The psalms are full of wonderful and rather mysterious phrases.  One that sticks in my mind is from Psalm 86: after asking God to teach us his ways, the psalmist exclaims ‘knit my heart to you’.  It is not an image I find easy to visualise, perhaps because my clumsy fingers never really managed to knit very well.  Yet the phrase suggests an intimacy and closeness that deepens and intensifies, without ever quite engulfing or overwhelming us.  Indeed, the plea that our human hearts might truly be knitted into the divine is one of those requests so bold that we catch our breath as we hear and recite it.  And yet perhaps that is part of its power, as the verse challenges and stretches our hearts to bring them closer to God and the divine. 

So often, it seems, the language of the psalms is surprising, disrupting our usual patterns of thought and reorientating our vision.  Sometimes it's the beauty of the poetry, or the intensity of the psalmist’s expression, that might catch our eye; sometimes it’s just the way the words of the psalms startle and intrigue us, like the striking image of ‘one day pouring out its song to another’ (19.2).  For me they challenge my instinct for clarity and concision, reminding me that words are so much more than vehicles for information, but invitations too to ‘lift up my soul’ (143.8).  For above all the psalms offer to us the love of God, and draw us towards God's light.