Scan

Recently I've come to really appreciate the revelatory powers of my car stereo's "scan" feature. As I drop off the non-driving teens at their destination and finally have control of the musical environment, it's the first button I hit.

"What am I in the mood for?" I ask myself. Scan.

Then I wait for a song to reveal to me what my mood is. Sometimes it's the relaxing strings of Vivaldi. Sometimes I pause to reminisce over a tune from high school on an 80's station. Then, lo and behold, who knew I was in the mood for a techno dance party in my car? Apparently I was. Huh.

Sometimes I find the book of Psalms to have a similar effect. There are poems of despair, verses of rejoicing, angst, anger, contentment. All in the middle of our Bibles.

Last week I read Psalm 16, which I've dubbed "Sweet Sixteen". It's a psalm of contentment.

Keep me safe, O God,
for in you I take refuge.

² I said to the LORD, "You are my Lord;
apart from you I have no good thing."

³ As for the saints who are in the land,
they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight.

⁴ The sorrows of those will increase
who run after other gods.
I will not pour out their libations of blood
or take up their names on my lips.

⁵ LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;
you have made my lot secure.

⁶ The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.

⁷ I will praise the LORD, who counsels me;
even at night my heart instructs me.

⁸ I have set the LORD always before me.
Because he is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken.

⁹ Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,

¹⁰ because you will not abandon me to the grave,
nor will you let your Holy One see decay.

¹¹ You have made known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

These are my feelings right now, and this psalm revealed and articulated them for me. That's what I love about this book: someone else has run the gamut of emotions that I experience in my life, and he has already put words to it, waiting for me to come along and say, "Yes!"

If you're in a Bible-reading rut currently, try scanning the psalms to find your spiritual temperature. Then rejoice, cry out, rage, or pray to the One who inspired the psalm and your mood. Connection with Him is what it's about, regardless of the channel we end up listening to.