Take a look at Psalm 136 – the pattern is easy to see.
I remember as a child reading this psalm as a ‘responsive reading’ in church. One half of the church would read the first line and the other side the alternate. I felt as if I had pulled the short straw when all I got to do was repeat the line ‘His love endures forever’. After all, the other group got to tell the story of the Jews.
It was relatively recently that it dawned on me, that was exactly the point! Repeating the same line over and over again was to underline the truth that God remained the same, his love remained constant throughout all the events to which the Psalm refers.
My invitation to you is to write your own Psalm based on this one. Begin by settling on a phrase which represents who God has been for you. You might choose something like ‘you were always there’ or ‘your love remained constant’. You might even feel the need to use ‘where were you?’ Be honest – no one is going to be assessing the result, this is between you and God.
Clearly the phrase that attracts you may change as you begin to write.
Having chosen a phrase, take some time to list some of the events of your life – or you may want to restrict yourself to the last year or a specific period of time. Encapsulate the events in sentences, but alternate each event with the phrase you have chosen.
You might write something like:
Whilst pondering my life choices
Your love held me
Whilst dithering in uncertainty over job selection
Your love held me
As I moved house
Your love held me
As the loneliness of a new environment felt real and overwhelming
Your love held me
…
It may be helpful to add in some thoughts on your present, changing the tense of the sentence:
As I sit here writing this
Your love holds me
Glancing out of the window wondering what to write
Your love holds me
…
And then of course you might want to look toward the future:
As I work with challenging colleagues
Your love will hold me
As I cook dinner this evening
Your love will hold me
As I spend time with friends
Your love will hold me
As age creeps up on me
Your love will hold me
In one sense, a Psalm like this is never finished. It can be revisited, it can be extended or, on another occasion, a different phrase might be more appropriate.