Prepared for Monday Psalms, August 30, 2021
Video for Session 8 of Truthful Speech for Common Prayer: Jesus and the Psalms.
Our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ was the perfect worshiper of God and lover of people, the most authentic and genuine human who has ever lived. He knew and prayed the Psalms, even with his dying breath. He models the Psalms’ transformative power and use in an open, submitted human heart. He died for our sins and our wounds so that his heart and all of our hearts, his brothers and sisters (That’s us!), can be one in him.
From the Psalms, Jesus gained deeper understanding of his suffering and death (especially Psalms 22 and 69), his exaltation to the right hand of the Father (Psalm 110), and his coming again to rule and reign in the New Heaven and Earth. (Psalms 2 and 149)
1. Psalms 1 and 2 introduce Book 1 of the five books of the Psalter with 2 main themes: first, the revelation of the LORD’s will in Torah—God’s teaching about himself and his ways, and second, the revelation of the dominion (rule) of the LORD in a Davidic King. These themes run through the whole book from beginning to end.
Just like the Gospels do, the Psalms reveal how we humans typically respond to God. From them, we learn about the negative human reaction to God, the struggle against God’s ways and God’s dominion. And from the Psalms, we learn about how to depend on, obey, and worship God through all of our human experience.
Ponder how Psalm 2, 22, or 110 informs your current relationship with God in Christ. Read one (or all) of these psalms, looking for how these ancient Hebrew verses speak to your heart about your own journey of trust, obedience, and worship of God right now. Write a few sentences about that.
2. During his life on earth, Jesus heard, read, memorized and prayed the Psalms. He immersed himself in these ancient Hebrew poems. He used them to speak to the Father and about the Father.
Think about how Psalm 2, 22, or 110 helps you to express yourself to God and to reflect deeply on God’s ways. Write down an example.
What are your thoughts about reading and praying the Psalms out of your union with Christ?
Think of psalms that you have struggled to pray on your own that you can pray in union with Jesus and for the sake of others. How have the Psalms supported your life in Christ so far? How have they changed how you pray?
3. Consider how the Lord’s prayer helps you pray Psalms 2, 22, or 110.
Notice where God the Father is in the psalm. Notice how the Father’s name (all he is and does) is honored, how his kingdom/rule is being revealed and his will being longed for, desired, sought.
Look for petitions and confessions, guidance away from temptation, and deliverance from evil.
How is God being relied on, trusted, depended on, spoken well of/boasted about on earth as he is in heaven?
4. Our life in Christ draws us into the fellowship of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
How has or might daily reading and praying the Psalms motivate you to learn to breathe and pray, feel and think, work and worship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?
(Find the Daily Office Lectionary in your BCP on pp. 738-763 or online at dailyoffice2019.com. You can make use of the 60-day plan for reading and praying the psalms you will find there. Our focus psalms for our psalms group meetings are taken from this lectionary.)