Two of the books of the scriptures that should be studied daily are the book of Proverbs and the book of Psalms. The book of Proverbs will show one how to be biblically wise in the things of the Lord. That book is primarily for spiritual guidance in this existence. But even an ungodly person will prosper by studying and incorporating its principles. In the same sense, the book of Psalms will also benefit anyone that studies it on a regular basis. Most of the psalms had been written by David. However, quite a few of them had been written by people that had been experiencing the seventy-year captivity of the children of Israel in Babylon. The reason that the psalms are so valuable to everyday saints of the Lord is because they are experiential. One can read exactly how David had felt while he had been running from a king that had wanted to kill him. One can read about some of the saints at a time when they had been held against their will in a foreign land. Because the Bible is an honest book, the reader of the psalms can also sometimes read that the psalmists had actually wanted their enemies to be destroyed. But one can then read about how they had trusted the Lord even as everything around them had been falling down.
That is why the book of Psalms is so valuable. By reading about the everyday struggles of others and how the Lord had gotten them through, a person can draw the same conclusions within his or her own life. The message of the psalms is simply to trust the Lord and to live for Him no matter what. If life is going well, then trust the Lord and live for Him. If life is not going so well, then trust the Lord and live for Him. Within the one hundred and fifty psalms, one can read over and over about how the saints of God had looked to the Lord for help when times had been tough. But one can read that they had also been very quick to praise Him in good times as well as in bad times. Thus, another theme of the psalms is to praise the Lord always and in many different ways. Nine different Hebrew words have been used in the Old Testament to describe ways that one can praise the Lord. Many of them have been used in the psalms. Therefore, without getting into all of the technical complexities of the Hebrew language, they have been identified in this text for the applicable psalms.
Another feature of this text as with my other devotion books is that all of the devotion titles have been grouped together in the index along with the date of the respective devotion. That way, those titles can serve as a topical index into each of the daily devotions in the event that someone is looking for a devotion about a specific topic or about a specific person. One might also note that an appendix about true biblical salvation has also been included at the end of this text for anyone that might be interested. So as this introduction concludes, it is hoped that those persons that read this text will be drawn closer to the Lord by getting closer to His Word. Not much that this author has to say is of any real value. But the words of the Lord and of those that had written the scriptures have absolute, infinite value. It is important to realize that the authors of the psalms had been real human beings with real human problems and struggles just like most people. Therefore, may the Lord be pleased by this work and also with each person that sincerely tries to draw closer to Him.