The Psalms is a collection of Hebrew songs, or hymns, that teach us how to converse with our Father in Heaven. They are honest and impassioned heart cries of the people of God to their God. They show us how to pray to Him with honesty. They inspire us to cry out in our need trusting that He hears and answers. And, ultimately, they teach us to remember and praise Him for His faithful love and goodness.
Summer in the Psalms is the 2024 version of Illustrated Faith’s annual “summer camp”. Typically each year, in June and July, we as a bible journaling community “camp out” in a set of scriptures following a single theme; this year it was the psalms. We were led by Lauren, @myredeemedsoul on Instagram, along with several devotional contributors from the community.
My journaling approach using a Travel Journal
The design for the Summer in the Psalms kits is a road trip theme which is so fun. I wish I was actually road tripping over the summer but one can only daydream sometimes. So, I decided to pretend and use an actual travel journal to document my study and time spent in these psalms.
This journal is an Amazon find and is set up to document twelve trips which was perfect. On the inside cover page, I made banners to record the “stops”, or Psalms, along the journey. For this, I used a printable by Kristina Profitt called Snippets of Hope: from the Psalms which can be found in the Illustrated Faith Print & Pray (digital) shop.
The devotionals covered twelve psalms over six different types. I won’t go into detail about each one but instead share below what were my main takeaways from the overall time spent in these psalms.
As for the structure of my journaling in the travel journal pages, I used the same formula for each devotional.
The first page is a cover page with the Psalm number, name of the devotional author, and a summary of the devotional or the main idea I got from it. For the background, I used a postcard which is from another printable called Postcards Through the Psalms by Kelly Bangs for the Illustrated Faith Print & Pray shop.
The cover page is followed by a process page where I journaled through the prompts that were provided in the devotional. Next is a prayer page where I rewrote the prayer from the devotional and personalized it as needed. After that is a praise page with scripture study, or annotation, including what I learned about God and His ways. I enjoyed using the stamp set that came with the kit for these titles.
Finally, on the pages following those, I documented some notes from the devotional. Writing out notes is one way that I process information and doing this helps me to better recall what I learned.
What I learned from studying these psalms
1. We can and should be honest before God
I’ve actually been studying the psalms myself since mid-2023. I started my study, focused on learning to lament, after reading the book A Sacred Sorrow: Reaching Out to God in the Lost Language of Lament by Michael Card. Before this book and my study, I didn’t feel comfortable being real with God as I thought lamenting was complaining and that was ingratitude and, therefore, not pleasing to Him.
I knew, in my head, that He knows my deepest thoughts and so He knew the complaints and disappointments I didn’t voice. Yet, my response to that knowledge was shame; I did not see it as an invitation to be open. Now, I’m usually a very candid person, but past experiences have taught me that some people are critical instead of encouraging, judgemental instead of compassionate, and others are too sensitive to even hear about hardship without being burdened themselves. So, I’ve learned it’s better to just internalize.
Through reading that book and my study of psalms, I learned to be more open with God about what I felt and thought while, at the same time, asking for His help to walk in His truth. He truly showed up and comforted me in the struggles I was facing, gave me peace, and led me out of them.
Praise be to the Lord for he has heard my cry for mercy. The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.
Psalm 28:6-7
Since that time, and at the start of 2024, I’ve continued studying the Psalms, plus Proverbs, using a scripture plan by Illustrated Faith. Our pastors have also been teaching through the Psalms. I’ve been so blessed by this time. It has drawn me even closer to our God and enabled me to be even more real and honest in my prayers than before. Along with David, I have whispered “How long, O God”, “Save me, my God”, “Create in me a clean heart”, and “I will praise Your steadfast love”.
Yet, through reading the devotionals in Summer in the Psalms, I realized that there were some parts of my heart that I still kept from God. Again, I knew He saw it all, but I couldn’t bring all of myself to Him because He is a holy God. This is partly because I didn’t want to face myself and I didn’t want to walk in truth. Yet, God is faithful; He humbled me with His love and led me to surrender and freedom.
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22-23
2. Pray God-sized prayers
Our prayers should honestly reflect our true heart desires and true knowledge of who He is.
The Lord reigns, he is robed in majesty; the Lord is robed in majesty and armed with strength; indeed, the world is established, firm and secure… the Lord on high is mighty
Psalm 93:1,4
This lesson in particular is from the devotional by LaQuisha, @confidentcanvas on Instagram. She encouraged us to, firstly, know God and then pray in line with what we know to be true of God – He is Almighty and sovereign over all creation. As such, our prayers should be big to match His might!
We can expect that the answer to that mighty prayer should be mighty. It should be so abundant that it not only meets our need, but it should also overflow and bless the people around us as well.
3. Remember the mission and focus on righteousness
We need to remember what this life is all about, adjust our expectations, and put first the things of His kingdom and righteousness.
Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
Psalm 139:23-24
The truth is that we will endure many hard things in this life because this world is not our home. We are here to grow. We will face trials which are not easy because they involve dying to self. But those trials are meant to teach us to walk in truth; to practice what we believe and to live it out.
In the process of that growth and refining of our faith, we get to be a witness for Christ. We get to show others, by our example, how to walk in similar difficulty while pointing to the hope and strength we have in Him. He intimately knows the needs of our souls. He goes with us, walks through the valleys with us, leading and comforting us in it all.
Summer Psalms in my faith planner
I’ve been using this faith planner (by The Happy Planner) for my study of the Psalms & Proverbs scripture plan I mentioned earlier.
Following Summer in the Psalms, I changed my approach to studying using this guide. The descriptions are by our pastor, who recently finished a series on the Psalms, and they’re based on our church’s mission/vision statement of Worship, Grow, and Serve. It was so fitting how his outline corresponded to the outline used in the Summer in the Psalms devotionals. So I used the stamp set from the kit and a journaling card to create this reminder which is now tucked into my faith planner.
Praise/Worship – What have I learned about who God is; His ways, works, deeds, nature, character, etc.
Process/Grow – How has my heart been engaged? Tune the song of my heart to His word.
Prayer/Serve – How am I challenged to live differently?
I hope you’re encouraged by this recap of Summer in the Psalms! You can check out the #IF_SummerPsalms and #IF_SummerinthePsalms hashtags on Instagram for more inspiration. Illustrated Faith’s camp devotional kits are always very popular each year and this set is no different. While the physical kits are sold out, you can still get the digital version and related or a la carte products at IllustratedFaith.com.
