What can miserable Christians sing? How can we pray, when most of our familiar patterns may not express how we feel when we’re in dark valleys? What about when our words fail us altogether? Is relationship with God still possible?

In the psalms, God graciously gives us words to pray back to him when our words fail. When our suffering or sorrow isolates us, we find in these words brothers and sisters – even Christ himself – who have walked similar paths before, and can gently lead us in these dark valleys.

These devotions were written to accompany an album of songs called Tumbling Sky: Psalms for Weary Souls. You don’t need the album to be able to use them, although I hope it would work well to listen to the appropriate song as you read each one. The purpose of both the songs and these devotions is to help people engage with the psalms themselves – so please don’t rush over the text printed at the top.