then reincarnation happens for you. If your soul believes in purgatory, then that’s where you wake up in the afterlife. If your soul believes heaven is an eternal choir loft you float to after getting your wings, then get your harp ready.

I felt ready to poke 1,000 holes in her logic, but confrontation isn't always an effective response when you want someone to “taste and see” the good news.

Jesus calls us to be "wise as serpents and gentle as doves" (Matthew 10:16). Testimonies offer that opportunity. When we share what God has done for us, we preach good news without unnecessarily closing the door on the relationship.

We aren’t presenting ourselves as superior to others. Instead, we’re admitting our moments of need. We’re saying we needed a good God to intervene on our behalf or else we’d be lost. And he did!

This authenticity resonates with people because having a sense of need is universally relatable. We free others from a feeling of being attacked, yet challenge them to consider the power of the gospel.

3. It's Helpful

While sermons hold a unique power in delivering God’s word, testimonies offer a different, and necessary kind of impact.

Sermons might be likened to constructing a great room. With the context of a passage, you lay a foundation. With each verse, you build walls to hold up God’s truth. Then you furnish your space with biblical application.

While having a fancy room is great, if you don’t turn on a light, it doesn’t do you too much good. No one is going to be able to find a place to sit down and admire its beauty.

Testimonies, then, are like windows that let light into that room, providing illumination so that others can see what the Word says, means, and does. It helps people experience the grandeur of the Word.

Jesus understood this power and often encouraged His followers to share their stories. In this way, his help for one person would in turn help the multitudes.

For example, in Luke 8:39, after healing a man possessed by demons, Jesus told him, "Return to your house and describe what great things God has done for you."

Everyone in his neighborhood knew how powerful his demons were, and they were afraid of them. I’m sure his story helped his neighbors with those fears and gave them an experience of a greater power - the power of the word of God.

Let’s follow that man’s example and keep telling our stories!

Front Porch legal clinic

Front Porch Legal Clinic is a monthly opportunity for extremely low-cost legal services for anyone needing them. You get the same treatment and the same level of service as those who can pay a lawyer’s hourly rate. 

You can sign up at the link below! 

www.administerjustice.org

They meet at Front Porch Housing and only ask for a 30$ Co-pay. The 30$ co-pay gives you access to the clinic for the duration of your issues. If you have questions, please reach out.

GVL Skate Church

GVL Skate Church is a ministry that meets Monday nights in the Poe Mill Skate Park. They skate, eat together, and then study the scriptures and pray.

The leader of GVL Skate Church, Josue Rodriguez, spoke at Griggs about the mission and vision of Skate Church.

It’s all about the great commission, meeting skaters where they are, and then sharing the gospel of Jesus with them.  One way ANYONE can get involved, even if you don’t skate, is to Venmo @GVLSkateChurch a gift of any amount, which they will use to buy food for their Monday night meetings. To check them out, you can follow them on Instagram here.

The Poe Mill Achievement Center

We are huge fans of the Poe Mill Achievement Center. PMAC was launched in June 2018 with 35 children attending summer camp and they have only grown from there. 

They run an after-school program every weekday in concurrence with the Greenville County Schools schedule. Children come straight from school to PMAC, where they engage in academics, physical fitness, games, art, dance, music, and character building activities throughout the afternoon. They also provide a snack each day and supper at the end of the day. In the summers they run “Camp PMAC” which is an all-day program since the kids don’t have school. 

We are happy that a handful of our Griggs Kids are also part of this program and we have been able to send some volunteers to PMAC from time to time. We usually get to do a project for them in the summers when we run our local mission trips. You can find them at  1215 Buncombe Road in the Poe Mill Neighborhood.

If you’re interested in getting involved you check out their amazon wish list here: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/218HZPIHUSIFR?ref_=wl_share 

If you’d like to volunteer, you can contact Hannah Dixon at hannah@pmacgvl.org for information. Volunteers must be at least 16 years of age and able to commit to volunteering weekly. PMAC is also looking for qualified high school and college students as summer camp and after-school interns! We’d love some of our Griggs college students to apply! 

Soteria Community Development Corp.

Drive down shaw street and you’ll see Soteria Community Development Corporation. You’ll know the building because you’ll see a mural of the word “Human” on the side of it.

Soteria’s founder and leader is Jerry Blassingame. After experiencing severe trauma as a kid, Jerry found himself running from God and selling drugs. After a couple of arrests he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. While incarcerated, he met Jesus and caught a vision for a ministry that would help people just like him - those impacted by the criminal justice system.

Through a series of miracles, Jerry was released (and eventually pardoned). With his second chance at life he started Soteria (which means Salvation). Soteria gives housing and jobs to incarcerated men that are re-entering society and provides low-income housing.

One of the jobs the men do is furniture making. They make all kinds of great pieces which you can find on instagram at @SoteriaAtWork.

You can read more of Jerry’s story by ordering his book on Amazon.

Ministry Park

Ministry Park is the space between the two churches at 27 2nd Ave, right in the middle of Poe Mill. It serves as an outdoor space for all of the neighborhood ministries. There’s a playground, picnic tables, and a pavilion with a sound system. This is a great location for block parties! Last year, we held the Poe Mill Spring Block Party there.

It’s also a great place for teaching and preaching. We held our Wednesday night services there throughout the entire summer of 2021.

And we’re not the only ones who use the space. Here’s the current lineup of ministries you can find at the park:

TUESDAY NIGHT FRIENDS

Mark Clayton has been hosting Tuesday Night Friends for years. Every Tuesday night at 6 p.m., a group meets at the park for a meal and teaching. Mark has a great crew of regulars from the neighborhood who are faithful to come each week. They go deep into the scriptures. It’s not like a short, evangelistic devotional thought. Mark usually prints out 3-5 pages of notes for everyone, and they study the Bible for almost 45 minutes.

NOTHING BUT JESUS STREET MINISTRY

We love this effort! Each Saturday at 4 p.m., a big crowd gathers at Ministry Park for food and fellowship in the name of Jesus. NBJSM gives out much-needed supplies as well, such as blankets and coats. Several churches are involved, and they meet rain or shine all year round.

WORSHIP IN THE PARK

Every Sunday at 4 p.m., Scott Weinart, who was instrumental in founding Ministry Park, and his team host a worship service in the park. There is a meal and a time to eat, and then you basically enjoy a church service together. Scott is a fantastic Bible teacher who has spoken at Griggs a couple of times and is able to pull out rich gospel-centered truths from each text.

We’d be glad to help you get involved in any of these weekly gatherings at Ministry Park. For more information, just drop us a note.

The Upstate Church Collective

Hey Griggs Family,

I wanted to make you aware of an awesome program a couple of our leaders are participating in this year called The Upstate Church Collective.

UCC was started by Fellowship Greenville and Summit Church for the purpose of “Equipping church leaders with the character and competency for faithful, lifelong ministry.”

During this first track, the focus is especially on lay-leaders.

Every other Sunday night, some leaders from five churches gather to hear and discuss a topic of biblical church leadership. We break up into small groups and talk about how that topic applies to our specific churches.

Throughout the 10-month program, each leader is coached and encouraged to be the strongest leader they can be. Josh Moll and I (Pastor Mitch) are the coaches for our Griggs folks.

Though this is beneficial for every lay leader in the church, the collective wants to identify people who are called to plant and revitalize churches and help them do so by both training them and helping them raise support.

So the future could entail more gospel-preaching churches planted and re-planted across the upstate. It’s amazing to think about what could happen when churches collaborate.

My hope is that this will help some of our leaders feel more confident in their spiritual gifting and abilities as they serve Griggs. And who knows, maybe one of our young seminary guys can one day revitalize a church just like Griggs, in a mill village like Poe Mill, with a team of people and some funding from the other churches participating!

We have a handful of our leaders attending the Sunday night sessions already, but we can bring another group through the program next year too.

So let us know if you have any questions. It’s all new, but we’re glad to be along for the ride.

• Pastor Mitch

All About the CBR Journal

One aspect of our vision for 2022 is being a Bible-reading community as we are committed to spiritual health first and foremost. Though we do have hopes for numerical growth, new programs, and building projects, all of those take a back seat to spiritual health. They must be a result of spiritual health.

Bible reading is a key factor in our spiritual health. Jesus tells us that “man cannot live by bread alone, but by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God.”

Griggs is a family, and we want each member to be fed. We cannot accomplish this through simply preaching on Sundays. We must equip one another to feed ourselves each day of the week.

The tool we’re using to guide us in this endeavor is the CBR or Community Bible Reading Journal. Also called the SJT, the Seeing Jesus Together Journal. We used this to some degree last year, but this year we’re diving in with both feet.

The CBR Journal is a simple Bible reading tool that prompts you to read two chapters of scripture each day—one from the Old Testament and one from the New. It’s also a journal where you can pen your thoughts as you read.

Each day, you’re asked to share one thing you’ve learned with your community (i.e., your church, your Griggs Groups, or your friends).

We want as many people as possible at Griggs to use the CBR Journal. We aim to create a culture of sharing what we learn, implementing time for reflecting on what we’ve read in Griggs Groups, and asking folks to share what they’ve been learning from the stage in our Sunday morning and Wednesday evening services.

If you need a new CBR Journal, you can buy one here.

Listen to this Sermon

Listen below if you want to hear the heart behind why must be a Bible reading community (along with a few tips for daily bible reading).