Praying the Psalms II

In my last post on "praying the psalms", I presented an approach to wording the psalms in such a way that they were personal (i.e., worded in such a way that they are directed from the one offering the prayer to God). Because I was only presenting on this one subject, I may have left some with the impression that "praying through the psalms" only takes this form.

This is not the case. Prayer is the petition of the Christian offered in faith to God trusting that he hears and answers. There is no "according to Hoyle" where prayer is concerned!

So I want to share another way I have approached "praying the psalms". When I "read through the psalm before 'praying it'", as I mentioned in my last post, I will occasionally be moved by what I read to offer a very specific prayer before continuing.

For example, I was beginning to pray through Psalm 44 this morning when I paused after the first verse.

O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us, what deeds you performed in their days, in the days of old

Even though the psalmist goes on to talk about the specific mighty deeds of God in the life and history of Israel, I was moved to pray: "Oh Lord, you have given us life through the faithful witness of our families and the community of faithful saints that have gone before us. Thank you for giving us these 'fathers of the faith' and their faithful confession. Grant that we may be found faithful to the Christ they proclaim and that we, too, may be 'fathers in the faith' to those who come after us. Through Jesus Christ. Amen."

At that point, I switched gears and read through the psalm in "third person" fashion (not as a prayer), pausing for prayer at several points. This, too, is "praying the psalms"!