Bible Society seasonal reflections

Psalm 118 opens with a communal call to worship: ‘Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures for ever.’ 

Psalm 31 is packed jam packed full of visceral language that pierces the soul. Verse 2 is a signal for help worthy of sending flares up – ‘turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue’. 

This Good Friday, we’re reflecting on Psalm 22, a psalm of lament that points us towards the life of Jesus.  

Psalm 41 is a wonderful poem that gives us a framework to ‘repent’.

Psalm 69 is a raw and passionate cry for help. 

Do you ever hear, but you’re not really listening?

As a poet, I’ve found the Psalms over the years to be uplifting. Songwriter and author Andrew Peterson shares his passion ‘to tell the truth as beautifully as I can’, and I believe the psalmists paved the way with their unfiltered prayerful poetry

This Palm Sunday, we are reading Psalm 24, a psalm that invites us to worship God as Creator. 

Today’s psalm is number 133, a short psalm that uses ancient Hebrew references to celebrate the joy of community. 

Today, we’re focusing on Psalm 142, a heartfelt psalm attributed to David. As we do so, we’ll explore what worship looks like during life’s challenges. 

Psalm 136 is a well-known song of thanksgiving, featuring a refrain that reminds us of God’s enduring faithfulness.

The Psalm of the day is Psalm 98, a joyous piece that points forward to the glory of the Messiah. 

Today, we’re focusing on Psalm 84, a psalm of the Sons of Korah, which puts into words the joy of being in the presence of the Lord. 

Today, we’re reading Psalm 34, a song of praise attributed to David. This psalm calls us to reflect on the character of God and what he’s done for us. 

On our last day of exploring forgiveness in the Psalms, we're reading Psalm 86 as a foreshadowing of the Passion of Christ. 

Today we’re reading Psalm 130, a well-known prayer for forgiveness and considering what it means to cry out to God and receive his mercy. 

Today we’re reading Psalm 51, King David’s response to being convicted by the Prophet Nathan for his sin of adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah. 

Today Stuart shares his experience of the joy of being forgiven as we celebrate being reconciled to God with Psalm 32. 

Today we’re reading Psalm 143 and reflecting on how receiving forgiveness leads us to forgive others. 

Today we’re reading Psalm 38 and exploring what happens when our guilt and sin overwhelm us. 

As we approach Easter, and celebrate our forgiveness found at the cross, this week we’re focusing on psalms which include prayers for forgiveness, like Psalm 25. 

As this week draws to a close, we’re ending with Psalm 89. This song invites us to explore what it means to trust in God when it seems as though injustice has the upper hand. 

As we read Psalm 9, we reflect on how we can find hope in the God of justice. 

Psalm 140 begins with a heartfelt plea for protection. In this piece, the psalmist shows what it means to trust in God when under attack.

The Psalms tell us that God cares about justice both on a widespread scale and at a personal level. Today, let’s reflect on what it means to trust in a God who invites us to turn to him when we’re wronged. 

Today, we’re looking at Psalm 37, a wisdom psalm attributed to David, which encourages us to focus our sights on God and commit to living a life that pleases to him. 

Today, we’re exploring what it looks like to experience and express anger in the face of injustice. 

As we begin to explore justice in the Psalms, we’re starting this week with Psalm 72, in which the psalmist calls for a just king to rule the nations. 

Today, Lisa shares a personal reflection on Psalm 91 and you’ll have an opportunity to respond to this week’s reflections by finishing the psalm of lament that you started writing at the beginning of the week.  

Today we’re meditating on Psalm 61 and considering how our grief can make us feel far away from God. 

We often associate grief with death. But we can grieve any significant loss, including intangibles like our sense of self, security, dignity, status, purpose or potential – especially when they’re taken away from us.

‘How long, Lord?’ asks David in today’s psalm, a question we often pray when we’re struggling and can’t see a way through. Today, we consider what it looks like to trust God in the unanswered prayers. 

Grief isn’t always about losing someone. Sometimes we just feel disappointed, anxious and restless in our lives. Today, Psalm 42 helps us reflect on how we can find hope. 

Today we’re being honest about the times we blame God for our grief and considering whether death is the end as we approach Easter. 

If the psalms express the highs and lows of human experience, this week we’re tackling the lows. But how are we to respond when grief in the psalms turns to violence?  

We’ve come to the end of our week looking at creation in the psalms. We finish by reading Psalm 139 and considering what makes us uniquely human. 

From the pinnacle of creation to the depths of guilt, the psalms speak to us of all the highs and lows of being human. Today we take a moment to pause and reflect on the ways creation reminds us of God’s amazing grace. 

Today, we’re focusing on a much-loved piece from the Bible’s songbook – Psalm 19. It’s a psalm that invites us to celebrate the majesty, power and beauty of God as displayed in the natural world. 

Today we’re considering how we respond to the call to care for the beautiful creation we have been given. 

Today we’re thinking about how God cares for and intervenes in the world he created, and what it looks like for us to practise humility and trust. 

Today we’re thinking about what it means to read the psalms as poetry and the ways creation reveals God’s character. 

This week we’re thinking about creation in the psalms, beginning with a psalm of praise to God. 

The Psalms speak directly into life in 2026, but they’re also very much of their time. Today, we’re reflecting on how we read the Psalms in light of Easter and how we can use them as songs of worship today.  

Today, we’re reading Psalm 119, thinking more about the context of the Psalms and how we can soak up more of God’s word this Lent. 

Today, we’re reading Psalm 48, a song that describes Zion – a place that epitomises God’s protection and presence. 

Today, we’re reflecting on the life of David – how his psalms show us faith in adversity and point to Jesus. 

Welcome to The Lent Encounter 2026! We’re delighted you’re joining us. We’ll be exploring hand-picked psalms through the lens of seven different themes throughout Lent, but today we’re starting at the very beginning with Psalm 1. 

This week we fast-forward to events after Jesus’s birth, when he was presented at the Temple in Jerusalem. We’re thinking about what the writer of Luke wants us to know and the way Simeon responds to the arrival of the Messiah. 

This week, we’re thinking about Zechariah’s story of waiting and inviting silence and stillness into this Advent season. 

This week we’re reading The Magnificat, and reflecting on the context of this familiar passage and how we can be part of God’s upside-down kingdom of justice and mercy.