The Psalms, God's Poem (Theopoetry)

             Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh

9/7/25 Stetson Memorial UMC

                                            

    The first week of July with Mary Miller and Paula            The Last week of August with Victor

  

<A New Journey>

Dear Stetson Memorial UMC family, what a journey we have shared. For the past two months, we have been walking together on this new path. From Mary Miller’s sermon, “Holy Covenant,” to Victor’s sermon, “Journey,” at our combined service, God has blessed us with His presence among church members, new families, and the other three churches.

Last Sunday, 103 people gathered from Houlton, Hodgdon, Mars Hill, and Stetson Memorial UMC. When our choir and the Hodgdon and Houlton bands sang and played with many instruments, the holy music filled our spirits and united us. When the pick-up choir sang, it sounded like the angels’ choir in heaven. When children and adults danced “Church Clap”—from 5 years old to 94 years old—we became one joyful clap.

We were touched when Jeanie Goode, who had just lost her husband the day before, came to worship because it was his wish. Worship became a holy, precious moment. We rejoiced when we saw families we had prayed for join us. And when Pastor Victor shared his sermon “Journey,” his honest testimony of life and ministry reminded us that we are walking the same road together. All week long, people who came to that service have been sharing their joy. Praise the Lord!

 

<God, the Great Poet>

On this journey, we ask deep questions: “Who am I?” “Where am I going?” “What should I do?” “Why do I live?” Finally, we ask, “Is there God? Who is He?” The Psalms become a bridge between God and us. They show us who God is and who we are—through poems, songs, and prayers.

The philosopher Alfred North Whitehead once said, “God is the Poet of the world.” Just as a poet lets words be the blooming flower, God spoke the world into being, and all creation became His poem. When He formed us from dust, with His breath and His hands, we became His living poems—and also little poets, carrying His words inside us.

Amos N. Wilder called the Psalms “Theopoetry,” because they are both inspired by God and dedicated to Him. One poet said, “Poetry is not something you write; it is something you receive.” The psalmists received words from God, and we too can pray with their words. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible, that the Psalms teach us how to pray.

My father often told me to read the Psalms, but I didn’t start until I was desperate. I turned to them when I was too angry, too confused, too depressed, or too broken to pray. I cried out with the psalmists: “How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?” (Psalm 13). “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” (Psalm 22). When I was deeply hurt, I even prayed with the raw cry of Psalm 58: “Break the teeth in their mouths.” In that honest prayer, I discovered the Great Poet, who invites us to bring even our darkest emotions to Him. And in His hands, our prayers become His living poems.

 

March 2022 Spiritual Formation Retreat in Arizona

<We Are the Poets>

I once carried a hidden hole inside me—a wound of rejection. I tried to cover it with work and study, but when one of my mentors turned away, the hole opened again. She once supported me, but when she realized my calling was not only as a pastor’s wife but as a pastor myself, she pulled back. That rejection led me into depression. For six months, I cried and felt broken.

In 2022, Victor sent me to a spiritual formation retreat in Arizona. There, I wept like Hannah in the Bible. Bishop Hee-Soo Jung comforted me, affirmed my calling, and encouraged me to write. That is when I discovered poetry. I realized I wasn’t inventing words—I was receiving them from God, the Great Poet. I began to see that all of us are poets, carrying God’s Word inside. For some, it may come out as poems, songs, art, quilts, cooking, carpentry, or writing.

Since then, I have not stopped writing. My poems are sometimes rough, sometimes lament, sometimes praise—but they are honest, and safe in God’s arms. This year, I am invited again to the Arizona retreat, and I wait with hope for what God will prepare.

Bertrand Laurence & Denise Jutras    

                      After Denise's Powerful testimony, all church members came to her and prayed for her

I was also blessed by Denise’s testimony, shared with Bertrand’s guitar prayer. God gave her the words, and through her living poem, Bertrand’s music became another poem of praise. Together they testified to God’s healing love. Before recording her story, we prayed hand in hand. Our hidden wounds of trauma and sorrow were filled with God’s love and each other’s prayers. The Holy Spirit touched us with holy goosebumps. I hope in the next two months, we can hear more “My Psalm” stories from our church family. We are all poets carrying God’s Word!

 

<Starry Night>

Last summer, I had the chance to see Vincent van Gogh’s paintings. The admission was expensive, but worth it. Van Gogh, one of the great post-impressionist painters, is beloved today, though in his lifetime he sold almost nothing. He lived in poverty. He wanted to be a pastor, but he was rejected and failed in ministry. He struggled with his father. His friend, the painter Anton Mauve, once insulted him, saying, “Vincent is not an artist, because he cannot sell his work.”

Van Gogh answered, “Does selling pictures make someone an artist? I thought an artist was simply someone who keeps searching.” His words remind us that being a poet is not about having all the answers. A poet is one who keeps searching for the words the Great Poet plants in us.

One of his most famous works, The Starry Night, is more than a landscape—it carries deep spiritual meaning. Like Psalm 19, the swirling stars and glowing moon reflect the majesty of creation, too vast for us to capture. The moving sky seems to echo the Psalmist’s words, “The heavens declare the glory of God.” I was reminded of the night skies at Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, where photos capture the stars in motion. Van Gogh experienced God through nature, much like Paul wrote in Romans 1:19–20—that God’s eternal power and divine nature are revealed in creation.

Below the swirling heavens lies a quiet village, with small homes and a church steeple—showing human life in contrast with God’s vast glory. Van Gogh once wrote to his brother Theo, “Looking at the stars always makes me dream. Death is simply going to the stars.” In those words, we glimpse his longing for God’s kingdom.

What touched me most was learning the background of the painting. Van Gogh began painting only five years before his death. He painted The Starry Night while in a mental hospital, after cutting off his ear in despair. From his window, in loneliness and pain, he painted the sky as a poem. Just like the Psalms that begin with lament but end with praise, his painting holds hope.

Are you lonely? Do you feel the hole of pain in your life? As we study the Psalms over the next two months, my prayer is that we will pour out our hurts before God, and that He will turn them into songs of praise—our living poems to Him. Amen.