School of Prayer 50

WEEK 50

psalms this week

"God only requires of his adult children, that their hearts be truly purified, and that they offer Him continually the wishes and vows that naturally spring from perfect love. For these desires, being the genuine fruits of love, are the most perfect prayers that can spring from it."
- John Wesley

Psalms 142, 143, and 144

introduction to the Series

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

Psalm 142

Psalm 143

Psalm 144

Read Psalm 142. Make a numbered list from 1 to 7, representing the different verses of this Psalm. Then, for each verse:

What do you surmise about how the Psalmist is feeling?
What do you know or gather about his circumstance?
What do you imagine to be his tone of voice in this verse?
What do you imagine his face looked like as he spoke these words?
What characters in Scripture might have prayed these words?
Has there been a time in your own life when you might have prayed these words?

Psalm 142 is, from start to finish, a prayer. It is entirely addressed to God. And it seems to be a prayer in pain. As you read the Psalm:

What do you conclude about the God to whom this Psalmist is praying?
What do you observe about the Psalmist's faith?
In what ways is the Psalmist's faith an example for you?

As you read, make a list of the things that the Psalmist explicitly or implicitly asks the Lord to do.

To what extent do you resonate with any of those requests?
To what extent does each of the requests fit within the will and character of God?

As the Psalmist makes his requests, he often offers reasons -- an expression of why the Lord should help him.

What are the "whys" offered by the author of Psalm 142?
To what extent does each "why" resonate with your experience and your own prayer life?

Read verse 1 in a variety of translations.

The Psalmist's voice -- his crying out to the Lord out loud -- seems to be of significance in verse 1.

When have you used your voice in prayer? When have you cried out aloud to Him?
Deliberately recall and talk to Him about those times.
What have you experienced as the differences between praying silently and praying out loud?
Why is it important or beneficial to use your voice -- to pray aloud -- at times?

Read verse 2 in a variety of translations in order to gain a full sense for the meaning.

What are the verbs that express what the Psalmist is doing?
What are the objects of those verbs?
Select a few combinations of the verbs and the objects from verse 2, and then let them become instructions for your own prayer time just now.

Whatever references the author of Psalm 142 makes to other people, he seems to be either alone and isolated or persecuted and under attack. In any case, he has no human companion or helper.

When have you felt that way?
How does that experience seem to impact the relationship that the Psalmist has with the Lord?
How have similar experiences in your own life impacted your relationship with the Lord?

Read verse 5 in several translations in order to gain a full sense of the meaning.

Having reflected on its meaning, rewrite that verse in your own words.

Speak your rewritten version of verse 5 aloud in prayer, making it your own personal word to the Lord.

Read Psalm 143. This Psalm is, from start to finish, a prayer seeking God's deliverance and help from human enemies. As you read:

What do you discover about the Psalmist's situation?
What seem to be the deeds of the author's opponents or persecutors?
What seem to be the characteristics or attributes of those persons?

Now going back and reviewing your observations:

As you reflect on the apparent situation of the Psalmist, what characters in the Bible might have prayed this prayer?
Have you ever been in similar situations?
As you reflect on the deeds of the author's opponents, to what extent do those deeds represent disobedience to God's will or law?
As you reflect on the characteristics of the author's opponents, compare them to what you understand to be the characteristics or attributes of God?
In light of your reflections on the deeds and the characteristics of his opponents, to what extent do you believe that the Psalmist could pray confidently as one who was within the will of God?

As you read the Psalm, make a list of the things that the Psalmist implicitly or explicitly asks the Lord to do?

Reflecting on what the Psalmist asks of the Lord:

To what extent does his prayer resonate with your own experience of asking things of God?
When in Scripture does God do the sorts of things that the Psalmist asks?

As we have noted before, what a person says to the Lord reveals what that person believes about Him. With that principle in mind:

What do verses 1-2 reveal about the Lord or what the Psalmist believes about Him?
What do verses 3-4 reveal about the Lord or what the Psalmist believes about Him?
What do verses 5-6 reveal about the Lord or what the Psalmist believes about Him?
What do verses 7-8 reveal about the Lord or what the Psalmist believes about Him?
What do verses 9-10 reveal about the Lord or what the Psalmist believes about Him?
What do verses 11-12 reveal about the Lord or what the Psalmist believes about Him?

In verse 5, the Psalmist turns his attention to the past:

What is his purpose in remembering the past?
What about remembering the past is difficult when a person has trouble in the present?
To what extent is the Psalmist exemplary for you with respect to his choice to recall the past?

Read verse 5 in a variety of translations in order to get a full sense of the meaning.

Jot down, as though explaining to someone else, what you understand the Psalmist to be doing?
Spend several minutes now doing what you understand the Psalmist to have been doing.

In verse 11, the Psalmist asks the Lord to do something "for Your name's sake.

Read Psalms 31:3.
Read Psalms 79:9.
Read Psalms 106:8.
Read Psalms 109:21.

What do you understand to be the significance of the Lord's name as a motivation for His action?

What do you understand to be the significance of the Lord's name as a motivation for your actions?

What do you learn from verse 11 that should factor into your own prayer life?

Read Psalm 144 . As you read, make a numbered list from 1 to 15, representing the fifteen verses in this Psalm. Then, for each verse:

How would you characterize the author's tone?
What do you know about the circumstances of the author?
To what extent do you relate to the author's circumstances?
What do you know about the past experience of the author?
To what extent do you relate to the author's past experience?
What do you learn about God -- or at least the author's faith in God?

The author of Psalm 144 makes many requests of the Lord. As you read through the Psalm, make a list of those requests. Then:

Which of the requests resonate with your own prayer life?
Which of the requests seem to match what God had done in some other story in the Bible?
Which of the requests seem to be consistent with the will, nature, and heart of God?

It seems that the Psalmist was facing some human opponents.

What do you know about them based on what the Psalmist says?
Based on what the Psalmist says about them, do they remind you of any other characters in Scripture?
How did the Lord respond to those characters?
To what extent do the Psalmist's prayers fit with your understanding of the will of God?

Military and warfare imagery is prevalent in this Psalm. Highlight or make a list of each instance of such imagery in Psalm 144. Then:

In each case, do you take the language or the image to be metaphorical or literal?
Where you deem the language or image to be metaphorical, what do you believe the Psalmist is trying to convey by using that imagery?
To what extent does that imagery -- and what it conveys -- resonate with your experience?

Read Ephesians 6:10-17. Then:

How do you understand Paul's words, images, and language in light of your reflections on Psalm 144?
What do Psalm 144 and the passage from Ephesians 6 tell you about the life or the man or woman of God in this world?
What do Psalm 144 and Ephesians excerpt tell you about God's role in that life experience?
Talk to Him about your discoveries.

The author of Psalm 144 uses several images in order to describe the Lord and his relationship with Him.

Make a list of those images.
What does each image suggest or reveal about the Lord?
To what extent does each image and what it says about God resonate with your experience and your relationship with Him?

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Read verses 3-4 in several translations in order to get a full sense of the meaning. Then:

What does the Psalmist seem to believe about human beings?
To what extent does that anthropology square with your own?
To what extent does that view of human beings fit with what you see elsewhere in Scripture?

One of the hallmarks of Hebrew poetry is a structure called parallelism. It takes a variety of forms, but in its simplest form it typically features two lines that are either synonymous or antithetical. As such, the two lines lend insight into each other. Evaluate verse 15 in light of the pattern of Hebrew parallelism. What does each line say about the other?

* 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.”