Praying with the Psalmists

Introduction

Many of us don’t pray—because we don’t know how to pray

My goal this weekend is to show you how to pray—how the Bible shows us to pray

Prayer is not a static thing

How we pray changes in different seasons, through different emotions, in the ups and downs

Just like any relationship we have

And the Bible has actually given us a book of prayers—The Psalms

They are filled with different emotions and human experiences

From praise and thanksgiving, to betrayal, sorrow, anger, and hope

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

They teach us to pray: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

The Good

Psalm 138

Why Praise?

Praise completes our joy

Are we aware of all of God’s blessings?

James 1:16–17 CSB

16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

Or are we like spoiled children

Reasons we fail to praise God:

We are too busy

We fail to look for God

The Bad

Psalm 88:1-18

Psalm 13

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?”

You see the Psalmist is praying what is on their heart—not trying to clean themselves up before God

Lewis: “We must lay before him what is in us; not what ought to be in us”

God can take it

Emotionally unloading before God is a healthy practice

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

Did you know that the largest subcategory of Psalms is lament?

Those are sad Psalms

Lament = Naming our pain and bringing it to God

When we read and pray these laments:

We remind ourselves that we are not alone

That this is the story of God’s people

That even God is heartbroken at the state of this world—and even Jesus weeps while he prays

There is a need to lament

Without it we often numb ourselves

Numb the pain through distraction or sin

Try to convince ourselves that things will be okay

Try to fix our own or other people’s problems

Numbing one area of your life doesn’t work

Most of the time these laments end in praise

Psalm 13:1-6

We are people who lament, but we know that praise gets the final word

The Ugly

Psalm 32/51 - 109

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

Psalm 32 and 51 (among others) are songs of repentance that show us how to pray when we have fallen short and are aware of our own brokenness and sin

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

Psalm 32:1-7 The effects of sin

Psalm 51

David and Bathsheba/Uriah

Psalm 109

Mean Psalm

This is in the Bible

God’s people have prayed this way for centuries

God can take it

Even Jesus quotes imprecatory Psalms in the Bible

And these Psalms aren’t about personal vengeance

They are cries for justice (Hungering and thirsting for righteousness)

They are crying these out to God so that we trust him—not that we act out on our own

Bottle it up

Rot

Burst

Gossip

God can take it

God knows the situation

God knows your hurt

God is fully committed to you

God is fully committed to the people who have hurt you

Gossiping is not going to change God’s mind about people

When we bring these thoughts to God

He listens, he understands, he helps us calm down to better listen love and respect those people who hurt us

War in Ukraine

Conclusion

All of this said: The Psalms contain so much of our human experience and they teach us how to pray

“We must lay before him what is in us; not what ought to be in us

And today we are going to spend some time praying the Psalms

Making these prayers our own

But we have to clear our minds from distractions

Slowly read — not just to study or understand — but to pray them for yourself

Write them out by hand and speak them out loud

And take time to see if the Lord has anything to speak to you

Cross references in the Bible

Explain chart

Pray