Why the Psalms Repeat Themselves and What to Do About It

The useful part

Maybe we know someone who tells the same stories or jokes over and over, or they're just always talking about the same thing, and we tend to think of that as boring or that it gets old. In Scripture I think we want to take a very different perspective when we see repetition. God does repeat himself throughout his Word sometimes, and instead of tuning it out, what we really want to do is lean in and listen a little bit closer.

How it works

• There's got to be something really foundational there that he wants us to understand about who he is, how he interacts with us, and what he intends for our relationship with him to be.
• We can, in a similar way, lean on and be grounded in his love in every season and circumstance of life.
• Psalms (Christopher Ash) February 10, 2025 Christopher Ash discusses how we should understand the psalms in light of Christ and what role they should play in our lives today, both personally and corporately...
• So we can follow the psalmist, realizing they really relied on his love.
• Related Articles 4 Psalms You Didn't Realize Point to Christ Christopher Ash July 08, 2024 Again and again I have seen a psalm come into focus when I relate it to Christ, similar to a fuzzy scene through a...

What to take from it

I find it really interesting that Paul would say, Hey, I don't mind writing the same things to you again and again because that's safe for you. Maybe we even start to tune that person out because we've heard it before. There's this idea that some of the repetition in Scripture is a protection for us, that God is telling us these things over and over to make sure that we get it, because we need to know those things and we need to be assured of them so that we can be safe in his love, his care, and in the truth of his Word.

Example or evidence

• So we see repetition in lots of parts of Scripture but particularly as you read the psalms, you'll turn to the next one and think, That sounds a little familiar.
• There are particular words and descriptions of God that we see the psalmist using just over and over and over.
• So instead of glossing over those and maybe skipping some parts, saying, Oh, I feel like I read that a few psalms ago, we really want to look at it and ask,.
• For example, one of the descriptions of God that we find over and over in the psalms is about his love.

Details worth keeping

There's an entire psalm that is almost exactly repeated again. What specifically is the Lord saying again and again? We'll find the psalmist being comforted by God's love.

Related coverage

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• Lca: The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love (Psalm 103:8).
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