“Why do we need art? Why do we need the lyric poetry of the Psalms? Because the only way we can approach God is if we’re honest — through metaphor, through symbol. So art becomes essential, not decorative.”

If you haven’t seen the remarkable short film on the Psalms with Eugene Peterson and Bono (lead singer of U2, quoted above), it’s 21 minutes of life well spent. 

David Taylor, the film’s producer and faculty member at Fuller Seminary, talked with Nathan Foster on the Renovaré Podcast this week. 

In the interview Taylor comments, ​“The Psalms help us name reality so that we can live in it.”

There is both the subjective reality of our interior emotional world and the objectivereality of the Kingdom of God. 

Great art, like the Psalms, helps us access both. Whether visual or verbal, art gives language to unspoken groans and unshakable truths. It helps us see. It helps us hear. A painted portrait is a better representation of someone than a photograph; a metaphor gets closer to the heart of the matter than precise language. 

Whether you consider yourself a creative type or not, engaging God through the arts — which includes reading the Psalms, or listening to a song like this new one from our own Carolyn Arends—is something we are all born to do.