We can imagine Jesus, the sinless one, praying Psalm 51 on behalf of all sinners. More passionately than even the convicted and grievously guilty David, Jesus our spotless Lamb confesses sin and prays for forgiveness AS ONE OF US.

Kneel beside Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Join your heart to his voice as he prays Psalm 56. Rejoice in the resolution he reaches. Give thanks for the trust he achieves.

As you read, kneel beside Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Join your heart to his voice as he prays these psalms.

Psalm 41:5-9 and Psalm 55:12-14, 20-21 pierce us. Our Lord takes them up as expressions of his own heart pain that an intimate has rejected him: "Even my close friend in whom I trusted. . . . For it is not an enemy who taunts me—then I could bear it. . . . But it is you, a man . . . my companion, my familiar friend."

Psalm 116 helps Jesus prepare for the intensity of anguish, both spiritual and physical, that the cross will bring. It gives him lyrics for the sorrow of his rejection and the hope of coming out alive on the other side.

In the passion of his mission, Jesus prays that no one seeking God would be brought to dishonor through him (Psalm 69:6). He can't bear to fail those he came to save, yet he knows that he must bear shame. He identifies with the psalmist's lament: "I have become a stranger to my brothers" (Psalm 69:8).

Palm Sunday is the brief moment when the people acclaim their true Messiah. We know that all too soon they will turn "Hosanna!" into "Crucify!" Jesus knows that too. So, he finds in Psalm 118 a piece of the sacred script for his final week. He must be hailed. And he must be rejected. It's all part of a plan wherein the king himself becomes the sacrifice taken to the altar of the LORD so that the new humanity in Christ might arise.

This psalm gives voice to Jesus' concern that he doesn't step to the left or the right as he forges through the days of ministry. Jesus prays with David, "Lead me on a level path because of my enemies." We hear how this psalm resonates in the words Jesus teaches all his disciples to pray continually, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."

Psalm 95 gives Jesus historical justification for his yearning to warn people that turning away from him has dire consequences—not because Jesus is so ego-centric that like a tyrant king he punishes those who ignore him. No, it is because he has come to give abundant life (John 10:10). To choose to stay in spiritual death, unforgiveness, disconnection from God, Brokenness in relationships, daily bitterness and constant agitation.