If we wish to make the most of the psalms, then, we must not only understand them as prayers, we must also understand how they “do” prayer. The psalms show us the nature of faithful prayer in the following ways:
- The psalms invite us into a conversation with a very particular God, not a generic deity
- The God of the psalms is both immanent and transcendent.
- The psalms model for us a rhythm of call and response.
- The psalms model for us the dialogue of individual and communal prayer.
- The psalms invite us to speak our prayers and they invite us to silence as well.
- The psalms invite us to say all kinds of things to God in prayer.
- The psalms in this way give voice to the whole anatomy of the soul.
- In the psalms we bring to God not just our personal concerns but also the concerns of the whole world.
- The psalms in doing so train us in the work of sympathetic and empathetic prayer.
Chapter 4, page 40, with headings from the rest of the chapter.