WEEK 9 |
psalms this week |
"When you pray, ask for what you will with firm faith. If you are not confident when you pray, little will come of it. God loves the heart that trusts in Him. He will never ignore those who place their complete trust in Him. It is like a father listening to his child." |
Psalms 25, 26, and 27.
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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 25
Read Psalm 25. The Psalmist begins by by expressing two things that he is doing in relation to God. Rewrite those two phrases in your own words.
Hebrew poetry is characterized by parallelism -- that is, two or three consecutive lines that often say the same thing in slightly different or nuanced ways. If the first phrase and the second phrase of Psalm 25 are different ways of saying the same thing, how does that help you to understand what the Psalmist is saying, what the Psalmist is doing? How might it be beneficial for you to begin your prayers the same way? Read through the Psalm again and make a note of what the Psalmist says about these subjects: defeat, victory, success. What would you say is his definition of each of these? Are your definitions different? Psalm 25 features a remarkably long list of specific requests that the Psalmist makes of the Lord. As you read the Psalm, make your own written version of that list. Jot down each individual thing that the Psalmist asks the Lord to do. As we endeavor to learn how to pray from the Psalmist, we ought to be informed by what he asks for. To that end, reflect on the list made above. Pray through it. How many of the requests do you find you also ask of the Lord? Which ones do you not? Why not? Talk to the Lord about them all. Imagine for a moment that you have never heard or known anything about the God of the Bible. This Psalm is your only source of information about Him. Read through the Psalm from that perspective. Jot down what you surmise about the Psalmist's God from how the Psalmist talks to Him and about Him. Reflect on your own prayer life. If someone who knew nothing of God were privy to your prayers, what would they surmise about Him? Read Psalm 25 with an eye toward how the Psalmist portrays or refers to himself. To what extent does he reckon himself a righteous and deserving person? To what extent does he understand himself to be a sinful and undeserving person? How do you reconcile these differing portraits? To what extent do you present yourself to God in prayer in similar ways? |
Psalm 26
Read Psalm 26. The Psalm begins with the Psalmist making a request of God, followed by two phrase which form the "because" -- the basis for the request. To what extent do you perceive that the two phrases are saying the same thing or saying quite different things? What do you understand to be the relation between the two phrases?
To what extent can you say to the Lord the same things that the Psalmist does in verse 1? Talk to Him about your answer to that question. Verse 2 is a bold prayer. Rewrite it in your own words. Having rewritten verse 2 in your own words, now make it your prayer. Say it to the Lord. Then talk to Him about what praying it makes you think and how praying it makes you feel. The Psalmist makes a number of claims about what he does right -- ways in which his life is in conformity to the will and commandments of God. How do you feel about him making these statements? What are the merits or benefits of saying such things to God? Make a list of the things that the Psalmist says he does right. Talk to the Lord about each one. Can you make the same claims? Which ones represent areas of needed growth for you? The attitude and values expressed in verses 4 and 5 are reminiscent of Psalm 1:1. Reread that verse. Then read Luke 15:1-2. Talk to the Lord about the three passages: about how they are related to each other, and about how they are related to you. Having given considerable time and thought now to this Psalm, what would you assume was the Psalmist's dominant emotion as he wrote it? What was his purpose or motivation in praying it? While other prayers in the Book of Psalms may sound worried or afraid, weary or confused, the author of Psalm 26 sounds rather confident. Read through the Psalm and identify what he is confident about. What is the source -- or what are the sources -- of his confidence? |
Psalm 27
Read Psalm 27. At the beginning of the Psalm, the Psalmist makes a connection between salvation and light. Talk to the Lord about why those two things may have gone together in the Psalmist's mind. Then talk to the Lord why it follows that the Psalmist would not fear.
Divide the Psalm into what feel to you like natural sections. Then, for each individual section, identify what the Psalmist seems to be feeling. Talk to the Lord about when you have felt similarly. Reflect on how the Psalmist models for you how to pray when you are feeling each way. Throughout the Psalm, the Psalmist is very aware of his enemies. What does he say about them? What is the Lord's relationship to them? What enemies are part of your life and experience? What is the Lord's relationship to them? Read through the Psalm again, and as you read, make a list of the reasons or causes why the Psalmist might have been afraid. Talk to the Lord about the list. How much of it resonates with your experience? Now make your own list. What reasons or causes have you had -- or do you currently have -- to be afraid? Read through the Psalm again. As you do this time, make a list of the reasons or causes why the Psalmist need not be afraid. Talk to the Lord about that list of the Psalmist's reasons or causes not to be afraid. How much of it resonates with your own experience? Now make your own list. What reasons or causes do you have why you need not be afraid? In verse 4, the Psalmist says that he asks the Lord for one thing. That one thing, however, seems to have three parts. Talk to the Lord about your understanding of the relationship between those three parts. Do they naturally go together? Do they depend upon each other or give rise to one another? Identify the various places in the Psalm where the Psalmist seems to practice or experience the three things that he desires. As you reflect on verse 4, read Matthew 6:33. Talk to the Lord about the possible relation between the two verses. Talk to Him about both verses in terms of your own life and heart. |
* 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.”