Sunday, August 3, 2008

Praying the Psalms as Worship

When I was a young believer someone showed me that if I read five psalms a day, I would have read the entire book in a month. That became part of my spiritual discipline and has been one of the most meaningful practices for me in worship these 30 years. Somewhere along the way I moved from just reading them to praying them back to God as I read. This happened naturally for me and then I began to hear about "praying the psalms" and discovered that it is an ancient practice - why can't I be original?!?

The Psalms of David, Asaph, and the other unknown psalm writers cover the gamut of human emotion and experience and gather up for us a language to offer back to God when things are great or when things are terrible. The majority of the psalms are "complaining" psalms, or laments. We've been taught to never complain, but that's not entirely biblical - God welcomes our complaints! Paul taught that we should "give thanks in everything" (Philippians 4:4-7) but that doesn't preclude being gut-level honest with God about how we feel - He can handle it.

He created our emotions and understands when we don't feel so happy about what's going on around us. God uses our circumstances in many ways and "works all things together for our good" (Romans 8:28). But I, as a mere mortal, will not always have His perfect perspective on life and my circumstances. These are the times I cry out to Him and even vent my feelings to Him. When I do this, it seems that He brings His "peace that passes understanding" (Phillipiams 4:7).

As you study the psalms, read them and pray them back to God, I think you'll find as I have that lamenting is a legitimate form of worship that leads us, like it did the psalmists, back to a place of quiet trust in the sovereignty of God no matter how crummy we feel!

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