The Psalms Project got started in a wonderful way with Dr. John Witvliet yesterday. The audio should be available soon (you can check here). Dr. Witvliet made the point that the Psalms teach us the language we need to relate with God much as parents do as we teach our children to say “Thank you,” “Please,” “Excuse me,” and “I am sorry.” We must learn to say these basic things (and they don’t come naturally!) in order to have decent human relationships. We also need to learn to say these things to God and the Psalms give us language for this. I really encourage you to listen to the audio.

Then, tomorrow, Dr. Craig Blaising will continue the discussion with a talk titled, “The Psalms in Early Christian Worship”. Drawing from his work on the recent Ancient Christian Commentary Series volume on Psalms 1-50 he will discuss how early church leaders taught their people to pray the Psalms.

Update: the Witvliet audio is now available.