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 moment amidst the declarations of praise in order to instruct the people. In verse 18 the psalmist does just that when he reminds his listeners that "If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened." This is a call to purity and repentance. Is there anything we are treasuring in our hearts that God wants to remove, that in fact must be removed before the Lord will act?

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 desired. My desire is to meditate on this truth so that my faith grows in such a way that I live out this truth.

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 are not God, give those to him now. Repent where God brings conviction to do so.

Close by thanking God that he is strong and that he is loving. Journal.

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 mercy blot out my transgressions." "Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin." "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." All of these verses give a clear picture of what it means to be dependent on God, to be made right with him and right with the world. We can have confidence that the Lord can and will create a clean heart within those who call on his name. It is, in fact, his deepest desire to renew a right spirit within us.

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 places where the Lord has helped and delivered us, to bring them to him in a song or prayer of praise. Revisiting the things God has done for us strengthens us. That is one of the reasons that remembrance is such a key theme of the Bible.

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." Take some time to remember the times you sought the Lord and he answered you, delivering you from all your fears.

Do we forget to cry for help? Tell God your troubles. Intercede for the trouble of others. Let the truth that "the Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit" sink deeply into your spirit. This is the confidence we have when we pray for ourselves and for others.

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 his love for you is steadfast.

Write out your own definition of what it means to be steadfast.

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 changes. We begin with the penitent's voice in verses 1 to 5 telling us about the reasons to repent. In verse 6 he transitions to a teacher, instructing that "...everyone who is godly (should) offer prayer to you (to God) at a time when you (God) may be found."

In verse 8 and 9, God is actually the speaker and tells us that he will instruct us and teach us how to live.

Please read this Psalm in its entriety with the idea of watching for the chang of "voice." When you become comfortable with voice changes in the Psalms, it will diminish some of the confusion we sometimes have as to who is speaking in any given psalm.