Nature Imagery

Why did the Psalmists so often turn to nature imagery to talk about God and their relationship with God?

I think it was true for the Psalmist and for us that we turn to imagery that allows us to bring something that is beyond our comprehension into comparison with something we understand so that we can begin to see that which is unseeable. The Psalmists and those who sang the psalms would have been close to nature, so those images would help them to understand God just a little bit.

 

Secondly, I think the Psalmists would have knowledge of sacred thought and writings that had come before that used nature imagery so it would have been easier to build on previously used images.

 

Thirdly, God was associated with creation of nature as explained in Genesis. I think God in our minds has a deep connection with nature, so images from nature seem appropriate.