Well, I really expected to like this book of Psalms better than I am. Carl and I have been reading straight through. We haven't even gotten to the angriest Psalms, and I have already gotten weary of all the cries for vengeance, for enemies to be overturned, the bitter tone. When I read one Psalm after another, I notice the ongoing themes, and I confess to not liking them much.
At times, Carl will stop reading and say, in genuine confusion, "Haven't we already read this?" That's how similar each Psalm has been, one to another.
I have a friend who says she loves the Psalms better than anything in the New Testament. It's the tone (yes, the one that's driving me crazy) that she loves--that honest, seething anger.
I'm familiar with many of these lines from the various Psalms because I used Phyllis Tickle's The Divine Hours as my fixed hour prayer book, and so much of her daily prayers are composed of chunks of the Psalms. In her book, it's a completely different effect. Likewise, when I've been part of churches that recite or chant a Psalm between the first and second lesson.
Reading them straight through, for 15 minutes a day, however--I don't know if it's a good idea. Last night we read some Psalms for 5 minutes and then switched to Romans. Now that's surreal--reading the bloodthirsty Psalms and then switching to Paul's dense prose.
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