Tackling the Theological Challenges of Writing Your Own Psalms

If you are a faithful reader of The Devotional Guy™ blog, then you know that I have been writing my own personal psalms and sharing some of them here on my blog. The devotional practice of writing psalms is easily traced back to ancient times and is often readily tied to the development of religious beliefs and spiritual traditions.

There are a few hurdles to crossover safely and sinlessly in writing your own psalms, including theological challenges. Some potential theological hurdles you may stumble into when writing your own psalms are listed here:

Maintaining Doctrinal Alignment: A challenge that you will face in writing your own original psalms is making sure what you write aligns accurately and correctly with theological doctrines. While doctrine gets a bad rap these days, it is imperative that our words are in sync with God’s Truth. Deviating from established theological beliefs can raise questions about the authenticity and orthodoxy of your psalms.
Ensuring Theological Consistency: As you write your psalms, it is important to carefully consider theological concepts and language to accurately reflect one’s personal beliefs while maintaining theological consistency. Otherwise, we risk contradicting what we believe to be true about God.
Employing the Right Words: Using the right words to convey the intended meaning while leveraging the correct tone, language, and style is vital if you want to communicate biblical truth accurately and in a way that it is receptive for the particular audience that is reading them.
Upholding Reverence and Respect: Your psalms express deep emotions, faith, and devotion. Approach writing them very much like you would approach any sacred text. Writing your own original psalms requires maintaining a sense of reverence and respect for the sacred nature of spiritual creativity while expressing one’s own thoughts and beliefs.
Recognizing Theological Diversity: Psalms, like any form of devotional writing, will cover a wide range of emotions, themes, and perspectives, reflecting the diversity of human experiences and spirituality. You must be mindful of this as you compose your own experience psalms.

Like this post? Check out How Do Our Lives Reflect the Image of God?

It is important to navigate the theological challenges that may crop up depending on one’s religious tradition, personal beliefs, and intended audience. Feel free to consult with religious leaders, theologians, members of your church, or a small group community to get any insight you might need.

I pray that this post helps you think about how you might approach writing your own psalms, should you feel led to do so.

I pray that the remainder of your week is filled with the abundant blessings from God above.

Rainer Bantau

The Devotional Guy™