Latest / Coffee and Bible Time Podcast / Improving Mental Health Through the Psalms | Rachel Schlesinger

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Improving Mental Health Through the Psalms | Rachel Schlesinger · Coffee and Bible Time Podcast

• 1:01
  Ellen Krause: At the Coffee and Bible Time podcast.
• 1:03
  Ellen Krause: Our goal is to help you delight in God's Word and thrive in Christian living.
• 1:07
  Ellen Krause: Each week we talk to subject matter experts who broaden your biblical understanding, encourage you in hard times and provide life-building tips to enhance your Christian walk.
• 1:18
  Ellen Krause: We are so glad you have joined us.
• 1:21
  Ellen Krause: Welcome back to the Coffee and Bible Time podcast.
• 1:27
  Ellen Krause: This is Ellen, your host, and today we are going to discuss how the book of Psalms can help our mental health and emotional well-being.
• 1:38
  Ellen Krause: You know, the Psalms encompass such a wide range of human emotions, from joy and gratitude to sorrow and despair, and pr ovide means for us to express feelings that might be difficult to articulate otherwise.
• 1:56
  Ellen Krause: And they're also just a source of deep spiritual insight.
• 2:02
  Ellen Krause: They contain prayers, praises and reflections that can deepen one's understanding and relationship with God.
• 2:10
  Ellen Krause: In addition, they contain practical wisdom and moral teachings that you can apply to your everyday life.
• 2:17
  Ellen Krause: They offer guidance on living a righteous and faithful life.
• 2:23
  Ellen Krause: And you know, ultimately the Psalms encourage such deep reflection and meditation, and they invite readers to pause, to ponder and to engage with profound spiritual truths.
• 2:37
  Ellen Krause: And today I have the privilege of welcoming back a very dear friend of mine, Rachel Schlesinger, and she is going to share with us her experience of adventuring through the book of Psalms.
• 2:53
  Ellen Krause: So please welcome Rachel.
• 2:57
  Rachel Schlesinger: Thank you, Ellen, great to be here.
• 3:07
  Ellen Krause: I'm so excited to have you back on.
• 3:08
  Ellen Krause: We will put a link in our show notes because I had the opportunity to talk with Rachel one other time and you will love that podcast as well.
• 3:12
  Ellen Krause: But, Rachel, for this one, let's start back to the year that you and I were in Bible study together, and it was time for our summer break.
• 3:31
  Rachel Schlesinger: Yeah, so I don't know if your memory is any better than mine.
• 3:34
  Rachel Schlesinger: I was trying to place the year on this and so I feel like it might have been about 2013, around that time, and one of the reasons I think I even know that is the little journal book that was given to us by you that summer had a copyright date of 2013 on it, so I'm thinking that's about the time that it was.
• 3:55
  Rachel Schlesinger: But, yeah, we had this challenge and it was to glean.
• 4:01
  Rachel Schlesinger: That was that word to glean through the Psalms.
• 4:04
  Rachel Schlesinger: And I still have everything, and it's such a joy to look back on that.
• 4:09
  Rachel Schlesinger: And so I have that little paper that encouraged us to read one Psalm a day, in any order you wanted, and just to write down what you learned about God's character and his ways, or write down a verse or summarize part of that passage.
• 4:25
  Rachel Schlesinger: And that is where it started.
• 4:29
  Rachel Schlesinger: And for me, when I started to look back on this, Ellen, I was like Psalms was my first love, and you know what they say you never forget your first love, and that's really where it started down to me, and so I ended up like writing all because you know you got to pick any order and so then I was losing track of where I was.
• 4:51
  Rachel Schlesinger: So I'd write down, like on the back of my paper, every chapter and mark them off when I had been done and kind of see where my time was.
• 4:59
  Rachel Schlesinger: Did I have a lot of time to read a bigger one?
• 5:01
  Rachel Schlesinger: Or, you know, not enough time and read a smaller one?
• 5:04
  Rachel Schlesinger: But you know, I can still picture that time in my life.
• 5:08
  Rachel Schlesinger: I lived in my townhome at the time.
• 5:10
  Rachel Schlesinger: I can picture the chair I sat in to read those.
• 5:14
  Rachel Schlesinger: My oldest was, I think, about two at that time.
• 5:18
  Rachel Schlesinger: So I'd have to wake up, you know, before he him and try to time that and guess what that would be.
• 5:25
  Rachel Schlesinger: But that was the start of it all and you know we'll get through some of it on this podcast.
• 5:32
  Rachel Schlesinger: But anytime we've been in conversation or I've been in conversation with friends, psalms always comes back up Because, like I said, you just never forget that first love.
• 5:43
  Ellen Krause: And I will never forget, Rachel, the look on your face when we met then the next year and I remember you saying oh Ellen, I'm so glad we, you know, had that summer challenge to read through Psalms and it was just.
• 6:05
  Ellen Krause: I could tell from just the look on your face how you had gleaned so much from it.
• 6:15
  Ellen Krause: Well, as you were going through it, what recurring themes related to emotional well-being did you notice throughout the Psalms?
• 6:25
  Ellen Krause: Because so many people right now are challenged with emotional well-being, and what can we take from what you've learned that might help someone?
• 6:40
  Rachel Schlesinger: Yeah, we take from what you've learned that might help someone.
• 6:43
  Rachel Schlesinger: Yeah, when I was thinking about the themes of the Psalms, I kind of put it into three basic, basic categories.
• 6:47
  Rachel Schlesinger: And it's that God's in control, he greatly loves us and there's a period of waiting, and so you know God talks about that.
• 6:57
  Rachel Schlesinger: He is our dwelling place, he's near to us to seek him when we're troubled.
• 7:03
  Rachel Schlesinger: He hears, he knows, he answers us.
• 7:06
  Rachel Schlesinger: That's prevalent through all these Psalms and so there's even time that you know he addresses there about feeling like we've been forgotten.
• 7:16
  Rachel Schlesinger: Did God forget about me?
• 7:18
  Rachel Schlesinger: Does God know what I'm going through?
• 7:20
  Rachel Schlesinger: And that even when you're in those times, that he's still worthy of trust and praise, and to look back at what he has been faithful in, to know he will be faithful in the future.
• 7:32
  Rachel Schlesinger: And so that's that part of God is in control and thank goodness that he holds us in his hand through that.
• 7:42
  Rachel Schlesinger: The other part is just the love.
• 7:44
  Rachel Schlesinger: You know that his love endures forever.
• 7:47
  Rachel Schlesinger: There's nothing we can do right or wrong to earn or to lose that love.
• 7:54
  Rachel Schlesinger: And that there's this yearning.
• 7:57
  Rachel Schlesinger: You know, in Psalm 84, it talks about yearning to be with him, yearning to be home, and this love.
• 8:08
  Rachel Schlesinger: That's just not complete without God.
• 8:09
  Rachel Schlesinger: And so there's times we have those yearnings in our life.
• 8:11
  Rachel Schlesinger: You know, that's this theme that God's talking about to us in the Psalms, and basic truth is that I'm loved, I'm dearly loved, I'm wanted by him, and so, and then to you know the waiting, and um, there's so many times that he gives examples of this.
• 8:30
  Rachel Schlesinger: You know, Psalm 40, verse one, talks about I waited patiently for the Lord.
• 8:36
  Rachel Schlesinger: That means I had to wait and we didn't like it.
• 8:40
  Rachel Schlesinger: There's all that through there.
• 8:41
  Rachel Schlesinger: Psalm 27, 14, talks about wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart, but wait for the Lord.
• 8:52
  Rachel Schlesinger: And so, when it turns of mental health or mental, emotional wellbeing, that safety net that we crave is control controlling the circumstances, controlling the outcome, controlling the future, the unknown, the things we don't know that will happen.
• 9:09
  Rachel Schlesinger: And, um, you know, the Psalms really just brings those themes together that God is in control, that he loves you, and there's a waiting piece to this.
• 9:20
  Rachel Schlesinger: There's a little more.
• 9:23
  Rachel Schlesinger: I want to cover back into this later too, but there was a point in time when I kind of just surmised what I learned through all of that, and I think these really go strong with these themes and that's do not fear.
• 9:36
  Rachel Schlesinger: Concentrate on trusting God.
• 9:38
  Rachel Schlesinger: Just do what needs to be done.
• 9:42
  Rachel Schlesinger: Relax in his sovereignty.
• 9:45
  Rachel Schlesinger: Remember that he goes before me and he will bring good.
• 9:54
  Ellen Krause: Those are such powerful themes that every one of us can have experienced that.
• 10:03
  Ellen Krause: We can latch on to that.
• 10:06
  Ellen Krause: You know God in his word and his faithfulness.
• 10:09
  Ellen Krause: It's so hard though in the moment, isn't it Like when we're just in the depths of not knowing, like you said, feeling out of control, not knowing what the future holds or in some specific situation that you're in.
• 10:25
  Ellen Krause: But I love how, in the Psalms, it always draws you back and, like you said, looking back on God's faithfulness helps you get through.
• 10:34
  Ellen Krause: It really is our I can say our only hope.
• 10:39
  Ellen Krause: It's what does get you from point A to point B when you're in such a hard state oftentimes.
• 10:49
  Rachel Schlesinger: Yeah, and if I can just expand kind of on mental health, what is mental health, mental wellbeing?
• 10:55
  Rachel Schlesinger: Our mental health is tied to these themes that are all throughout the Psalms.
• 11:00
  Rachel Schlesinger: Our mental health as people is tied to our sense of security, our sense of place and belonging, our sense of confidence, our sense of self-worth.
• 11:10
  Rachel Schlesinger: You know, that's a big part of our mental health piece.
• 11:13
  Rachel Schlesinger: And it's also mental health is tied to your surroundings, your environment, your basic needs, how busy you are, and when you're in those times your mental health can suffer because of noise.
• 11:27
  Rachel Schlesinger: You can't hear God with these voices, these sounds, this noise.
• 11:32
  Rachel Schlesinger: You know, and so you know such a common or popular Psalm, Psalm 46, 10, just be still.
• 11:40
  Rachel Schlesinger: That's my anthem Always be still and know that I am God.
• 11:44
  Rachel Schlesinger: Well, why is he saying that?
• 11:46
  Rachel Schlesinger: Because God can and does speak in loud ways.
• 11:51
  Rachel Schlesinger: However, I believe most of the time he's speaking to us in this still soft voice.
• 11:58
  Rachel Schlesinger: And so you know, I'm a health and PE teacher, as you know, and we have this lesson that we go through each year about the ear and we study that and we study hearing and decibels, and so there's this lesson that we talk about 80 decibels is kind of this threshold of where noise starts to become uncomfortable and over long term periods of exposure to noise and chaos, at even just 80 decibels it can cause damage and that noise can continue to increase and all these louder and bigger sounds, and you know, going from just like a backfire sound or a fire truck sound all the way to like a building collapsing and explosion freight train, those types of sounds.
• 12:44
  Rachel Schlesinger: Well, anyway, collapsing and explosion freight train, those types of sounds.
• 12:48
  Rachel Schlesinger: Well, anyway, the more those decibels go up, the less you can hear individual voice.
• 12:51
  Rachel Schlesinger: You cannot decipher the different noises that cause chaos together and that leads to stress, that leads to anxiety, and that can just be from an environmental hearing point of view.
• 13:05
  Rachel Schlesinger: So when you start to equate that to mental health, it's so blatant that when we have too much noise we cannot hear.
• 13:15
  Rachel Schlesinger: God, you know.
• 13:17
  Rachel Schlesinger: And what's noise?
• 13:17
  Rachel Schlesinger: It's too many.
• 13:19
  Rachel Schlesinger: We say this with my coworker all the time.
• 13:21
  Rachel Schlesinger: Too many tabs are open, right, I got all these tabs open in my mental computer and I haven't closed any of them.
• 13:26
  Rachel Schlesinger: That's noise.
• 13:28
  Rachel Schlesinger: Too many yeses in our life, that's noise.
• 13:31
  Rachel Schlesinger: Social media, all those things, opinions, even of family and friends, that dynamic busyness, scheduling, and so when you have that extreme noise?
• 13:46
  Rachel Schlesinger: How do you heal the ear?
• 13:47
  Rachel Schlesinger: What would you do after you went to a loud concert for a long time?
• 13:51
  Rachel Schlesinger: Amazing concert.
• 13:52
  Rachel Schlesinger: You enjoyed the noise, yet you felt this reverberation in your ears after you would be still.
• 13:59
  Rachel Schlesinger: You would be quiet.
• 14:00
  Rachel Schlesinger: And so what can we do to be still and to be quiet?
• 14:04
  Rachel Schlesinger: We can physically be still and quiet, but we can soak in the Psalms, you know, and that's for me in that time, in my life too, of these themes back to God's in control.
• 14:14
  Rachel Schlesinger: He loves us and we have to wait for him, and we have to be quiet to hear his voice.
• 14:23
  Ellen Krause: That's such an important reminder.
• 14:25
  Ellen Krause: I know I really need that today and I loved all the tabs open.
• 14:31
  Ellen Krause: I feel like sometimes it does get out of control the number of tabs for everything that you say yes to, and we do need to be very conscientious and make good decisions on how busy and noisy our lives can get.
• 14:50
  Ellen Krause: Well, Rachel, how did your knowledge of God change and expand from reading the Psalms related to finding comfort and hope specifically?
• 15:04
  Rachel Schlesinger: Well, I can remember back to the beginning of our time in Bible study thinking, you know, people always talk about read the Bible.
• 15:12
  Rachel Schlesinger: You need to read your Bible.
• 15:14
  Rachel Schlesinger: Well, how do you read your Bible?
• 15:16
  Rachel Schlesinger: Do you just thumb through the pages and stop where it stops?
• 15:20
  Rachel Schlesinger: You know, do you just pick one of the books and you know, just kind of struggling with, like how do you actually do it?
• 15:26
  Rachel Schlesinger: And I just know that this challenge is what changed for me to just write down what I've learned about God.
• 15:35
  Rachel Schlesinger: That was so easy and so that baby step.
• 15:40
  Rachel Schlesinger: When I look back on the journal that I had of Psalms, it is literally just those things.
• 15:44
  Rachel Schlesinger: It's passages, it's passages, it's just short summaries.
• 15:47
  Rachel Schlesinger: I really had this need for structure.
• 15:49
  Rachel Schlesinger: So I made sure I never went over one page because I knew I needed to save space in the journal.
• 15:54
  Rachel Schlesinger: And you know it's nothing more than a summary of God.
• 15:58
  Rachel Schlesinger: But then when I pick up the journal of the next book I did which for me was Proverbs Like wow, well, I did the same thing, but there's these short prayers I wrote at the bottom and I started to write some of those things back to God, you know, in there.
• 16:15
  Rachel Schlesinger: And then I pick up the next one.
• 16:16
  Rachel Schlesinger: I did.
• 16:17
  Rachel Schlesinger: I think I started Ephesians after that and then I realized, well, I need another journal just for the prayers I'm writing, and so just to see how this baby step of knowledge expanded and grew with every book, every stage, every storm, every step that I took has grown into where I am now and who I am now.
• 16:44
  Rachel Schlesinger: And so you know, I just see that thread throughout.
• 16:48
  Rachel Schlesinger: But also, really, what the Psalms taught me was to dwell with him and what that meant.
• 16:54
  Rachel Schlesinger: You know, when I started this I was a first time young mom, and there is no more taxing time on your mental and emotional health than going from independent, self-sufficient, selfish woman to needed, covered, exhausted, selfless mother, and that's draining and that's very taxing on the mental health and that's very taxing on the mental health.
• 17:24
  Rachel Schlesinger: And so I think that time that God put this in my life, just let me fill my bucket.
• 17:31
  Rachel Schlesinger: Not enough that I needed, but he let that time fill the bucket overflowing, because he knew I needed more than what I had, just for myself.
• 17:42
  Rachel Schlesinger: So I feel like that I had extra to give during that season of life when you're so drained because I filled.
• 17:51
  Rachel Schlesinger: The other thing too is when you go through these storms and how did this expand from the Psalms is that you're building this rock, this foundation that you don't know you're going to need later, and to step every day through these things the routine, the mundane, the missed days, the days you got it on and you feel like you did it right.
• 18:16
  Rachel Schlesinger: Those are building blocks to stand on.
• 18:18
  Rachel Schlesinger: You know when the storm comes, and so this way that we organized it again just write down what you know about God turned into me in one storm in my life where I started to prove God was there with me in the storm, because I wanted to be able to look back and put little check marks in my writing where he had shown up.
• 18:40
  Rachel Schlesinger: And that might've been as simple as a timing hey, I have this going on, this going on and this needs to happen in this tiny window I don't control it, that's my prayer and you know, covered with a hundred other prayers.
• 19:00
  Rachel Schlesinger: But to go back and be like, oh my gosh, that phone call did happen when I needed to, you miss those opportunities to see his presence.
• 19:08
  Rachel Schlesinger: And so I just think that when you document is what Psalms really taught me to do.
• 19:15
  Ellen Krause: When you document, you can go back and see his evidence, and you can go back and see your growth, and that's such a beautiful thing and you can go back and see your growth, and that's such a beautiful thing it is, and I love how you pointed out that it is such a simple thing and I think so many people are so busy that this is something simple that they can do.
• 19:41
  Ellen Krause: And, Rachel, I was just thinking of my daughter, Ashley.
• 19:46
  Ellen Krause: She just had a baby.
• 19:48
  Ellen Krause: He's four weeks old now and it brings me back thinking back about what it was like and how hard it is and how you have just such minimal amounts of time, and that definitely is something that you can do while you're nursing even is just pick a Psalm and reflect on who God is and what you learn about his character.
• 20:20
  Rachel Schlesinger: Yeah, and really quick, Ellen, just to say too about that.
• 20:24
  Rachel Schlesinger: And that stage is this idea again of dwell.
• 20:26
  Rachel Schlesinger: Dwelling with him may look so different and feel so different when you have a four-week-old baby.
• 20:33
  Rachel Schlesinger: It may look so different when you have kids that are older.
• 20:36
  Rachel Schlesinger: It may look so different when you're single.
• 20:38
  Rachel Schlesinger: You know when your career is busy, when your career is not busy and all these things.
• 20:42
  Rachel Schlesinger: And so to know that, to not measure it against someone else and to be, I think, if we're thinking about mental health and emotional security, to be okay when, in your mind, you failed.
• 20:55
  Rachel Schlesinger: I was going to get up early, I was going to do this then, or I was going to do this in bed after I put baby to bed and then you fell asleep, or then they woke up, or then this happened.
• 21:05
  Rachel Schlesinger: It's okay.
• 21:08
  Rachel Schlesinger: These dwelling just means there's not a number, there's not a checklist, you don't have to get through everything in a certain timeline, you just have to dwell when you can dwell with him.
• 21:21
  Ellen Krause: Yes, yes, excellent, excellent point, good reminder for all of us.
• 21:26
  Ellen Krause: Let's talk a little bit about King David, because he was a prominent writer of the Psalms.
• 21:33
  Ellen Krause: What did you learn from how David reflected, how he meditated on the Psalms, and what have you sort of been able to use to improve mental health related to that?
• 21:51
  Rachel Schlesinger: Well, David is such an amazing example because he probably had every range of emotion and situation in Psalms.
• 22:00
  Rachel Schlesinger: So it is a smorgasbord for everyone, whatever you're feeling, wherever you're at, if you're feeling great, if you're feeling terrible.
• 22:05
  Rachel Schlesinger: Whatever you're feeling, wherever you're at, if you're feeling great, if you're feeling terrible, if you're feeling persecuted, if you're feeling you know, sent by God, he's been all those things, and so what I really think that David teaches is that anyone, from anywhere, can be used by God.
• 22:24
  Rachel Schlesinger: They are loved by God.
• 22:26
  Rachel Schlesinger: You can be loved by God.
• 22:28
  Rachel Schlesinger: You can sin against God.
• 22:31
  Rachel Schlesinger: He feared God.
• 22:32
  Rachel Schlesinger: David doubted God and he was still identified as someone, as a man after God's own heart.
• 22:41
  Rachel Schlesinger: And so I just am thankful for this example.
• 22:45
  Rachel Schlesinger: If you don't know a lot about David, if you don't know a lot about the Psalms, you think he's this perfect example.
• 22:52
  Rachel Schlesinger: But yet what he teaches through that is you don't have to be perfect, you don't have to have all the answers.
• 23:00
  Rachel Schlesinger: To be loved by God and to have a heart for God, you're going to make mistakes, you're going to mess up.
• 23:08
  Rachel Schlesinger: You have to seek him for forgiveness, to free yourself of guilt, to free yourself of these things, and David had to do that.
• 23:18
  Rachel Schlesinger: David went from being a son and a brother to being a best friend, to being someone that was being persecuted, to being this great king, to being this adulterer, you know, to being this great king, this father and this whole gamut of the spectrum of life.
• 23:35
  Rachel Schlesinger: And what David did throughout all those seasons was just love God.
• 23:44
  Rachel Schlesinger: And I think back to that word dwell.
• 23:46
  Rachel Schlesinger: You know, dwelling is the gift that we get right now from God, for the hope that we have in the gift.
• 23:54
  Rachel Schlesinger: Later, when we're in heaven, we dwell with him for eternity.
• 23:57
  Rachel Schlesinger: And so, to know, dwelling is this gift.
• 24:02
  Rachel Schlesinger: It can make these other things in your life seem a little less significant or carry a little less weight when our perspective is long-term, this indescribable gift we're getting later.
• 24:17
  Rachel Schlesinger: When we focus too much on right here and now and forget our main goal, our main purpose, we get weighed down in that.
• 24:26
  Rachel Schlesinger: And so, you know, God's got a plan for me.
• 24:30
  Rachel Schlesinger: All I have to do is have a heart for it.
• 24:33
  Rachel Schlesinger: It will find me.
• 24:33
  Rachel Schlesinger: I cannot outrun out, hide out sin, you know, make this mistake that will ruin this plan that God has for me.
• 24:42
  Rachel Schlesinger: His purpose is going to be fulfilled, no matter what, and so I just think that David reminds us of that.
• 24:50
  Rachel Schlesinger: His pedestal is not his circumstances and his leadership, it's his heart, it's his humility, it's his vulnerability in sin, you know.
• 25:03
  Rachel Schlesinger: And he struggled with things many people struggle with.
• 25:08
  Ellen Krause: Yeah, absolutely.
• 25:09
  Ellen Krause: And you know, one thing that you said reminded me of just I think one thing that weighs us down, our mental health down, is when we don't forgive ourselves.
• 25:20
  Ellen Krause: And the fact that David, in that sort of whole debacle with Bathsheba I mean having his, her husband, killed, I mean these were very grave sins and he greatly repented for them, but you see him throughout the Psalms being able to forgive himself, knowing that God forgives him and being able to move on with his life and not to say that there weren't consequences, because there definitely were.
• 25:58
  Ellen Krause: But forgiveness is is so important.
• 26:06
  Rachel Schlesinger: We have this chalkboard right at our garage door for when we leave and I thought I would change it over time and I've decided to not, because it just is such a stark reminder of my unworthiness as a human, my sin, and that God is more.
• 26:24
  Rachel Schlesinger: And it says God can use me in spite of my flaws, and that just sits there when we leave because I mess up, I sin, I see my sin.
• 26:36
  Rachel Schlesinger: Sometimes I think I'm better than my sin, all these things, and yet God is bigger than that and I just find that to be such a free forgiveness when we're so hard on ourselves.
• 26:51
  Ellen Krause: Yes, and what a great lesson as well for your kids, right?
• 26:56
  Ellen Krause: Because they get frustrated with themselves too when they know they goof up yeah.
• 27:03
  Rachel Schlesinger: And you can take that on as an identity, right, and that's the thing with the Psalms, like your identity can be found in these pages, and when your identity says, well, I'm a troublemaker or I am not good at this, or I'm that, that's this lie to who we really are.
• 27:24
  Rachel Schlesinger: And so trying to really ground your identity in God, in what he says about you and who you are in him, yeah, so so important.
• 27:37
  Ellen Krause: Well, for those of you that don't know, Rachel, she mentioned that she is a teacher.
• 27:43
  Ellen Krause: You're also an incredible wife, mother, friend.
• 27:47
  Ellen Krause: How have you relied on the Psalms to face different situations in your life, in these different roles that you have, and that would encourage someone who's listening today, who is so many things to so many people.
• 28:09
  Rachel Schlesinger: Well, yeah, I mean, like I said, you'd never forget your first love, and Psalms laid this foundation in me that I had no way of predicting or knowing.
• 28:22
  Rachel Schlesinger: We just become a part of who I am in my life.
• 28:26
  Rachel Schlesinger: And I mentioned, you know, how it carried over in these other books.
• 28:31
  Rachel Schlesinger: And so the joy again of documenting is that this daily plodding along in the regular seasons of life grew so beautifully that you know I struggled, praying out loud originally and just remembering what I was saying and I get sidetracked and all of this.
• 28:53
  Rachel Schlesinger: But when I write my prayers down I can slow my brain down, and so to see that grow, it's such a direct line from the Psalms and when those storms came, they're what I came back to.
• 29:10
  Rachel Schlesinger: And so I even think you know this little book from, oh, so many years ago with all the Psalms.
• 29:18
  Rachel Schlesinger: There's so many times that I have come back to this and maybe it's because something was going on in my life, or maybe I heard a sermon and I was like, oh, Psalm 93.
• 29:28
  Rachel Schlesinger: I wonder what I thought about Psalm 93, you know, and to kind of go into that and look, and to kind of go into that and look.
• 29:48
  Rachel Schlesinger: It just was a joy to have this when I needed to go back and see what he said to me about all that was going on.
• 29:51
  Rachel Schlesinger: And two, when there's different types of storms that come in your life and really, I think, the ones that hit you the hardest about the whole purpose that God has for us, and when is when it's life and death right, and when we get this perspective of death rocked with that.
• 30:08
  Rachel Schlesinger: The Psalms are what I drew back to, because they're this portrait of this yearning again, this home going, that we're going to.
• 30:27
  Rachel Schlesinger: And so for me, you know, most recently, you know, the hardest thing that I went through was the death of my grandfather, and you know we had.
• 30:38
  Rachel Schlesinger: He was diagnosis to death in 30 days and I'm just so grateful to God because I got our family, got a gift that I just don't think anyone else gets the benefit of, and because we knew this day was coming for him.
• 30:54
  Rachel Schlesinger: We had this like goodbye weekend our whole entire family gathered and we worked together with him his last week and he was alive, where we could, you know, tell stories, sing songs.
• 31:09
  Rachel Schlesinger: We sang songs together and pray together and pray together.
• 31:21
  Rachel Schlesinger: But I really felt led back to the Psalms during that time during this time of lament and grief and hope.
• 31:26
  Rachel Schlesinger: And so you know my grandfather.
• 31:28
  Rachel Schlesinger: He was this faith-filled rock in our family and I always like to introduce him by saying he was the greatest example of God's love to me on this earth.
• 31:38
  Rachel Schlesinger: And so I during that time just felt God nudging on my heart about the Psalms, and so I was drawn to Psalm 84.
• 31:49
  Rachel Schlesinger: And I even have it like just written in my Bible that this is the Psalm that I read as a prayer to him and my entire family when we were going through that.
• 32:01
  Rachel Schlesinger: And why?
• 32:02
  Rachel Schlesinger: Because to pray back these words that God has for us is just this depth of feeling known by him.
• 32:12
  Rachel Schlesinger: You know, psalm 84 says how lovely is your dwelling place, o Lord Almighty.
• 32:16
  Rachel Schlesinger: My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord.
• 32:21
  Rachel Schlesinger: My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
• 32:24
  Rachel Schlesinger: Even the sparrow has a home and the swallow a nest for herself where she may have her young, a place near your altar, o Lord Almighty, my King and my God.
• 32:34
  Rachel Schlesinger: Blessed are those who dwell in your house.
• 32:37
  Rachel Schlesinger: They are ever praising you.
• 32:38
  Rachel Schlesinger: You know it continues on.
• 32:41
  Rachel Schlesinger: But to in the crux of that, to feel like the Psalms are what draw that strength of being known and seen and what God says is true.
• 32:53
  Rachel Schlesinger: He can be trusted for the step that we don't know.
• 32:57
  Rachel Schlesinger: The greatest anxiety we as humans really face is what he said true, when I die.
• 33:06
  Rachel Schlesinger: Is this all real?
• 33:07
  Rachel Schlesinger: Is this all true?
• 33:08
  Rachel Schlesinger: And the Psalms?
• 33:10
  Rachel Schlesinger: are this rock that you can go to to be trusted.
• 33:14
  Rachel Schlesinger: And so you know that's my most recent, greatest example where they've showed up in my life.
• 33:18
  Rachel Schlesinger: But, Ellen, you know we've walked this path together a while in friendship and there's just been so much.
• 33:24
  Rachel Schlesinger: You know my fast highlights for people going through different situations.
• 33:27
  Rachel Schlesinger: You know there was a time where I was witnessed to a major car accident you remember this story and I had to get out and help someone hurt and I just was drawn to them in prayer and asking to pray over them while we waited.
• 33:39
  Rachel Schlesinger: I mean that's the Psalms rooted in me.
• 33:41
  Rachel Schlesinger: You know a big pain, a big hurt in my life, that 16 years I held on to God walked me through forgiveness in the most powerful, incredible way.
• 33:52
  Rachel Schlesinger: I wouldn't have had that without the Psalms.
• 33:57
  Rachel Schlesinger: My dear friend, her brother's passing was this horrible thing for all of us and we walked.
• 34:02
  Rachel Schlesinger: That month that we knew for him was coming with, sending Psalms to his wife, prayers daily, and times in my own family when crisis, medical crisis, has occurred.
• 34:15
  Rachel Schlesinger: Medical crisis doesn't actually happen when it's convenient in your own life, when you have time.
• 34:20
  Rachel Schlesinger: A lot of times stuff like these things happen when you do not have time and that's overwhelming.
• 34:25
  Rachel Schlesinger: But to come back to this, this little step that you can take by pulling these truths about who God is will show up for you in these major ways.
• 34:38
  Rachel Schlesinger: And just to kind of wrap it around, you know how dear my grandparents are to me, and my grandmother died this past year and it was very hard for her, since my grandpa had passed and she was struggling to say the prayers she had in her heart.
• 34:56
  Rachel Schlesinger: She could not get them out, and so I would write these prayers for her and I would send them to her like on paper.
• 35:04
  Rachel Schlesinger: And she had this cardinal prayer box I got for her to keep them in, and again they were Psalms, you know.
• 35:12
  Rachel Schlesinger: And so it's just from birth through death, all that we face and see, these are the words that God has for us with.
• 35:25
  Rachel Schlesinger: He's in control, he loves us and there's waiting that we may not like, but he's in control and he loves us.
• 35:35
  Ellen Krause: That's so beautiful and thank you for sharing some of those examples with us, because it really does demonstrate how God's word is active and alive, how it is sharper than a two-edged sword, how it is something that, once we can put deep in our heart, we can treasure it.
• 36:01
  Ellen Krause: We can use it for our own circumstances, we can use it to help other people.
• 36:06
  Ellen Krause: I know the one thing I would just encourage any of our listeners is, if you have the opportunity to memorize one of the Psalms, to have it so that you can just pull it out.
• 36:19
  Ellen Krause: I know for me that's Psalm 23.
• 36:22
  Ellen Krause: I pull it out in all different circumstances and it's amazing how God can just use that one Psalm, or the different verses of it, to encourage and strengthen and comfort me in different ways in various different situations.
• 36:39
  Ellen Krause: So try to get that, pick a psalm and get that tucked into your heart.
• 36:46
  Ellen Krause: You know, Rachel, I also read through the psalms that summer and the feedback that I had received from you and from other people in our group inspired me so much that I encouraged the Coffee and Bible Time team to actually write a Psalms devotional, which we came out with at the beginning of this past year, and it's a 30-week devotional that covers all 150 psalms and it has both guided prompts and self-study, so you can do exactly what we're talking about here.
• 37:26
  Ellen Krause: You have the opportunity to read it, to reflect, to be prompted to think about things.
• 37:32
  Ellen Krause: So I want to thank you so much publicly just for taking that Psalms challenge and providing the feedback, and I wanted everyone to know that that has inspired and encouraged us here at Coffee and Bible Time so much.
• 37:53
  Rachel Schlesinger: Well, thank you.
• 37:54
  Rachel Schlesinger: Thank you, Ellen.
• 37:55
  Rachel Schlesinger: You know, Psalms has just been my greatest teacher, when I really think about it, and it's where my deep intimacy with the Lord began and that's where it was born and it just started, step by step, with some ups and downs and slow and steady, and that's all you need.
• 38:13
  Rachel Schlesinger: You know, wherever you're at, with whatever you're coming through, just show up and he can do immeasurably more than you can ask or imagine.
• 38:23
  Ellen Krause: Beautiful.
• 38:24
  Ellen Krause: Wow, what an awesome way to wrap up our discussion of the Psalms here.
• 38:30
  Ellen Krause: But, Rachel, before we go, I have to ask you about some of our favorite Bible study tool questions.
• 38:37
  Ellen Krause: What Bible is your go-to Bible and what translation is it?
• 38:43
  Rachel Schlesinger: Well, my go-to Bible actually kind of coincides with the Psalms and my journey into motherhood right after my anniversary, right after my son was born.
• 38:53
  Rachel Schlesinger: My son was born in June and my anniversary was July, so my husband had gotten me, um, a mom's devotional Bible, and it's a new international version, um, and so I just feel like this Bible has grown with me.
• 39:12
  Rachel Schlesinger: Um, I loved the insight I needed and the little devotionals in there for motherhood and the different stages of it, and so it's just been awesome to grow in my confidence as a Bible reader, confidence as a mom and confidence as the daughter of the King.
• 39:33
  Ellen Krause: Yeah, okay, excellent.
• 39:35
  Ellen Krause: Do you have any favorite journaling supplies or anything that you like to use to enhance your Bible study time?
• 39:43
  Rachel Schlesinger: I love a beautiful journal.
• 39:46
  Rachel Schlesinger: It has to be a beautiful journal.
• 39:49
  Rachel Schlesinger: A fresh one gets me so excited, it's motivating to me, and so right now, my current favorites are the Rifle Paper Company journals.
• 39:59
  Rachel Schlesinger: They're just so beautiful.
• 40:01
  Rachel Schlesinger: I have some flower and bug ones, so they feel summery.
• 40:04
  Rachel Schlesinger: So those are great, because then too, I associate each study or each point in my season.
• 40:10
  Rachel Schlesinger: I'm like I know what journal that was that was the, that was the leather one, or that was the flower tree one, or that was this one.
• 40:16
  Rachel Schlesinger: The other thing, Ellen, this was a gift from you, and so now I still use them is these post-it tabs.
• 40:27
  Rachel Schlesinger: You remember these post-it tabs so you could just write on these clear tabs and I use this all the time for scripture references or you know some.
• 40:38
  Rachel Schlesinger: I have tabbed.
• 40:38
  Rachel Schlesinger: That said what I learned, different things that I can use, so I have found these to be a really great tool.
• 40:44
  Rachel Schlesinger: And the last thing that always accompanies my Bible and my journals and my notes and all that is coffee.
• 40:50
  Rachel Schlesinger: Isn't that the theme here?
• 40:52
  Rachel Schlesinger: Coffee and Bible time they go so well together.
• 41:05
  Ellen Krause: You better believe it.
• 41:05
  Ellen Krause: Okay, awesome, Okay.
• 41:06
  Ellen Krause: Lastly, what is your ?
• 41:08
  Rachel Schlesinger: Right now, currently I'm not using any specific app.
• 41:11
  Rachel Schlesinger: You know I've used Blue Letter, Bible and different things like that before, so actually I'm really into, just currently, the power of Google, and I say that because I just finished just I was so drawn into the book of Acts, just finished Acts, and the history behind it and the growth of the Christian church and the faith and separate, you know, from Judaism to all of this.
• 41:36
  Rachel Schlesinger: And so I, when I would hear these historical referent things, I would sometimes would just look them up and just started to become like a researcher, I guess.
• 41:45
  Rachel Schlesinger: And so you know, I'm in Romans now, so it's a little bit different, but I didn't use to do that, you know, if I wasn't sure about a location or something like that.
• 41:55
  Rachel Schlesinger: So never underestimate the power of just looking up something if you don't know what it is yes, Great recommendation.
• 42:03
  Ellen Krause: Absolutely Well, Rachel.
• 42:11
  Ellen Krause: Thank you so much for being here, for sharing your experience of being in the Psalms in such an effective way that I hope people listening out there are encouraged as it relates to their mental health and emotional well-being.
• 42:23
  Ellen Krause: So thank you so much.
• 42:25
  Rachel Schlesinger: Thank you so much for having me.
• 42:26
  Rachel Schlesinger: What a wonderful thing to talk about with you, my dear friend.
• 42:30
  Ellen Krause: Yeah, all right, and for our listeners, we hope you feel encouraged to start studying the Psalms.
• 42:38
  Ellen Krause: Today we are offering a special coupon Psalms Podcast.
• 42:45
  Ellen Krause: So that's P-S-A-L-M-S-P-O-D-C-A-S-T to get 10% off of our Psalms devotional that you can find on Coffee and Bible Time.
• 42:57
  Ellen Krause: We will have all of that information in our show notes.
• 43:00
  Ellen Krause: We love you all.
• 43:01
  Ellen Krause: We thank you for listening.
• 43:03
  Ellen Krause: Have a blessed day.