The Psalms are often referred to as the prayer book of the Bible.

As pastor and author Dane Ortland writes, the Psalms are unlike any other portion of Scripture,

because they are the one book in the Bible written to God.

In that way, the Psalms are invaluable for the Christian life,

and have been a source of immense comfort

and strength for God's people throughout the centuries. Today, I'm talking with Dane about how

the Psalms uniquely reflect the greatness of God, how they demonstrate his care for his people,

and how they invite us into prayer and devotion in response. Dane serves as senior pastor at Naperville

Presbyterian Church in Naperville, Illinois, and the author of, In the Lord, I take refuge,

150 daily devotions through the Psalms from Crossway. Let's get started. Well, Dane, thank you so much for joining me again on the Crossway podcast.

It's a pleasure to do so. Thanks, Matt.

It's becoming almost a monthly tradition for us.

It is.

So the idea of daily personal devotions in the Bible, in prayer, communing with God in that way is about as basic

to an evangelical approach to Christianity that you could have.

It's kind of baked into the cake from the very beginning.

Those of us who have grown up in the church, we just know that this is a big emphasis

for our lives as Christians.

You grew up as a pastor's kid, so I would imagine that was all the more true for you.

Can you speak to that a little bit? As you were growing up as a young person, how did you think

about the idea of personal devotions? It was always very normal to me, not to do necessarily,

but I walked down stairs every morning in elementary school, middle school, high school,

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