Prayers that Bring Us Home

"God, Walk with me. . . Let my Heart be your Way." This is a magnificent song of homecoming--we see the birds making a home, and the dry valley transformed into a source of strength.

"Do not be silent God! Do not be still!" How important is it to release our frustration with God?! Instead of pretending, masking, or burying this ancient prayer leads us through the vital heart-process of naming our hurts, fears, and disappointments in the process of sacred healing.

"Arise, God, judge the earth! . . . For You possess all the nations." This brief song focuses on the voice of God furiously calling out the gods, or those who pretend to be gods, for neglecting the needy and vulnerable. It is very different tone than Psalm 81 longing love song, but holds the same desire to satisfy and care. Also, this is a Psalm that Jesus quoted in a moment of enormous tension an...

"God, Help me to listen... Help me to receive your goodness." Psalm 81 is a stunning song that begins with worship and then is mysteriously interrupted by the voice of God. With beautiful and strange images, it is a love song of longing from a God who wants to be heard and known.

"God, make Your Face shine upon us. . . and we will be saved." Psalm 80 gives us this refrain three times in a meditation on the Shepherd that seems to have abandoned, the vine that seems destroyed forever, and the hope that seems so dim. This Psalm introduces the Messiah's presence, and calls God, "Lord of Armies," a plea for strength and life after the traumatic destruction of Psalm 79... and pr...

"How long, YAHWEH?. . . Forgive us and Save us!" This stands in stark contrast to the end of Psalm 78, where God has chosen Zion and the dwelling of the temple place--now the temple is destroyed and the communal trauma is overwhelming. This is an emotionally very difficult prayer, and an important guide for the broken spirit to continue crying out to God. The echo of "how long" pulls the spirit to...

"God, Let us not forget your works. . . Help us feel your shepherding hand." Psalm 78 is a MASSIVE history, retelling the Exodus but in an interesting form of cycles, and ending at the place of Zion and God's loving presence. This is an important practice of communal memory but also sets us up for the coming emotional (and theological) conflict of what it means to be "chosen" by God. This Psalm al...

"Let me see your Way through the mighty Waters... Help me remember my Song through the Night." Psalm 77 holds the magnificent image of God walking through the overwhelming chaos and turbulence of the Waters. Beginning though, with descriptions of a tortured night, and a failed effort to remember God's presence, this crisis of faith is met with grace, power, and beauty.

"Put the Violence to Sleep, God... Turn our Wrath into Praise." This Psalm is a beautiful response to our desperate need for "vengeance"--when our safety is destroyed and what we love is taken away. The last Psalms bring us to this place of needing to see God's power over everything violent and terrible... and we are left with the image of wrath transformed.

"We give thanks, Your Name is Near"... When the physical place of nearness is destroyed, there is still the mystery of spiritual closeness. We explore this surprising response to the previous Psalm's description of the Temple's destruction (the symbol of God's nearness)

"Rejection and Ruin surround me... God, let me feel your strength." This Psalm describes the horrifying destruction of the Temple--the place where God feels near... responding to Psalm 73's call to nearness with God, this prayer deals with the overwhelming emotions of that nearness destroyed. We are in a movement of Psalms that teach our spirits and minds how to pray through this struggle and cont...

"Take the bitterness from my heart God. Fill it with your Goodness..." This Psalm opens Book 3 of the prayer book with a way of looking at our hearts, the temptations they face, and an audacious way of presenting them to God. This prayer is beautifully confessional in a world of arrogance and violence.

"Let your Kingdom come, God. Let your Justice be done..." This is an Upside-down Coronation Song, celebrating the King of the Kingdom of God. We talk briefly about the ancient word "mishpat" translated as judgment, justice, and God's will being done.

"Revive me my God. Bring me up from the depths..." This prayer weaves together cries for rescue with adoring praise, begging to not be abandoned and seeking righteousness. It also unveils a promise of resurrection.

Hurry to Save ME, LORD. . . Turn SHAME into PRAISE. Psalm 70 is a brief prayer between two massive prayers of messianic suffering. This prayer teaches our spirits to praise through shame.

Hear Me God... Deliver me from drowning. Psalm 69 is quoted in all of the Gospels--a prayer overwhelmed by the Messiah's voice in utter suffering. This song teaches us to cry out, to curse, to pray fully with Jesus, and to turn into the communion of faith and praise through trauma.

God, make a Home for the Lonely... Almighty, make a way through the desert. This is a "Trauma Praise" song. This ancient prayer is flipping the experiences of military might and power, and guiding hurt people into turning all of the horrible memories and devastation into an experience of praise. The fantastical images and allusions are somewhat intimidating and require quite a bit of trust to let...

May your face SHINE upon us... Savior, Show us your Way. Psalm 67 is a brief but very rich pure praise song in a movement of full praise after some long prayer movements of thirst and desperation. This Psalm explodes with imagery for the early Christian church, and Paul's dangerous journeys across cultural and nation barriers. To get into some of the "nations" talk of this song, it's probably help...

"I come and see. I come and hear. How awesome are your works" The beautiful praise Psalm is a full sensory opening and remembering and turning toward a love and God who never turns from us.

"God, You are my Trust You nourish me with streams of water" Psalm 65 begins a movement of pure Praise Psalms, after a long and deep thirst, and pleading for rescue over the last 23 prayers, we are led to a powerful experience of nourishment and connection

"In a World full of attacks and lies, God, flow through us" Psalm 64 is a shoot-out! reprising this long movement of Psalms (49-62) begging for refuge, we have this show-down between the attacking lies and God's word. We discuss here the root of the ancient Hebrew word "to shoot" and its relationship with "God's guiding truth"

"My soul clings to You Your HESED is better than life" Psalm 63 is a summary of this long movement of thirst, thirst transformed into praise, and desperate pleading for rescue that we've experienced over the last 20 Psalms. It leads us in beautiful images of confession, clinging, and being held.

"My Soul, wait in silence only for God My God, I pour my heart out to you" This Psalm addresses both the soul AND God, while looking squarely at all the powerful spiritual distractions of violent destruction, attacks, lies, and economic temptations! This Psalm ends the movement of prayers begging for refuge and salvation that began back in Psalm 49

"Our hearts are faint and far away Bring us home into your love, truth, and eternity" Psalm 61 is a tender, affectionate, and hopeful plea for refuge.

"When Rejection Besieges Us, and the World Shakes Rescue us, God. Restore Us." Psalm 60 is a terrified and pained Psalm, that also includes a response from the voice of God! then a very human response of doubt and fear of rejection, leading into a pleading for refuge