Psalms
The book of Psalms contains the hymns of Israel. This book, called The Psalter, holds a central place in the worship of the Orthodox Church and the Psalms are customarily ascribed to David and Solomon. The book of Psalms is divided into Five Books (in imitation of the Pentateuch the first five books of the Bible): Book I (Ps. 1-41); Book II (Ps. 42-72); Book III (Ps. 73-89); Book IV (Ps. 90-106); and Book V (Ps. 107-150). [Orthodox Bibles also include Psalm 151 a Song of David after he fought with Goliath.]The Psalms may be classified as follows: Hymns (acts of praise suitable for any occasion); Laments (in which an individual seeks deliverance from an illness or a false accusation, or the nation asks for help in times of distress); Songs of Trust (in which an individual expresses his confidence in God's readiness to help); Thanksgivings (in which an individual expresses his gratitude for deliverance); Sacred History (in which the nation recounts the story of God's dealings with it); Royal Psalms (for use on such occasions as a coronation or royal wedding); Wisdom Psalms (which are meditations on life and the ways of God); and Liturgies (Psalms composed for special cultic or historical occasions).
In the Orthodox Church, the LXX version of the Psalms are generally used and these are numbered differently in Orthodox Bibles; in most cases the LXX numbering of the Psalms is one less than the customary numbering (Cf. Table in Chapter 3 of this Book). In addition, for liturgical use, the Psalter is divided into twenty parts called kathismas (from kathizo, meaning to sit, since it is permitted to sit during these readings).
Topic: PSALMS AS A
PERSONAL PRAYER
Introduction:
The books of Psalms had
two Hebrew title “tihillim” which
means praise and “tepillot” which
means prayer (e.g. pss. 1, 86, 90, 142...). The Greek term is taken from the Hebrew
term ‘Mizmor’ which is usually understood as “the religious songs sung with the
accompaniment of stringed instrument”. The book of psalms contains the ‘hymns’
of Israel. The word ‘Psalterion’ was used in the ancient manuscript of Codex
Alexandrinus in around 5th century as the title of the whole book of
psalms.
The designation
‘psalms’ is derived from the N.T (Luke 20:42; 24:44; acts 1:20; 13:33) and has
its origin in the Greek translation of the O.T (LXX), which was a product of
the Jewish Diaspora of Alexandria.[1]
The book, called the
plaster, holds a central place in the worship of the Orthodox Church and the
psalms are customarily ascribed to David and Solomon. There are several authors
of the psalms which can be understood by the title given in the scripture (e.g.
psalm of David). The Psalter is divided into five books (in imitation of the
Pentateuch the first five books of the bible): Book 1 (pss.1-41); Book 2 (pss.
42-72); Book 3 (pss.73-89); Book 4 (pss. 90-106); Book 5 (pss. 107-150).
[Orthodox bible also includes pslams151 a songs of David after he fought with
goliath].----
The books of psalms are
made up entirely of prayers, reflecting the range of emotions people experience
throughout their lifetime. The psalms are the personal experience of the
authors of the psalms their inner emotions, fear of enemies, thankfulness to
God, etc. hence it can be said as a praise and prayers of an individuals or
community.[2]
Psalms
as Prayer:
Psalms function both as an act of prayer themselves
and as invitations to the other prayers. As a act of prayer, the psalms witness
to the ways in which at his community has always prayed and their fullness in
beliefs can be seen.[3]
The psalms represent
the largest collection of poetic prayers on the O.T, although poetic addresses
also occur within narrative contexts (1 san 2:1-10; 2sam 22:2-5; Jonah 2:1-9).
The distinguishing feature of these prayers is the formulaic language that
renders them appropriate for repetition by variety of persons on different
contexts. In bible the tradition of laments can be seen throughout the OT like
confession of Jeremiah (Jere 11:18-23; 12:1-6; 15:10-21; 17:14-18;18:18-23;
20:7-13; 14-18), the lament of Habakkuk (1:2-17) and job (job 3:3-26;6:1-30;
10:18-22;13:20-14:22;19:7-22;30:16-31) and prophetic liturgies of lamentation
(Jere 14:7-9; Isa 63:7-64:12; Joel 1-2 ), these prayers offer a profound
witness to a lament tradition that authorized and promoted the practice of
bringing before God a wide range of difficult and threatening circumstances.
The pattern of the prayer in psalms- invocation, lament, petitions, and
affirmation/hope of divine response- provide a rhetorical and substantive
vehicle for articulation and coping with pain and suffering. O.T. preserves
more than 250 proses and psalmists’ prayer, N.T contains few recorded prayers.[4]
According to Claus
Westermann analysis it is fair to say that Israel’s daring, outrages
adventuresome prayer pushes to two limits: Praise and Petition. FOOT= PEOPLE OF
GOD2 Prayers of praise and thanksgiving (individual or collective) are also
well attested on the Psalter (8, 30, 33, and 66,100,113,138,146-150). Prayers
both in form and in content praise are connected to Lament and thus to a
central affirmation of biblical faith: when people who are in distress call to
God, God hears and responds, thereby evoking in return heartfelt gratitude and
adoration. [5]
In fact, reasons abound
for keeping the psalms at the heart of Christian prayer life. Among these
reasons is precedent: Jesus and the early Church prayed these psalms. Martin Luther
lectured and preached on the psalms and found them to be a treasure. Christians
throughout the ages have found them to be the most accessible part of the Old
Testament, almost an honorary part of the New Testament perhaps you once owned
or have seen a copy of the New Testament and psalms.[6]
Psalms also have a part
of a personal prayers or laments. So let’s discuss psalms as a personal prayer.
Psalms as a Personal
Prayer:
The Psalms were the prayer book of the Israelites. God
called the Israelites and made them his chosen people. The Psalms were the
Israelites’ response to God’s call and their answer to him. All of Israel’s
life finds expression in the Psalms. They have arisen as a result of a
relationship between God and his people. The Psalms were also the prayer of
Jesus. He would have known most of them by heart and in the Gospels Jesus quote
more than twenty times from the Psalms.[7]
Prayer occur in variety of forms in the Psalter –
hymns, blessing, imprecations, laments, thanksgiving etc. and many more major
and minor collections but at the same time the Psalter is a mixture of
individual and collective prayers, along with the regular and spontaneous
ritual ceremonies that accompany them, reflect the convergence of personal
piety and official religion that appears to characterize Israel worship in the
post exilic period. In these types two basic types dominate: Lament and Praise.[8]
The comprise
the largest category, including about 40 individual lament and at least a dozen
national and communal laments. The standard format at these psalms includes the
following elements.
·
The
invocation of God’s name.
·
A
description of present need.
·
Prayer
for help and deliverance, frequently with an imperative.
·
Reasons
why God should help the one praying.
·
Vow
to offer praise or sacrifice when the petition is heard.
·
Grateful
praise to God.
The whole psalms ends with
thanksgiving and praise for the divine aid already experienced in answer to the
prayer.[9]
Laments can be said has a personal
prayer to God. Lament routinely includes an opening address, description of
trouble, petition, expression of confidence, and a vow.[10]
There are two subtypes that are
related to and perhaps developed from the lament: Psalms of trust and psalms of thanksgiving.
Expressions of confidence of trust, it is classified as a psalms of trust. Like
the laments from which they originated, psalms of trust can be individual (pss.
4:11; 16; 23; 63; 91; 131) or communal (pss. 115; 125; 129), the individual
prayer and trust can be seen here. It is not always easy to distinguish a psalm
of trust from a lament or thanksgiving psalms.[11]
Some psalms seem to relate to
individual during times of extraordinary suffering brought on by illness,
attack by foreign armies, slander magical practice, and the like. Other gives
voice to private joy and public expression of honour. Individual expressed
their deepest emotions in prayer, sometimes in near despair and other times
barely able to contain their jubilation.[12]
There are many more personal prayers in psalms which the
psalmist pray for several reasons like for the deliverance from the enemies,
troubles etc (pss. 4,9,12, 13, 28, 55,63,77,109,130,141,143 etc ) which can
also be said as personal prayers, healing prayers (88,102,etc), prayer for the
deliverance and confession of the sin (pss. 32; 51), the oldest psalm, a prayer
of Moses for national adversity (pss. 90), thanksgiving prayers
(30,34,73,92,103, etc), confidence in answer to prayer (e.g.
3:4; 4:1; 6:9; 17:6; 65:2; 138:3), though God sometimes too far off or silent
(10:1; 13:1-2: 77:5-9; 83:1; 89:46; etc).[13]
Personal Laments are our
most candid speech of lament which permits words that live close to our deepest
hurt and our most intimate groan. We pray in our own time and place, from our
own experience, and out of our own faith, and therefore in our own words and it
becomes a personal prayer.[14]
Conclusion:
The poetry written by the Psalmist can also be ours.
Our lives go through ups and downs. The emotions expressed in the Psalms
reflect the same ups and downs. Joy, sorrow, expectation and fear, anguish,
desperation, triumph, peace: all these emotions have their part in our lives.
They are also the material of the Psalms. The Psalms are like a mirror of our
lives. The psalms speak to us in different ways.[15]
The Psalms are also our prayer. They
have now become the prayer of the Church.
In the Psalms we talk to God and we join with Israel
and Jesus in continuing to praise and worship God. In our today’s worship also
psalms are used in different ways in every prayer we use psalms whether the
prayer is individual or in community. There are two factors which have
compelled Christian church to make the Psalter her prayer book.
1.
There
is the fact that the Psalter occupied such a large place in the life and
teaching of our lord. It was a prayer book which he uses in the synagogue
service and his hymn- book in the temple festival. He uses it in his teaching,
met temptation on with it, sang the hallel from it after the last supper,
quoted it from the cross and died with it on his lips.
2.
Moreover
from earliest times the Psalter has been both the hymn book and the prayer book
of the Christian church. Some of her great hymns of praise are modelled on the
psalms (Lk 1:46ff. 68ff; 2:29ff). Psalter was the inspiration of the apostle in
persecution (acts4:25f), it was embedded in their message (acts 2:25ff; 13:33),
it was used to set forth their profoundest beliefs concerning the lord (heb 1:6,
10-13; 2:6-8; 5:6; 10:5-7). [16]
Praying the psalms in community and individually and
taking out some quite time reflecting on it and continue praying and making this
a daily habit will shape the prayer life of an individual. Psalms was a
personal prayer for the Israelite community and it is also a personal prayer
for us today.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Brown, Raymond E.
Joseph A, Fitzmyer, S.J Roland, Murphy, O. Cram. The New Jerome Biblical
Commentary. Bangalore: Rekha printers, 1990.
Buttrick, George Arthur.
The
Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible. New York: Abingdon press, 1962.
Douglas J.D. The New
Bible Dictionary. England: Inter-varsity press, 1962.
Freedman, David. Noel. Allen
c. Myers, Astrid b. beck. Eerdman Dictionary of the Bible. Michigan,
grand rapid: William b. Eerdmans publishing company, 2000.
Ryken, Leland. James C.
Wilhoit, Tremper Longman 3. Dictionary of Biblical Imaginary. Secunderabad:
OM Books, 2006.
Weiser, Artur. The Psalms’.
London: SCM press, 1962.
Walter, Brueggemann. The Psalms
and the life of faith. USA, Minneapolis: fortress press, 1995.
[1]
Artur Weiser, The psalms (London: SCM PRESS, 1962); __.
[2] Ryken
Leland, James C.Wilhoit, Tremper Longman, dictionary of biblical imaginary
(Secunderabad: OM Books, 2006); 659.
[3]Brueggemann
walter, the psalms and the life of faith (USA, Minneapolis: Fortress press,
1995); 33.
[4]
Freedman David Noel, Allen C. Myers, Astrid B. Beck. Eerdman dictionary of the
bible (Michigan, grand rapid: William b. publishing company, 2000); 1078.
[5]
Ibid.
[6]
http://www.holytrinitynewrochelle.org/youri17389.htm
[7]
http://www.holytrinitynewrochelle.org/youri17389.htm
[8]
Freedman David Noel, Allen C. Myers, Astrid B. Beck. Eerdman dictionary of the
bible (Michigan, grand rapid: William b. publishing company, 2000); 1078.
[9]
Brown Raymond E. Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J Roland, Murphy, O. cram. The Jerome
biblical commentary (Bangalore: Rekha printers, 1990); 525.
[10]
Freedman David Noel, Allen C. Myers, Astrid B. Beck. Eerdman dictionary of the
bible (Michigan, grand rapid: William b. publishing company, 2000); 1078.
[11]
Brown Raymond E. Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S.J Roland, Murphy, O. cram. The Jerome
biblical commentary (Bangalore: Rekha printers, 1990); 525.
[12]
Freedman David Noel, Allen C. Myers, Astrid B. Beck. Eerdman dictionary of the
bible (Michigan, grand rapid: William b. publishing company, 2000); 1078.
[13]
Buttrick George Arthur, the interpreter’s dictionary of the bible (new York:
Abingdon press, 1962); 961.
[14]
Brueggemann walter, the psalms and the life of faith (USA, Minneapolis:
Fortress press, 1995); 50.
[15]
http://www.holytrinitynewrochelle.org/youri17389.htm
[16]
J.D Douglas, the new bible dictionary (England: inter-varsity press, 1962);
984.
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PART
B: INTRODUCTION TO THE PSALMS
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Prayer takes us out
of our world into the spiritual world. In prayer we meet God and God touches
us. Through prayer we become more like Jesus and more open to God speaking to
us. Through prayer we learn to look at events in a new light. Through prayer we
get sustenance to face the problems we face. Through prayer we find within
ourselves the means to offer help to others. Through prayer we learn that God
is with us and so we can face the world with confidence. We are all called to
prayer. If we do not pray we are not fully human or fully Christian.
1. The Psalms were the prayer book
of the Israelites. God called the Israelites and made them his chosen people.
The Psalms were the Israelites’ response to God’s call and their answer to him.
All of Israel’s life finds expression in the Psalms. They have arisen as a
result of a relationship between God and his people.
2. The Psalms were also the
prayer of Jesus. He would have known most of them by heart and in the
Gospels Jesus quotes more than twenty times from the Psalms.
3.The Psalms are also our prayer.
They havenow become the prayer of the Church. In the Psalms we talk to God and
we joinwith Israel
and Jesus in continuing to praise and worship God. The poetrywritten by the Psalmist
can also be ours. See CCC 2586-2587. Our lives gothrough ups and downs. The
emotions expressed in the Psalms reflect the same upsand downs. Joy, sorrow,
expectation and fear, anguish, desperation, triumph,peace: all these emotions
have their part in our lives. They are also thematerial of the Psalms. The
Psalms are like a mirror of our lives. All theScriptures speak to us but the
Psalms also speakfor us.
For thiscourse I had to decide what was the best way to teach the
Psalms. Since manypeople following this course are probably reading the Bible
for the first time,and also many may be following this course on their own
without the benefit of agroup, I have decided to divide the 150 Psalms as
simply as possible. For thesake of simplicity, I will divide the Psalms into
three major categoriesreflecting our emotions, an idea I take from John F
Craghan’s book,Psalmsfor all Seasons. Following Craghan, I divide the
Psalms asfollows:
1.There are times we feel secure and
Psalms topray on those occasions.
2.There are also times when a blow
or shockcomes and upsets our security, when we despair and are disillusioned.
There aresuitable Psalms for those occasions.
3.After these dark times we rebuild
our lives.We have now become new people, with a new perspective on life. We can
prayThanksgiving Psalms during these times.
There arePsalms that reflect when we feel secure, Psalms that reflect a
feeling ofdespair and Psalms that reflect a recovery from despair. The Psalms
speak to ourneeds and reflect the situations of life that we can find ourselves
in. ThePsalms deal with human problems and situations. We can use the Psalms to
standbefore God just as we are, without any pretence, without varnishing
ourexterior. We do not have to learn from the Psalms a totally new experience
butto recognize in the Psalms our own experience lived out directed to God,
livedin the presence of God. In the last lesson I mentioned that some parts of
theBible have more authority for us than others. You will find that certain
Psalmsfit your condition and our own experience better than others. This is a
grace ofGod. You can use those Psalms more frequently in your prayer and
meditations.Let them become “your” Psalms. See CCC 2588. Once again I remind you
that thetranslation I find most helpful for praying the Psalms is theGrailtranslation
which should be in your local religious bookshop.
There areways to divide the 150 Psalms other than the three categories
above. Forexample, the NJBC 34:8-13 divides the Psalms according to types
following theresearch of two great Psalm scholars Gunkel and Mowinckel. In a
seminary oruniversity, a course on the Psalms would almost certainly follow
their divisionof the Psalms. At the end of this course we will read some Psalms
according totheir division of the Psalms.
You couldsay that dividing the Psalms into the three categories as I do
is not the fullstory because that is praying the Psalms only for ourselves. It
is a subjectiveapproach to the Psalms. As well as praying for ourselves we
should also pray forothers. Apart from praying Psalms that reflect the
situation we find ourselvesin, we can pray Psalms of despair for those who are
in despair even if we arenot in despair ourselves. Paul said, “If one part is
hurt, all partsare hurtwith it” (1 Cor 12:26).
So we can use the Psalms to pray for others. In otherwords, we can pray the
Psalms for others who are experiencing the sentimentsexpressed in that
particular Psalm. That is the intention with which priests andreligious pray
the Psalms every day. They pray them for the entire Church, evenif the Psalm
does not reflect the mood of the person praying. Somewhere in theworld there is
someone in that situation at the moment and we pray this Psalmfor that person.
The Liturgy of the Hours, prayed five times a day by priestsand religious,
rests principally on praying the Psalms and is prayed for theentire church. You
have probably seen us praying from books with black leathercovers. These books
contain those prayers and the book is called theBreviary.
Insinging the Psalms each day the Church is singing of her union with
God inChrist. The Psalms unite us in Christ. The sentiments of the Psalmist
(author ofthe Psalm) lead us to God. Pius XII inMediator Deisaid that
whilechanting or reciting the Psalms, “through his Spirit in us Christ entreats
theFather”. Together with the Our Father, the Psalms are in the most perfect
sensethe “prayer of Christ”.
The veryfact that the Rosary was originally referred to as the “Layman’s
Psalter”reminds us that before the Middle Ages lay people participated in the
Liturgy ofthe Hours (praying the Breviary) with religious and chanted the
Psalms withthem. Other devotions arose only when lay people no longer prayed
the Psalms.(The Psalter is the Book of the Psalms.)
Thisquestion implies
that our way of praying the Psalms is different to the authorsof the Psalms
since Christ has now come. That is correct. We do not read the OldTestament in
the same way as Jews do. We believe in Jesus and that the OldTestament was
preparing for Jesus. We see Jesus as the fulfilment of the OThopes for the
Messiah. Therefore when reading and praying the Old Testament,wherever appropriate,
we read it as fulfilled in Jesus, anticipating orprophesying Jesus. We read the
OT through the lens of the NT. In Luke 24:44Jesus saideverything written
about him in the Psalms was destined to befulfilled. Therefore, when
appropriate, we read and pray the Psalms or partsof them as referring to Jesus.
We call this a Christological interpretation ofthe Psalms. Psalms are
Christologically interpreted in the NT in twoways:
1. The most important is when Jesus quotes
thePsalm applying it to himself.
2. The
second is when the writer of the NT bookquotes a Psalm verse or alludes to it
and says it prophesies or is fulfilled inJesus or the Church, or it teaches us
something about Jesus.
During this course I will help you read thePsalms christologically. It is
the Psalms and Isaiah that are quoted most oftenin this way in the NT, seen
fulfilled in Jesus. Those who pray the Breviary knowthat this is the way we
already pray the Psalms. Over many Psalms in theBreviary there is a quotation
from the NT to give us an indication how to praythat Psalm as a Christian. I
suggest that those who pray the Breviary pay moreattention to those suggestions
now that you studying this course.
SinceVatican
II, many people pray using the Breviary every day at home and someChurches
celebrate Morning Prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours before Mass. Ifyou have
not yet prayed using a Breviary, now that you are reading, studying andpraying
the Psalms in this course, why not join sometimes with a local
religiouscommunity for the Liturgy of the Hours and pray them with the Church
and for theChurch? See CCC 1174-1178
PART
C: PSALMS TO PRAY WHEN WE FEELGOOD
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Inthis lesson we begin to
read the Psalms. During the course of this lesson I willindicate to you when to
read Psalms 8, 104 and 117. Later in this lesson I willrecommend you to read
other Psalms.
We thinkwe are the centre of the world, and so we
can become independent of others.Instead of making ourselves the centre of our
world, the Psalms of Praise makeGod the centre of our world. The Psalms of
Praise are communal, meaning thatthese were Psalms prayed together by the
entire congregation in the Temple
inJerusalem or each
Sabbath in the synagogue. They are also sometimes called Hymnsof Praise. There
are Psalms to be used by an individual to praise God but theydo not fit into
this category of Psalms or Hymns of Praise. We shall read andpray those much
later in this course. Remembering the threefold division ofPsalms for this course,
all of these Psalms or Hymns of Praise are those we praywhen we feel secure.
They praise God for his qualities:
1. the order he exerts over creation and
2. the way he guides history according to
hisplan.
Firstly we will read and pray Psalms praisingGod
as Creator. In fact praise is so much the hallmark of the Psalms that it
hasgiven the title to the Book of the Psalms in Hebrew.Tehillim, the
Hebrewname for this book means ‘The Praises’. See CCC2589
Psalms and Christian Prayer
Introduction
Why pray the psalms? Wouldn't it be better to use specifically Christian resources for specifically Christian prayer?
In fact, reasons abound for keeping the psalms at the heart of Christian prayer life. Among these reasons is precedent: Jesus and the early church prayed them. Martin Luther lectured and preached on the psalms and found them to be a treasure. Christians throughout the ages have found them to be the most accessible part of the Old Testament, almost an honorary part of the New Testament: perhaps you once owned or have seen a copy of the New Testament and Psalms.
Even more basic than this, the psalms are the prayerbook of the Bible. They are extraordinarily honest in their expression and wide-ranging in approach. Because they are part of the biblical canon, they can allow us to speak to God in ways that may seem daring, and in situations in which we do not know what to say. Thus they can expand a prayer life when it seems boring or irrelevant.
About the Rev. Dr. Elizabeth F. Huwiler
Dr. Elizabeth F. Huwiler teaches Old Testament and Hebrew at The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, where she is a full professor. Her research emphasis is in the area of biblical authority, especially in an ecumenical and interfaith context. She's also interested in women and the Bible (both women in biblical texts and women's interpretation of the Bible). Biblical poetry and wisdom are long-standing areas of study. A particular focus on Song of Songs has led her to explore the Bible and human sexuality.
Having once taught as a Lutheran pastor at Lancaster Theological Seminary, a school of the United Church of Christ, Dr. Huwiler feels personally invested in the ecumenical agreements involving the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, especially the understandings with the Reformed denominations. Judaism is another area of intersst. And she is exploring ways that Christians can learn from Jewish spirituality and worship.
Dr. Huwiler earned her B.A. from Caroll College in 1973, and was awarded her M.Div. from The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg in 1980. She holds a Ph.D. from Duke University (1988), and served a pastorate in Illinois in the early 1980s before embarking on a teaching career.
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Background information
The psalms fall into various categories, appropriate for various times of life. Celebrations of creation and hymns of praise express the goodness of life as God's creatures. Laments and complaints help us give voice to experiences of pain, loss and disappointment. Thanksgivings enable us to come to God in gratitude when our well-being has been restored.
Discussion
1. The psalms focus on God, using a magnificent variety of expressions and images. If you always approach God with the same language, or imagining the same kind of relationship, enter into the psalms--you will find God as shield, deliverer, listener, destroyer, teacher, refuge, healer, savior, judge, sovereign,king, stronghold, gracious one, one who remembers the oppressed, shepherd, rock, eagle--and on and on. Let the psalms speak to your imagination and expand your ways of thinking about God.
For meditation or discussion: Read any ten psalms--they may be your favorites or a random selection. Write down and discuss the different ways they address or imagine God. Could you imagine incorporating similar terms or images into your own prayers? What terms could you envision coming from a contemporary writer of psalms?
2. Psalms are individual and corporate. Some psalms are spoken by an individual ("I"), while others have corporate speaker ("we"). But even in the most personal psalms, the tone may shift from an intimate conversation between the speaker and God to a call or witness to the whole community. Christians, too, are always in some sense praying in community, even when we are alone. (It is significant that the prayer Jesus taught us begins "Our Father," not "My Father.")
As you pray the psalms, think of the cloud of witnesses that surrounds and upholds you. Write them down and discuss who they are with others in your class. How are your witnesses the same or different from those of other students?
For meditation or discussion: Read Psalm 131, noting the shift between direct address to God in verses 1-2 and all to the community in verse
3. How does your relationship with God enable your witness within and beyond your community? What are your rules for prayer? Are some concerns off limits? Are there concerns in your heart that you think you cannot bring to God? Do you think you have to come to the Holy One in your Sunday best Attitude, the same way people used to come to church wearing their Sunday best clothes?
The psalms come to God with every emotion in the human heart. They Come to God, as you might expect, honoring the majesty of the Holy One -- and we marvel at the loftiness of "O Lord our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!" (Psalm 8:1). As you might also expect, psalms express the neediness of their speakers for a sense of the divine presence: "As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God" (Psalm 42:1). But then they surprise us, even offend us with their vengeance and pettiness. The words of Psalm 10:14 may be a wonderful comfort: But you do see! Indeed you note the trouble and grief, that you may take it into your hands; the helpless commit themselves to you: you have been the helper of the orphan.
How disconcerting, then, to continue on to verse 15, where the psalmist continues, "Break the arm of the wicked and evildoers." It might help to know the mindset behind the prayers for divine judgment. The Israelites understood creation as a delicate balance. Those who opposed the will of God threatened the balance and could even allow the re-entry of the forces of chaos into the world. The speakers in the psalms are praying not just for their own selfish vengeance but for the will of God in the world. For the most part, the psalmists also turn their desire for vengeance over to God rather than urging human action on it.
As Christians, we do experience the existence of forces opposed to God's will for our lives and our world. It is appropriate to pray for the End of such forces.
For meditation or discussion: How is an awareness of evil in the world expressed in your prayers? You might explore the following possibilities:
a. Pray to God for the overthrow of evil, or that you may escape it--and let God decide what that implies for evildoers.
b. Pray your desire for vindication or vengeance, but pray it as confession rather than petition. Instead of "Break their arms, O God," admit, "God, I would enjoy seeing them suffer." Turn this confessional desire over to God.
c. De-personalize the enemy language. For example, in a time of illness, the enemy might be cancer cells or the HIV virus.
4. Keep praying the psalms. Familiarity with the psalms makes them available for you at the times when you most need them. It is helpful simply to pray through the book; and when you have reached the end, start over and pray through it again.
For individual, family or group devotions: Pray the psalms, in community or individually. Start at the beginning of the book and pray several psalms every day. After your reading, take some quiet time to reflect and continue praying. When you reach the end of the book, start over again. And see how through the psalms, prayer can shape your life.
For further reading
A wealth of material is available on the psalms. Particularbooks that you might find helpful include:
Anderson, Bernhard W. with Steven Bishop. Out of the Depths: The Psalms Speak for Us Today. Third edition. (Westminster/Knox, 2000). A fine introduction for those who would like to study the psalms.
Brueggemann, Walter. The Message of the Psalm: A Theological Commentary. (Augsburg, 1984). Brueggemann sets up a pattern of orientation - disorientation - new orientation. He is a sensitive and gospel-oriented reader.
Peterson, Eugene. Answering God: The Psalms as Tools for Prayer. (HarperCollins, 1989). A powerful
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