Praying Through Psalms

CONSIDER PSALM 71:5: "For you have been my hope, O Sovereign Lord, my confidence since my youth." Hope in the Scripture is hope in a sure thing. It is not wishful thinking. Our hope is in the sure and steady sovereign Lord, in whom there is no shadow due to change. Therefore, we can have confidence that he will rescue us.

I LOVE THIS PSALM. There is so much joy in it. Make a joyful noise because God has done awesome things! Come and see what God has done among us! Bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard! This is what we do on a Sunday morning: we make a joyful noise and remember all the good things that God has done among us, and we celebrate! Frequently in the Psalms the psalmist takes a mom...

OFTEN WHILE READING or praying the Psalms, I am convicted. The source of the conviction is found in the first set of beads for this psalm, Psalm 63:3: "because your love is better than life." This is a glorious truth and I believe it to be true, but I do not always live in this truth. Being loved by the Father is better than life, better than anything - there is nothing greater to be des...

MY PRAYER FOR YOU is that this psalm will become a wonderful song of trust that you return to again and again. As you pray through it, rest in God's presence within and without. I pray that you know Jesus as your fortress and that your faith will not be shaken. If, as you have prayed this psalm, the Lord has brought to your mind places or people or things that you have put your trust in that a...

SO OFTEN WE FORGET to cry to God for help. We agonize over our troubles or set out to solve them on our own. Emotions overcome us, and we have no peace because we forget we have a Father in heaven who cares about every detail of our lives. What troubles have you hesitated to offer to God or forgotten to cry out to God about? Cast your burdens on him and rest in his sustaining love.

THIS IS CLEARLY a psalm for the penitent, but it is also a cry for help. Unlike other cries for help in the Psalms, the writer does not tell us what the troubles are. The trouble rests with those repenting and their own sin, making this a powerful prayer of confession for any who need to be washed from iniquity and cleansed from sin. My heart cries out to God, "According to your abundant merc...

THE FOURTH SET of beads says, "Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me; O Lord, make haste to help me." I have discovered that when the Lord delivers me from fear, or I have repented of a sin and feel much lighter, there is a sense of having "a new song put in my mouth by the Lord." Indeed, I walk with a new lightness that results in a hymn of praise in my heart. It is good to recall...

THE FIRST VERSE of Psalm 34 always causes me to reflect, for the Lord's praise is not continually in my mouth. Sometimes I am led to repentance - but always it is my prayer that it would be so, that his praise will be continually in my mouth. The Psalmist quickly gives a reason why the Lord is to be praised: "I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears."...

THIS HYMN is full of faith statements. The first set of beads says, "He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord." Sometimes it is difficult to see that the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord, so we need to take a closer look to spy out his faithfulness. Spend some time this week meditating on the truth that God is steadfast, that...

THE PSALMIST BEGINS this prayer with a beatitude, "Blessed is the one" who is forgiven. In verse 3 he takes us to the notion that as long as he kept silent and did not repent, he wasted away. When we continue in sin, we waste away; but when we repent, how blessed we are to walk in the knowledge that God forgives us. Psalm 32 is a good place to recognize that the voice of the Psalms often...

THE VERSE in the Cruciform Beads is core to our faith: "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?" (Psalm 27:1). Place your fears in Jesus's hands. Imagine yourself doing that. After you put your fear in his hands, watch. What does Jesus do with your fear? Journal.

WHAT A MAGNIFICENT LAMENT! Nothing is left out: to you I lift up my soul, let me not be put to shame, teach me your paths, make me to know your ways, remember your mercy, bring me out of my distresses, consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins. Amen. What part of this psalm will you carry with you today? Will it be to remember that the friendship of the Lord belongs to those w...

PSALM 24 BEGINS WITH THE REMINDER that "the earth is the Lord's"; he created it, he sustains it, he saves it, and he is the earth's owner. He is also the Creator of all who live on the earth. We depend on the Lord of heaven and earth because we live in his world. The gates and the "everlasting doors" the writer of this psalm is referring to are both the entrance to the...

PSALM 23 IS WRITTEN IN METAPHOR. When we look with our Christian lens, we easily see Jesus in this poem written so long ago. This poem can be both personal and a remembrance of how God cared for the nation of Israel. In John 10:11 Jesus says, " I am the good shepherd." Christians know that Jesus restores our souls and leads us in the way of righteousness. Jesus is with us in our troubles...

BOTH PSALM 19 AND PSALM 119 instruct us that the Word of the Lord is the best place to learn the sacred way of living. James L. Mays says of this psalm, "The world ( gives witness) to God. The creation manifests the glory of its creator. The psalm offers us...a vision of poetic imaginative personification. It is based on the notion, not uncommon in biblical thinking, that every created thing...

MEDITATE on Psalm 84:5: "Blessed are those whose strength is in you who have set their hearts on pilgrimage." What does it mean for you to be on pilgrimage with the Lord? Pray. Journal. Check out the new prayer book: MEDITATIONS AND PRAYERS From the Old and New Testaments: A Guide for Contemplative Prayer Using Anglican Prayer Beads. Found on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Pr...

THIS IS ONE of my favorite psalms. I hope you will read the whole psalm and savor the hyperbole. Consider the second set of beads: "He sent from on high, he took me: he drew me out of many waters. He rescued me from my strong enemy." Your strong enemy could be a life event, emotions that are disproportionate to the circumstances in your life, or even a spiritual power of darkness. Imagin...

THE THIRD SET of seven beads in the psalm says, "Keep me as the apple of your eye." Do you have trouble believing you are the apple of the Father's eye? If so, begin journaling phrases and verses in the following meditations that confirm this is true. Remember that Christ died for you and allow yourself to enjoy the truth that God has deemed you worthy of that sacrifice. Indeed, only...

PSALM 13 is the shortest prayer for help in the Psalter. It provides a wonderful framework for our cries to the Lord. It begins with "How long, O Lord?" I find I often approach the Lord in this way. Usually my enemy is my own sin, sin I have struggled with in varying degrees for years. The Psalmist continues with what will happen if the Lord does not rescue him He closes with wonderful s...

YOU MAY OR MAY NOT relate to the Psalmists's description of flooding his bed with tears, but anxious thoughts may keep you awake at night. When anxious thoughts cause your heart to mourn, then with the Psalmist pray, "Save my life; deliver me for the sake of your steadfast love." You can find this book on Amazon and the second in the series: Meditations and Prayers from the Old and New Testament:...

The third set of seven beads is taken from verse 8. I find this an almost daily prayer, "Lord, lead me," and then make my way straight, giving me wisdom for the journey. I cannot answer the great "problem of evil" question. However, I find peace in Psalm 5:4, in the knowledge that God does not "delight in wickedness," that evil is not allowed to travel with God. Go wi...

THE PSALTER concludes with this: "Praise the Lord!" I leave this for all of us then: "Praise the Lord!!" Where will you praise him? Why will you praise him? With what will you praise him? PRAISE THE LORD!!

"ONE GENERATION shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts." We have been given the sacred trust of being a generation that passes on the faith, the knowledge of the One True God, Maker and Keeper of the earth. Ask the Lord for his guidance in passing on the faith. We are nearing the end of the year. Have you ever practiced a year end examen? Ask the Lord where were yo...

IT IS OFTEN DIFFICULT for us to believe that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Yet, this is exactly what the Lord would have us know about our creation. James Mays says that Psalm 139 is a "doctrinal classic because it portrays human existence in all its dimensions in terms of God's knowledge, presence, and power. It reflects an understanding of the human as enclosed in divine reality...it te...

REMEMBERING is a major theme in the Old Testament. In the Psalms we have the liturgy passed on to us in order to remember that God created and God saves. Think of your journey of faith. What are the stones of remembrance in your own life? What stories do you find yourself retelling? Ask the Lord to bring to mind those stories you may have forgotten, or perhaps did not, at the time, see his hand in...