4 April 2026

When I was a student studying theology at New College, Edinburgh, I would often wander up to Thins Bookshop on South Bridge Street. It is now called Blackwell’s. As well as new books there was a selection of second hand books too, handy for impoverished students.

One day in 1977, I spotted a very small book. It was no bigger than 7cm by 11cm. It was quite thin. The print was very small. It contained the book of Psalms from the Authorised Version of the Bible. I decided to buy it for the princely sum of 10p.

This tiny book has been the companion of my ministry. More often than not and certainly when I was visiting hospital, nursing home, the bedside of a dying member of the congregation, I would slip it into my pocket. It found a contented home there and no-one knew of its existence until I took it out.

On Good Friday, I was visiting a Nursing Home. I pulled out my Psalm Book and decided to read verses from Psalm 118. ‘The Lord is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.’ It continues, ‘The right hand of the Lord is exalted: the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly. I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord.’

It goes on to sing about the gates of righteousness and the stone which the builders rejected. It   is all the Lord’s doing, marvellous in our eyes. For as the Psalmist sings, ‘This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.’

When I finished, the old man whom I was visiting, gently reached out for the Psalm Book and examined it closely and tenderly. Then turning to me, he said very quietly and almost with awe, ‘And this has gone before you all these years?’ I had never thought of it like that but the Word has gone before me throughout my whole ministry making way for the Spirit to work its cure.

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