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Christ in the Psalms is a yearly reflection on how the people of God pray, engage emotion, and offer all elements of life to the God who dwells with His people. As we learn and reflect, we wondrously find unmistakable glimpses of Christ throughout the process.
This year, we began with Psalm 1—returning to the start again after finishing the Psalter last year. The summer will take us through Psalm 10.
Learn more about Christ in the Psalms weekly artwork and see previous pieces here.
My husband and I moved to Denver by God’s calling on our lives 2 1/2 years ago where he placed us in the neighborhood of Park Church. We are blessed that our two adult kids are also in the area. One of my hobbies is photography: mostly capturing our travel adventures, God’s natural beauty, and food.
I selected Psalm 7 based on the first verse: “O Lord my God, in you I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers and deliver me.” The center photo of the volcanic rock cradling a small piece of coral immediately came to mind as a representation of God’s protection and refuge for us. This rock was about 5 ft up on a 12 ft tall volcanic rock wall that encompassed a small village. The only way that little piece of coral got there from the ocean, to be cradled and protected, was from a ferocious storm. The same place in our lives where we seek shelter, represented by the photo of the crashing waves on the rocks.
The top left photo of clouds represents a powerful God on high who rises to anger and judges the evil (vs 6, 8, & 11). With the people below worshiping him (vs 7 & 17). The photo of St. Michael, the archangel, is drawing his sword to put an end to the evil and wicked (vs 12-16) that is also represented in the crashing waves.
At first I was just going to stop at verse 1, using only the center photo—God is my refuge, as He has been so in my life countless times. I had so many great nature photos of places that have brought me peace and reminders of God’s goodness and glory: lots of sunrises and sunsets on mountains and beaches that I chose to use multiple photos. This then required me to do some math, playing with layouts of various size photos to best fit the 18×18 board we were given to use (which is not a standard photo size). I could use several 4x6s, though they created visual chaos, not peace and refuge. I settled on 4 8x10s (a vertical and horizontal = 18″), connected with a smaller center one. This arrangement created a nice visual flow.
But there was so much more going on in this psalm: evil and what it takes to conquer it. I don’t have a lot photos of evil, though found one photo of fire with a dark background I wanted to use to represent God’s burning anger over evil. This would give me a couple dark backgrounds with the colorful sunrise/sunset ones. But it just didn’t work, still too much noise and not a great story flow. I prayed as I went back through the Psalm and my photos to find something that might work and found the statue of St. Michael drawing a sword. Then found the angels singing to the heavens photo. Both had blue backgrounds (one day, one night) that matched the nature photos. These added a humanistic aspect, contrast, and balance to the nature photos.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Christ in the Psalms is a yearly reflection on how the people of God pray, engage emotion, and offer all elements of life to the God who dwells with His people. As we learn and reflect, we wondrously find unmistakable glimpses of Christ throughout the process.
This year, we began with Psalm 1—returning to the start again after finishing the Psalter last year. The summer will take us through Psalm 10.
Learn more about Christ in the Psalms weekly artwork and see previous pieces here.
As a digital media subject matter expert, I wrote How to Cheat in Adobe Animate CC: The Art of Design and Animation and have authored video courses for Photoshop and Illustrator. I teach part-time at the University of Colorado Boulder, create video tutorials, and write articles to help InDesign users convert print layouts to interactive HTML5 content. I have worked for Adobe on various projects and have created digital media skill assessments for LinkedIn for Photoshop, Illustrator, Animate, and After Effects. My portfolio is available at myraferguson.myportfolio.com.
Although King David is awash with agony in Psalm 6, he trusts God with his prayer for help. This composition presents a posture that expresses both the heavy weight of being worn down from distress and bowing down in prayer. The placement of the angled rays of light shining from above through the clouds depicts God’s acceptance of David’s prayer. The rain represents the floods of tears David shed.
The piece was mainly created in Adobe Photoshop. I started with a black and white Adobe Stock image of a young man in this position. I cropped it to focus on the position of being hunched over with his head down and in his hand. His hair originally appeared to be blond, so I darkened it and added contrast which helped to make it look wet. I couldn’t find a suitable image of crepuscular rays (what we affectionately call “Jesus clouds”), so I used Adobe Firefly to generate one. I positioned the rays to align with the subject’s head. The image only contained the rays and the clouds, so I added the rain. I used a Photoshop filter to render black and white fibers. By increasing the contrast, rotating the fibers, and applying a Screen blend mode, I simulated the rain.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Christ in the Psalms is a yearly reflection on how the people of God pray, engage emotion, and offer all elements of life to the God who dwells with His people. As we learn and reflect, we wondrously find unmistakable glimpses of Christ throughout the process.
This year, we began with Psalm 1—returning to the start again after finishing the Psalter last year. The summer will take us through Psalm 10.
Alpha at Park Church
Alpha is a series of open and informal conversations about life, spirituality, and the person of Jesus. Sessions take place over a meal at a home with a group of peers. Each session explores an element of the Christian faith with an emphasis on creating conversation.
On Sunday, June 29, Community and Formation Resident Jack Repenning shared with us about the opportunity and need for Alpha cohort leaders. Watch the video above, and learn more using the button below!
Learn more about Christ in the Psalms weekly artwork and see previous pieces here.
Kari Langford lives and works in Denver with a heart for creativity and connection. Guided by faith and a love for beauty in the everyday, she sees art as a way to reflect God’s light, to participate in God’s Kingdom, and to stir other souls to worship. When not painting, she might be enjoying a hike with her pup or reading with a cup of coffee in her hand.
“Listen to my words, Lord; consider my sighing.
Pay attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for I pray to you.
In the morning, Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning, I plead my case to you and
watch expectantly.”
(Psalm 5:1–3 CSB)
There is lament in these words. There is also rooted hope and trust in them. My piece is meant to depict that gap in between.
There are multiple layers showing light coming through a window, and more specifically, morning light. There are collaged layers of pattern that bring the element of complexity and history to the work. And finally, the forefront of the painting loosely reflects the dappling of shadow from the trees above. Both the deep, rich color and imprinted markings of the shadows correspond to the immense weight of my cry.
Truly, the most beautiful part of this piece WAS the process, and how the Father guided me through. I wrestled with this painting. I started out with an idea of what I wanted it to look like, primarily a light, joyful flow of light coming in through a window, to depict the morning time when we take our prayers to Him. Something was not quite right, so I would paint layer over layer over layer – thinking the whole time that I was wasting time and paint.
But God…
I was sitting and listening one morning, and I sensed him beautifully show me: Kari this is prayer, this is how it works. The act of continuing to come to him morning after morning, thinking we are wasting our time, but He is creating something beautiful! The process of prayer and life with God does not always feel like things are happening—like it is “working”—and it certainly is not always light and joyful. I learned more about persistent prayer and lament throughout this process and ultimately came to a place of deeper trust in the One who is always Faithful, the One who hears every single prayer that we cry, scream, or whisper.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Christ in the Psalms is a yearly reflection on how the people of God pray, engage emotion, and offer all elements of life to the God who dwells with His people. As we learn and reflect, we wondrously find unmistakable glimpses of Christ throughout the process.
On Sunday, June 1, we kicked off the series for the summer. We began with Psalm 1—returning to the start again after finishing the Psalter last year. The summer will take us through Psalm 10.
Learn more about Christ in the Psalms weekly artwork and see previous pieces here.
Art has always been a place of rest me, never my primary occupation or hobby, but always available for a peaceful moment of inspiration. I have lived in Denver over a decade and attended Park for most of that time. My husband and I met in here in Colorado and have two wonderful daughters, ages 3.5 and 1.5. I love the spending time being active outdoors. The hills, lakes, and trees are a magnet to God’s glory! Outside of home I lead people experience, culture, and communications at a health care start up.
I chose to focus my work on Psalm 4:8, “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.”
This verse has been a comfort to me in the anxious nights of my teenage years, sleepless nights of young motherhood, and I now pray it over my daughters at bedtime.
I was struck with the image of a parent and child at bedtime, a beautiful evening swirling around. This is my humble attempt to portray that scene.
I typically take a more abstract approach so this piece was a departure from my comfort zone! In was a fun challenge to draw precise lines and mix the night colors with acrylic paint instead of my typical oil medium. I worked on this over a series of Saturday mornings with my daughter next to me painting her own “dark sky.”
Last Sunday, June 22, we were joined by Dan Frederick of Save Our Youth. Save Our Youth is a nonprofit organization that resources and pairs mentors with at-risk youth seeking mentoring relationships. Park Church has partnered with Save Our Youth for many years!
To learn more about Save Our Youth or to investigate becoming a mentor, please visit saveouryouth.org or reach out directly to Dan at dan@saveouryouth.org.