Some years ago I had the privilege of supporting a Christian leader through a private retreat and to help him as he sought to hear God speak both about his own future and also that of the organisation for which he was responsible. As I thought and prayed about how to structure our time away, I felt prompted to look at the Psalms of Ascent and to use those as the basis for our praying and thinking at the beginning of our sessions.
I have employed the approach of using a psalm as the basis of praying in many situations since, both in personal prayer and praying pastorally with others. Drawing on the scriptures in this way gives something to come back to, providing a reminder of what was said and that our circumstances are not unique but shared by others.
Most Christians, and many people who are not believers, will have read a psalm at some point in their life and even be able to quote Psalm 23 from memory, but what actually is the Book of Psalms? The Bible Project has a very useful short video (9 mins) describing the Psalms and setting them in context. You can find it here. They describe the Psalms as the prayer book of God’s people who are striving to be faithful to the Torah and waiting for the Messianic Kingdom.
The word ‘torah’ means ‘teaching’ although it is also often understood to refer to the five books of Moses in the Hebrew bible. ‘Torah’ is used in both senses in the Psalms.
Some weeks ago I decided that I would use the psalm that came in my daily bible reading as the starting point for my praying for that day. I also decided that I would aim to write a short prayer based on each psalm. These are personal prayers, based on the psalm concerned, and not in any sense teaching from the psalm.
Like the writers of the Psalms, I am trying to reflect to God the feelings that I have each day, my desire to understand his vision and ambitions for me, my desire to see his kingdom come, and with the help of his holy spirit to play my part in the coming of that kingdom.
For each prayer, I will reproduce all or part of the psalm concerned. I expect to use a number of different translations through these blogs and will credit each translation.
My prayer is that you will find the process of meditating on each psalm and my prayer helpful in forming your own thoughts and praying your own prayers based on what you read.
Psalm 1
1 How blessed are those
who reject the advice of the wicked,
don’t stand on the way of sinners
or sit where scoffers sit!
2 Their delight
is in Adonai’s Torah;
on his Torah they meditate
day and night.
3 They are like trees planted by streams —
they bear their fruit in season,
their leaves never wither,
everything they do succeeds.
4 Not so the wicked,
who are like chaff driven by the wind.
5 For this reason the wicked
won’t stand up to the judgment,
nor will sinners
at the gathering of the righteous.
6 For Adonai watches over
the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked
is doomed.
Complete Jewish Bible (CJB) Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.
Prayer
Lord, thank you for the life that flows from you. I want to be able to draw on your life, to know it sustaining me.
So please Lord, help me to recognise when the things I hear around me are the ‘easy fixes’ that are not of you. To reject things that are not of your character, to avoid judging people and things by appearances and in my heart mocking or judging others unfairly.
Help me Lord, in every circumstance to be able to choose to turn my mind to your teaching and remember how you deal with people with love, compassion and a desire to restore and not dismiss.
I want to be able to not only have your life strengthening me but also, somehow, to be able to bear fruit in a way that supports and encourages those around me.
Lord without your life I don’t have an anchor point. Help me Lord not to be driven by the opinions of others which can change from day today as moods change.
Thank you that you are watching over me, that you see my thoughts and know the desire I have to follow you.
Amen