Praying the Psalms

Why pray the Psalms?/Why sing the Psalms?

1. The Psalms are the Word of God.

The Psalms are the prayer book and the hymn book of the Bible.

Twice Paul tells churches to sing the Psalms.

Col 3:16–17/ Eph 5:18–20.

2. Jesus prayed the Psalms.

Psalm 118. (5–6, 17, 19, 22)

3. The early church prayed the Psalms.

Athansius : "Whatever your particular need or trouble, from this same book you can select a form of words to fit it, so that you do not merely hear and then pass on, but learn the way to remedy your ill. . . . The Psalms . . . show you how to set about repenting and with what words your penitence may be expressed. . . . The Psalms not only exhort us to be thankful, they also provide us with fitting words to say. We are told, too, by other writers that all who would live godly in Christ must suffer persecution; and here again the Psalms supply words with which both those who flee persecution and those who suffer under it may suitably address themselves to God, and it does the same for those who have been rescued from it. We are bidden elsewhere in the Bible also to bless the Lord and to acknowledge Him: here in the Psalms we are shown the way to do it, and with what sort of words His majesty may meetly be confessed. In fact, under all the circumstances of life, we shall find that these divine songs suit ourselves and meet our own souls’ need at every turn."

4. The reformers prayed the Psalms.

John Calvin wrote, “Whatever may serve to encourage us when we are about to pray to God, is taught us in this book.

What do the Psalms teach us?

1. They teach us to praise God.

There are Psalms praising the Lord for Creation. Psalm 104

There are Psalms praising the Lord for Salvation. Psalm 105, 106, 115, 136 praise God for the Exodus, we praise God for our greater exodus from sin in Jesus Christ.

There are Psalms praising the Lord for answered prayer. Psalm 30

There are Psalms praising the Lord for the Law. Ps 19 and 119

2. They show us how to Lament .

This is the most common Psalm in the Psalter.

A lament is a psalm in which the writer prays that God will deliver him from some crisis: sometimes his enemies, sometimes defeat in battle, sometimes a life-threatening illness. In these situations the psalmist often seems to think that God has deserted him

Jesus prayed Psalm 22 the cross.

Psalm 13: 1-4

Psalm 88

What do we do with these Psalms of lament?

1. The lament psalms are some of the most quoted in the New Testament. 2. Jesus prayed these lament psalms 3. The book of Revelation includes one of the prayers of the dead martyrs in heaven that is based on the lament psalms. 4. The early church prayed these psalms.

3. The Psalms teach us how to repent.

Penitential Psalms. Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143

These psalms stare the wickedness of sin in the face.

Psalm 51

4. The Psalms teach us to look to the Messiah.

Messianic Psalms. Psalm 2, 45, 72, 89, 110, 132, 144.

These are both historical, about the king of Israel, and prophetic about the coming Annointed Son King of God.

Each of these types of Psalms expands our view of God, his law, and his world.

So how do we do it? Whitney, Donald S. Praying the Bible. Crossway, 2015.

Psalm 23

1  The Lord is my shepherd;

I shall not want.

2  He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters.

As we pray this way, we are praying God's words back to him.

When we pray the Bible, we are not interpreting the Bible.

Each verse has only one meaning. Though it may have many applications.

We could apply this method to any text of Scripture, but why the Psalms in particular?

As a whole, the psalms make up the best place in Scripture from which to pray Scripture. We've seen that Psalms means praises, so the book of Psalms is a book of praises, all of which are God-breathed.

Whitney “It is as though God said to his people, "I want you to praise me, but you don't know how to praise me. I want you to praise me not because I'm an egomaniac but because you will praise that which you prize the most, and there is nothing of greater worth to you than I. There is nothing more praiseworthy than 1, and it is a blessing for you to know that. It will lead to your eternal joy if you praise me above all others and above all else and to your eternal misery if you do not. But there's a problem. You don't know how to praise me, at least not in a way that's fully true and pleasing to me. In fact, you know nothing about me unless I reveal it to you, for I am invisible to you. Therefore, since I want you to praise me, and it is good for you to praise me, but since you don't know how to praise me, here are the words I want you to use.”

How do we choose a Psalm to pray?

Psalm of the day.

150 Psalms, ~30 days in a month. 5 Psalms a day. Psalm 119 on the 31st.

Gordon Wenham, The Psalter Reclaimed: Praying and Praising with the Psalms (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013).