WEEK 17 |
psalms this week |
"Ah, Lord, where is this spirit that ought to be in my life? I do not feel it. I cannot discover it. I am conscious only of physical inertia and spiritual dullness. My weak will is divided between Thee and a thousand pointless pleasures. Where is Thy Spirit? Will it come to create in me a new heart like unto Thine? O God, at last I understand -- it is in an impoverished soul that Thy Holy Spirit deigns to dwell, provided the soul is opened to It without measure. Awareness of the absence of the Savior and all His gifts attracts the Holy Ghost." |
Psalms 49, 50, and 51
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introduction to the Series
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Most of what we learn how to do, we learn from other people. Sometimes it is the learning that comes from specific and deliberate instruction. At other times it is the learning that comes by way of example and imitation. During 2023, our endeavor is to learn how to pray from the Psalmist.*
The Book of Psalms is the longest book in the Bible, and it is mostly a book of prayers. We will spend the year going through the book, beginning to end, and letting the Psalmist teach us by example how to pray. |
In this endeavor, we cannot benefit from his deliberate instruction, of course. What we can do, however, is take full advantage of his example. We will observe how he prays, and we will learn to imitate him.
Our approach will be week by week. The recommended practices and exercises are not daily, but rather suggestions for an individual to implement throughout the whole week. |
Exercises for this week
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Psalm 49
Read Psalm 49. This Psalm is one of several that are sometimes classified as "wisdom Psalms." These are Psalms that reflect on life in this world -- what becomes of people, the meaning and purpose of life, the experience of the righteous, and of the wicked, theodicy, and God's law. Especially central to the wisdom literature of the Old Testament is wrestling -- from a perspective of faith -- with the things about life in this world that seem unjust, unresolved, or contrary to God's perfect will. As you read the Psalm, make a list of the issues that seem to be of chief concern to the Psalmist.
Review that list in prayer. Talk to the Lord about each of the issues about which the Psalmist writes. Talk to Him about your own feelings and beliefs about each. Returning to the list that you've made, identify in the case of each issue what the Psalmist believes or affirms about that issue. Talk to the Lord about the faith perspective expressed by the Psalmist for each of the issues on the list. Talk with Him about how your own perspective compares to what the Psalmist expresses. According to the Psalmist, how is humankind like the animals? According to the Psalmist, how is humankind unlike the animals? As you read through the Psalm, summarize what you perceive to be the Psalmist's beliefs about death. Talk to the Lord about those beliefs. The first verses of this Psalm invite the attention of a large and broad audience. What is it in this Psalm that you think is important for that audience to hear and to know? In addition to addressing the aforementioned large audience, the Psalmist also addresses himself. Make a list of the things that the Psalmist says to himself. Why might it have been important for the Psalmist to say to himself what he did? Why might it be necessary? As you reflect on life in this world, what are the issues that trouble you because of the seeming unfairness, injustice, or contrariness to God's perfect will?
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Psalm 50
Read Psalm 50. Broadly speaking, we think of the Psalms as expressions of what human beings said and say to God. Psalm 50, however, is quite different, for its focus is on what God says to human beings. His words seem to be recorded in verses 5, 7-23. Begin by considering verses 1-4 and 6. What role do they play in preparing the human audience for the words of God?
We want again to embark on the mental exercise of pretending that we don't know anything about the Lord apart from what is found in a selected passage. This does not mean that any one passage contains all we need to know about Him, but it is an exercise that helps us to read a given passage more carefully. Pretend, therefore, that all you know about Him is what is written in verses 1-4 and 5. Reflect on those verses. Jot down what you know about Him based solely on those verses. Write a description of Him. Now, with that description before you, talk to the Lord about what you have written -- that is, what you have perceived about Him from this text. Talk to Him about the degree to which that description seems familiar or unfamiliar -- how this Psalm's revelation of Him matches or does not match your understanding of Him to-date. Now turn your attention to the other verses in the Psalm: the ones in which God Himself is speaking. For each verse, identify His audience: to whom do you understand Him to be speaking in this verse? To what extent do you understand Him to be speaking to you in this verse? Turning again to the verses in which God Himself speaks, identify what He says or reveals about Himself. What do you know about Him from what He says? Talk to Him about what He says about Himself. Based on what you discern about the Lord from this Psalm -- first from the verses spoken about Him and then from the verses spoken by Him -- what is your heart's response to Him? What is your mind's response to Him? What is your life's response to Him? Talk to Him about those responses. Central to Psalm 50 is the affirmation that God judges. How is that good news? How is that a cause for praise? How is that consistent with the biblical affirmation that "God is love" (1 John 4:8)? Talk with Him about these questions. Recognizing that God is Judge, make a list of the attitudes and behaviors in Psalm 50 that please Him. Talk to Him about that list and the items on it that resonate with, describe, or apply to you. Recognizing that God is Judge, make a list of the attitudes and behaviors in Psalm 50 that displease Him. Talk to Him about that list and the items on it that resonate with, describe, or apply to you. |
Psalm 51
Read Psalm 51. As you read, think in terms of before-and-after pictures. The Psalmist is living in a "before" picture, and he is praying for a different experience, a different status, a different situation; he is praying for an "after" picture. As you read the Psalm, make a two-column list. In the one column, jot down a description of the "before" picture: what seems to be his present experience? In the other column, jot down a description of the "after" picture: how does the Psalmist hope and pray that things will be?
Talk to the Lord about each of the two pictures you have described. Talk to Him about the extent to which each one is familiar to you. Talk to Him about what your "picture" is today compared to the Psalmist's "before" and the Psalmist's "after." As you reflect on the Psalmist's "before" and "after" pictures, what does he understand to be the thing that makes the difference? In other words, what is the key to changing the picture of his status and experience so dramatically? We have a sense from the superscription of what the Psalmist had done: the behavior that had led to his "before" picture. Now identify what the Psalmist will do in the future as a function or result of the "after" picture. Talk to the Lord about the extent to which that is part of your "after" picture. We have considered in earlier weeks the concept of the Psalmist's "because." Often when he prays for the Lord to do this or that, the Psalmist offers a reason to appeal to God -- a "because." Read Psalm 51 and identify what "becauses" the Psalmist offers to God. Talk to the Lord about the "becauses" in Psalm 51. To what extent are they familiar to you? What can you learn from them? Verses 3-5 describe the Psalmist's sense of his own condition. Reflect on these verses. Rewrite them in your own words: make them your own. After you have endeavored to re-express what the Psalmist is saying, pray your rewritten prayer to God. Read through Psalm 51 one verse at a time, after each verse asking and answering this question: Does this verse teach me something about the Lord? If so, what does it reveal to me about what He desires? What does it show me about what He is like? Talk to the Lord about your discoveries -- the things revealed to you about Him in Psalm 51. Read verse 17 in a variety of translations. Use that variety to give you insight into what the Psalmist is saying. Then write your own description of what it is that pleases the Lord, what it is that He desires. Finally, talk to Him about that description and how it has or does -- or has not or does not -- describe you. |
* We will refer to the author as “the Psalmist,” though of course not all of the Psalms were written by the same person. A significant number are attributed to David. Others are associated with Asaph, the sons of Korah, and an assortment of other individuals. Also, several dozen Psalms have no name attached to them. For the sake of ease and uniformity, we will simply refer to “the Psalmist.”