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Praying the Psalms, Part 1
Our final week of the prayer series will focus on learning to pray from the Psalms.
Today, read Psalm 19.
This psalm is a celebration of a God who speaks in both the skies (1-6) and the Scriptures (7-14). Most of us today can get our heads around the fact that God speaks through creation. But I would be surprised if many of us could really relate to David’s breathless praise for the Bible in these verses. More precious than gold? Sweeter than honey? Really?
Maybe you can relate to John Bunyan, who seemed to have had a kind of bi-polar relationship with Scripture: “Sometimes there has been more in a line of Scripture than I could bear to stand under. Other times, the Bible has been to me as dry as a stick.” It’s good to know we’re in good company when we find the Bible boring, dry, uninteresting, and hard to read. It’s a common experience.
But we shouldn’t become apathetic about it, either. If prayer is a two-way conversation with God about what we are doing together, then the Scriptures are a critical part of it, because they make up the main part of God’s side of the conversation! I want to be moving toward a place where I can pray Psalm 19 with David and deeply mean every word of it.
Prayer exercise
This exercise is taken from God’s Prayer Book, by Ben Patterson (an excellent resource on learning to pray the Psalms, by the way).Read the following sections of Psalm 19 again do the exercises:
They are more desirable than gold, even the finest gold. They are sweeter than honey, even honey dripping from the comb. (10)
- Ask yourself, How would I act if I believed there is treasure hidden in the Bible? If you had in your hands a map showing you where you could find great material treasure, wouldn’t you apply yourself diligently to crack any code or language and overcome any mountain, weather, or foe to find the treasure?
- Now turn your face heavenward. Open your mouth to the Lord and say, “Lord, let me taste the sweetness of your Word.”
How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults. Keep your servant from deliberate sins! Don’t let them control me. Then I will be free of guilt and innocent of great sin. (12-13)
- Ask yourself, Do I really expect, or want, to meet God when I read the Bible? “It’s not what I don’t understand in the Bible that worries me,” wrote Mark Twain. “It’s what I do understand.” If you need to, confess your apathy toward the Bible. Perhaps it is a smoke screen to hid your fear of exposure.
- Look at the words David uses for the power and deceit of sin: lurking, hidden, deliberate–all controlling your will and desires. Cry out to God, “Don’t let them do this to me!”
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. (14)
- Ask the Lord to so fill you with the purity and sweetness of his law (like fine gold and honey) that your interior life will be transformed, that your every thought will reflect his character.