The great gift of the psalms is that they give us the words to pray from the depth of our soul, to give words to our experience. We pray them not because they are the “approved” prayers of the church, but because they help us articulate (and thus feel) what is most true about ourselves...
Tag: how to pray the psalms
Loving God 301, Part 1: Verbal Prayer and the Psalms
Prayer is not a duty. It is not the means of gaining favor with God or demonstrating devotion. Rather, prayer is the means of making genuine contact with the Father who loves us. And the ultimate fruit of prayer is…happiness. (Note that the opening word of the Psalms is “Happy!”) In this continuing look at...
Understanding the Bible 09: Interpreting the Psalms
Great poetry generally makes for difficult reading. The words and phrases may be simple enough, even simplistic. But the very nature of poetry is to pick up where language fails – to articulate the ineffable. And thus readers of poetry face the dual challenge of interpretation and introspection. We must simultaneously examine words and ourselves to find...