As we move on from considering the Psalms as poetry and song to thinking about them as tools for prayer, we spent the evening praying using the Psalms and the Lord’s Prayer (Matt 6:9-13) as the model for our prayers.
Timothy Keller calls the Psalms ‘uncensored prayer’ and Eugene Peterson says they are prayers which deal with ‘raw honesty and detailed thoroughness.’ Perhaps the most liberating thing we can discover in the Psalms are that they are prayers which are not ‘refined’. They haven’t been through some purification process which takes the emotion out of them and renders them ‘fit for human consumption.’ They are vibrant, pulsating with emotion, prayers which encourage us to come before God honestly and which remind us that we can bring absolutely every aspect of our lives to God in prayer.
The Lord’s Prayer gives us a framework for prayer, which always starts with honouring God. So many psalms also do this (see, for example, Ps 57:5, 7-11). To ponder, reflect on and meditate on God’s character and nature is always a good basis for prayer.
In prayer, we align our wills with God’s. Ps 119 gives us much to chew considering the role of God’s Word in helping us to do this. Ps 121 is an example of relying on God’s guidance, protection and provision for us as we seek God to provide our daily bread and realise we need spiritual food as well as natural bread. Prayer also has much to do with forgiveness – the forgiveness we receive from God and the forgiveness He expects us to show to others (see also Ps 32, Ps 51).
Prayer is a spiritual weapon and many psalms teach us how to trust God when we are going through temptations and trials (see Ps 13, Ps 88). Ultimately, the Psalms teach us how to rejoice in God (see Ps 100). In prayer, we may list our laments, bring our requests, sing joyfully or complain miserably in between, but we need to have a focus on the greatness and majesty of God as we pray, and the Psalms are one of the greatest ways of bringing our attention to the right place!
