Praying through the Psalms

Introduction

Series through the Bible

The last two weeks we worked through the prophets

And we talked about the hope that they are pointing us to

But before we get to the New Testament to see the fulfillment of these hopes, we have to spend some time talking about wisdom literature

Who knows any books of the Bible that would be considered wisdom literature?

Job

Psalms

Proverbs

Ecclesiastes

Song of Songs

And these books are a lot different than the rest of the Bible

A lot of it is poetic

It is not telling a narrative

There are not clear characters, motives, plot, etc.

It can be very difficult to understand

And before we get into the details over the next few weeks I want to say this:

Wisdom literature takes time to read… it takes time to reflect on… the main point isn’t always clearly stated

Imagine if I picked up a poetry book in the library and expected it to be a novel

I would probably be very frustrated and confused

And so as we talk about wisdom literature—we have to slow down

Scripture Reading:

Psalm 119:97–104 (CSB)

How I love your instruction!

It is my meditation all day long.

Your command makes me wiser than my enemies,

for it is always with me.

I have more insight than all my teachers

because your decrees are my meditation.

I understand more than the elders

because I obey your precepts.

I have kept my feet from every evil path

to follow your word.

I have not turned from your judgments,

for you yourself have instructed me.

How sweet your word is to my taste—

sweeter than honey in my mouth.

I gain understanding from your precepts;

therefore I hate every false way.

Introduction to the Psalms:

The Psalms are a book of songs and prayers of God people

While most of the Bible is God communicating to humanity—whether through stories or prophetic words— the psalms are the account of God’s people communicating to God

In a way, it is a collection of the prayers of God’s people for hundreds of years

And so for us today—the Psalms teach us how to pray

We all know that prayer is a vital aspect of our spiritual life

But the Psalms teach us how to actually pray

And we’ll see today that there is a wide range of prayer in the Psalms—high highs and low lows

And we’ve said this before but prayer’s foundation is relational

And just like any relationship—there are ups and downs

How we talk to and relate to people is not static

So why would it be the same with God?

The Psalms are filled with different emotions and human experiences

Praise, thanksgiving, grieving, anger, vengeance, desperation, anxiety, etc.

And Jesus himself quoted from the book of Psalms more than any other book in the OT

Jesus was a man of prayer—and he knew the book of prayer

So today we are going to look through several psalms to see how they teach us how to pray

(SLIDES)

Praying when things are good

Praying when things are bad

Praying when things are ugly

The Good (Psalm 138)

How do we pray when life is good and God feels near? — Open to Psalm 138 (SLIDES)

Psalm 138 (CSB)

1 I will give you thanks with all my heart;

I will sing your praise before the heavenly beings.

2 I will bow down toward your holy temple

and give thanks to your name

for your constant love and truth.

You have exalted your name

and your promise above everything else.

3 On the day I called, you answered me;

you increased strength within me.

4 All the kings on earth will give you thanks, Lord,

when they hear what you have promised.

5 They will sing of the Lord’s ways,

for the Lord’s glory is great.

6 Though the Lord is exalted,

he takes note of the humble;

but he knows the haughty from a distance.

7 If I walk into the thick of danger,

you will preserve my life

from the anger of my enemies.

You will extend your hand;

your right hand will save me.

8 The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me.

Lord, your faithful love endures forever;

do not abandon the work of your hands.

This sounds so great!

Wouldn’t we always want to pray like this?

To say: “On the day I called, you answered me; you increased strength within me."

Sometimes God does work like this and it is amazing

To say: "If I walk into the thick of danger, you will preserve my life from the anger of my enemies. You will extend your hand; your right hand will save me."

Sometimes our faith and trust in God are unbreakable

Praising God is something we are commanded to do throughout Scripture

Why is this the case?

Is God egotistical and narcissistic and needs to feed of others praise?

Is it a formula for us to secure blessing?

Is it just simply a command or rule for us to follow?

I think we are commanded to praise God—because it is actually beneficial to us

(SLIDES)

C.S. Lewis:

“I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with. . . . The Scotch catechism says that man’s chief end is ‘to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.’ But we shall then know that these are the same thing. Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.”

Expound: Praise is for our joy

Enjoying a great meal or movie

Our joy isn’t complete until we share it with others

Praise is good for us, but we often forget to praise God

Every day we receive gifts and blessings from God, as James says:

James 1:16–17 (CSB)

Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

The truth is that we are often deceived

Often we behave as if we are spoiled children taking every good gift for granted

When we miss out on giving thanks, we miss out on the joy of our relationship with our God

Two reasons we fail to praise God

We are too busy

We fail to look for God

The Bad (Psalm 88 & 13)

But how do we pray when life is bad?

When God feels far away and we feel abandoned?

Open to Psalm 88

(Slides)

Psalm 88:1–18 (CSB)

Lord, God of my salvation,

I cry out before you day and night.

May my prayer reach your presence;

listen to my cry.

For I have had enough troubles,

and my life is near Sheol.

I am counted among those going down to the Pit.

I am like a man without strength,

abandoned among the dead.

I am like the slain lying in the grave,

whom you no longer remember,

and who are cut off from your care.

You have put me in the lowest part of the Pit,

in the darkest places, in the depths.

Your wrath weighs heavily on me;

you have overwhelmed me with all your waves.

Selah

You have distanced my friends from me;

you have made me repulsive to them.

I am shut in and cannot go out.

My eyes are worn out from crying.

Lord, I cry out to you all day long;

I spread out my hands to you.

Do you work wonders for the dead?

Do departed spirits rise up to praise you?

Selah

Will your faithful love be declared in the grave,

your faithfulness in Abaddon?

Will your wonders be known in the darkness

or your righteousness in the land of oblivion?

But I call to you for help, Lord;

in the morning my prayer meets you.

Lord, why do you reject me?

Why do you hide your face from me?

From my youth,

I have been suffering and near death.

I suffer your horrors; I am desperate.

Your wrath sweeps over me;

your terrors destroy me.

They surround me like water all day long;

they close in on me from every side.

You have distanced loved one and neighbor from me;

darkness is my only friend.

Wow…such a different prayer...

From: "On the day I called, you answered me; you increased strength within me."

To: "I call to you for help, Lord ; in the morning my prayer meets you. Lord, why do you reject me? Why do you hide your face from me?"

From: "If I walk into the thick of danger, you will preserve my life from the anger of my enemies. You will extend your hand; your right hand will save me."

To: "Your wrath sweeps over me; your terrors destroy me. They surround me like water all day long; they close in on me from every side."

What is happening here?

I have to say this: We can give it all to God, he’s not afraid of what we might have to say

One of my favorite quotes:

(SLIDES)

"We must lay before him what is in us; not what ought to be in us." - C.S. Lewis

God can take it

Emotionally unloading before God is a healthy practice

Instead of bottling it all up inside we give it to God

We tell him how we are feeling

Does anyone know what the largest subcategory of Psalms are? (Hint: Its not Praise)

Its lament

What is Lament?

In short, it is naming our pain and bringing it to God

When we read and pray all of these lament songs, we remind ourselves that we are not alone

Guys, this is the story of God’s people—it is hard

God himself is heartbroken at the state of the world and the destruction of sin

We see this as Jesus himself weeps in the gospels

But lament doesn’t end there

Lament brings us to a place where we can find a newfound trust and hope in God

Like Jesus says:

Matthew 5:4 (CSB)

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

There is a need to lament

Without experiencing the sorrows of this world, we refuse the comfort that God wants to provide

We (myself included) can tend to numb the pain of living in this broken world

We can try to tell ourselves that everything will be alright

We can try to fix out own and others problems and make our own solutions

But numbing one area of your life doesn’t work

You become numb to to joys and good things too

We shouldn’t stay in this sadness but this is the place that we meet God and where we find him anew

A.W. Tozer:

paraphrase

'We do not by suffering earn the anointing for which we yearn, nor does this devastation of soul make us dear to God nor give us additional favor in His eyes. The value of the stripping experience lies in its power to detach us from life's passing interests and to throw us back upon eternity. It serves to empty our earthly vessels and prepares for the impouring of the Holy Spirit.'

But in a world full of sorrows and laments, praise gets the last word

Psalm 13 is a great example of this:

(SLIDES)

Psalm 13 (CSB)

How long, Lord? Will you forget me

forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

How long will I store up anxious concerns within me,

agony in my mind every day?

How long will my enemy dominate me?

Consider me and answer, Lord my God.

Restore brightness to my eyes;

otherwise, I will sleep in death.

My enemy will say, “I have triumphed over him,”

and my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.

But I have trusted in your faithful love;

my heart will rejoice in your deliverance.

I will sing to the Lord

because he has treated me generously.

So we see here how the Psalms give us the words to help us process lament—and that God can take our sorrows.

The Ugly (Psalm 32/51 & 109)

(next cover slide)

Not only do the Psalms teach us to pray when things are amazing and praiseworthy and when they are dark and sorrowful, but the Psalms give us word to vent out the ugly parts of our lives, the ugly

Psalm 32 and 51 (among others) are songs of repentance that show us how to pray when we have fallen short before the Lord

Psalm 109 is an imprecatory Psalm that (is really nasty) and shows us how to pray when we are repeatedly treated unfairly and sinned against by others

Psalm 32 shows us the need to confess our sins to God

Just like we shouldn't bottle up our hurt and keep it from God

We shouldn't bottle up the ugly parts of our lives and keep it from God

(SLIDES)

Psalm 32:1–7 (CSB)

How joyful is the one

whose transgression is forgiven,

whose sin is covered!

How joyful is a person whom

the Lord does not charge with iniquity

and in whose spirit is no deceit!

When I kept silent, my bones became brittle

from my groaning all day long.

For day and night your hand was heavy on me;

my strength was drained

as in the summer’s heat.

Selah

Then I acknowledged my sin to you

and did not conceal my iniquity.

I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”

and you forgave the guilt of my sin.

Selah

Therefore let everyone who is faithful pray to you immediately.

When great floodwaters come,

they will not reach him.

You are my hiding place;

you protect me from trouble.

You surround me with joyful shouts of deliverance.

Selah

We see the effects of unconfessed sin

Groaning

Body wasting away

(Felt) the hand of discipline

Strength evaporated like water in summer

And I won’t get into Psalm 51 today, but it is the Psalm David wrote after his sin against Uriah and Bathsheba

It is a humbling song of repentance and trust in God

I’ve prayed through it more times than I can count

And if you’re going through nasty things in your life I recommend you meditate on in

And then we have Psalm 109 — How we deal with our anger towards those who hate us

I’m just going to read this and I want you to listen

Just keep in mind that this song was included in a book of songs for God’s people that they have sung for centuries

The first words: “For the Choir Director”

(SLIDES)

Psalm 109 (CSB)

For the choir director. A psalm of David.

God of my praise, do not be silent.

For wicked and deceitful mouths open against me;

they speak against me with lying tongues.

They surround me with hateful words

and attack me without cause.

In return for my love they accuse me,

but I continue to pray.

They repay me evil for good,

and hatred for my love.

Set a wicked person over him;

let an accuser stand at his right hand.

When he is judged, let him be found guilty,

and let his prayer be counted as sin.

Let his days be few;

let another take over his position.

Let his children be fatherless

and his wife a widow.

Let his children wander as beggars,

searching for food far from their demolished homes.

Let a creditor seize all he has;

let strangers plunder what he has worked for.

Let no one show him kindness,

and let no one be gracious to his fatherless children.

Let the line of his descendants be cut off;

let their name be blotted out in the next generation.

Let the iniquity of his fathers

be remembered before the Lord,

and do not let his mother’s sin be blotted out.

Let their sins always remain before the Lord,

and let him remove all memory of them from the earth.

For he did not think to show kindness,

but pursued the suffering, needy, and brokenhearted

in order to put them to death.

He loved cursing—let it fall on him;

he took no delight in blessing—let it be far from him.

He wore cursing like his coat—

let it enter his body like water

and go into his bones like oil.

Let it be like a robe he wraps around himself,

like a belt he always wears.

Let this be the Lord’s payment to my accusers,

to those who speak evil against me.

But you, Lord, my Lord,

deal kindly with me for your name’s sake;

because your faithful love is good, rescue me.

For I am suffering and needy;

my heart is wounded within me.

I fade away like a lengthening shadow;

I am shaken off like a locust.

My knees are weak from fasting,

and my body is emaciated.

I have become an object of ridicule to my accusers;

when they see me, they shake their heads in scorn.

Help me, Lord my God;

save me according to your faithful love

so they may know that this is your hand

and that you, Lord, have done it.

Though they curse, you will bless.

When they rise up, they will be put to shame,

but your servant will rejoice.

My accusers will be clothed with disgrace;

they will wear their shame like a cloak.

I will fervently thank the Lord with my mouth;

I will praise him in the presence of many.

For he stands at the right hand of the needy

to save him from those who would condemn him.

Wow...

What do we make of this Psalm?

Should we really pray like this?

I think we can—and should

But we should be careful to know the context

I think this is the point:

I have said it, and I will say it again… God can take it

The Good. The Bad. And the very Ugly things in our lives

This Psalm is in our Bible

This was sung by a choir

Jesus himself quotes imprecatory Psalms

What more can I say except that we are allowed to pray like this?

But there are a few things I want to point out before we all leave cursing everyone on our ways home

(SLIDES)

(SLIDES)

These prayers are about a longing for justice, not personal vengeance

It is not about hatred, it is about desiring God to intervene

The balance—Righteousness and Mercy

Matthew 5:6–7 (CSB)

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful,

for they will be shown mercy.

(SLIDES)

2. These prayers are about committing these things to God, not acting out on our own

Paul says:

Romans 12:14 (CSB)

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.

How are we to bless those who make it their aim to hurt us?

Our pain and hurt must be dealt with

If we continue to bottle it up and ignore it; it is not going to end well

We are faced with 3 options

We bottle it up and it rots us from the inside out

We begin to harbor resentment and hatred

We bottle it up and it bursts out

We act out of this place of hurt to hurt others back

We speak it to God and get it out of our system before it rots us or busts out

And many of us do this in the form of gossip or slander

But this is no different than taking things into our own hands

Who on Earth could take all of our nasty hurts?

God can take it

He knows the situation

He knows your hurt

He is fully committed to loving you

He is fully committed to loving the people who have hurt you

Gossiping to God isn’t going to change his mind about people

God can take your hurts and sorrows

If we don’t learn to cast them onto God, we will continue to grow in bitterness and hatred

I personally find that as I bring the pains others have done to me before God that I feel heard and understood and I'm able to cool down and better love and respect that person

We put the situation and our hurts into God’s hands

Knowing that he is able to balance justice and mercy

This sounds great in theory but deep hurt and emotions can be hard to hand over to God

Sometimes it’s wrestling

EX. War in Ukraine

(SLIDES)

3. These prayers make up a small minority of the Psalms

Jesus himself quoted some of these psalms

So should we pray them?

Yes, but not all of the time

Not even a lot of the time

We need to find a balance

The Psalms are teaching us ways to process through hurt and injustice with God through prayer

Conclusion

So the point I want to leave you with is that we experience true life in prayer when we bring everything before God

Again: "We must lay before him what is in us; not what ought to be in us."

The Psalms teach us how to pray

They are a collection of prayers and songs that are inspired by God meant to be spoken to God The psalms don't all look the same

They don't shy away from the wide range of human experiences and emotions

But they invite us to bring these things to God

The good, the bad, and the ugly.

I want to encourage you to read the Psalms

To sit with them, meditate on them…

Make these prayers of God's people throughout history, your own prayers

Learn to process your emotions with God through prayer