Praying through the Psalms

 


Have you ever thought, “Wow, it’s a good thing others can’t hear my thoughts right now!” I know I definitely have, more often than I’d care to admit. So often, throughout the day, my thoughts are not in line with what the Bible teaches us they should be. As Paul says in Romans 7:15, “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” It’s a constant struggle and battle to control not only our actions but also our thoughts! By the Spirit, we may be able to hold our tongues and keep our thoughts to ourselves, but our thoughts matter to God!

I am a Christian, not because I am perfect, I’m not. I am a Christian because I know I need Christ! Part of knowing my need for God is recognizing how important it is to have a living, active relationship with Him. Prayers are a vitally important part of living out your faith and being a Christian. Prayer is part of how we commune with our heavenly Father, and therefore, vital to our relationship with Him.

When we think about prayer, it’s easy for most of us to recall the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray. In Matthew 6:9-13, Jesus says,

Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

A beautiful prayer that gives us the “formula” for how we ought to pray.

  1.      Praise
  2.    God’s will be done
  3.    Our daily needs
  4.       Asking for forgiveness
  5.    Help us to live as we ought to
  6.    Deliverance

There are different types of prayer and different ways to pray. There’s the time we intentionally set aside to spend quietly speaking to our Father, praising Him, and talking to Him about all things. He knows all things, but He still wants us to bring everything before Him in prayer. There are the prayers that are shared with others, such as in church, Bible study, over our mealtimes, or with friends and family as we walk alongside each other. Both of these types of prayers are often structured and specific, but there are also the prayers we whisper or think throughout the day. I often find myself saying a quick “Thank-you for the beauty in creation, Lord!” Or asking God to “Please grant me patience”. In the cold days of winter, I often find myself thanking God for the warm house we have, or for the A/C in the heat of summer. And so very often, I find myself asking God to “Fill me with Your Spirit, Lord”, “Grant me wisdom as I study Your word”, or “Calm my mind, dear Lord. Help me to trust in You.”

There is another way to pray that most of us probably overlook. Praying through scripture. There are many prayers in the Bible, especially in the Psalms. I came to the topic of prayer today because of Psalm 139. I was praying through this beautiful chapter. David starts with acknowledging God’s almighty power, His providential care, and His omniscience. He acknowledged that God knows everything about him and is far beyond our understanding (verses 1-12). He praises God for His marvelous work in creating us and for the power and wonder of how intricately we are formed, acknowledging that God has chosen us and knew us long before we were even formed in our mother’s womb. He also points out God’s perfect plan and purpose in that God has written every day of our lives (verses 13-16). David praises God for His wisdom, acknowledging that God’s thoughts are far beyond our understanding, and that no matter what, God is with him (verses 17-18). He lays his enemies before God and affirms his dedication to God (verses 19-22).

While these aren’t the same words as the Lord’s Prayer, we can see a similar structure. David starts in the right way; he praises God first. He acknowledges God’s power and perfect plan, that God’s will will be done. He lays his needs before God; he wants nothing to do with those who speak against God, hating evil as God does.

Then we come to the two verses that set me on this path of study. The next two verses of Psalm 139 struck me hard and made me think deeply about my own heart. Psalm 139:23-24 says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” Think about that for a moment, knowing how perfect God is, and how sinful we are, and asking Him to know your heart and thoughts? My first impulse is to feel shame for the many sinful things I think throughout the day. David wanted God to search his heart for sin and even test his anxious thoughts because, only when we realize and see our sins for what they are, can we repent and seek forgiveness. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

It sounds intimidating to invite the God who knows everything into your heart; our thoughts would condemn us. But the beauty of prayer is that we can lay all of this before God. He sees our hearts and thoughts, He knows our weaknesses, but we can trust that He can and will, by the Holy Spirit, lead us in the “way everlasting”.

By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.  Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us. (1 John 3:19-24)

At first, it may seem scary to think that we’re inviting God to see our deepest sins, asking Him to know our hearts. But, by God’s grace, Christ’s work of redemption, and the working of the Holy Spirit, we too can confidently speak this prayer. When you read this psalm, speak to God; give Him praise, seek His will, acknowledge His perfect plan for us, and lay all your worries and anxieties at His feet, ”For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6).

And because I love singing, here are the lyrics to Psalm 139 as composed by William Croft in 1708, found in the Trinity Psalter Hymnal. You can listen to the tune here: 

( https://www.trinitypsalterhymnal.org/psalms/o-lord-you-see-and-search-my-life/ )

O LORD, You See and Search My Life

  1. O LORD, you see and search my life;
    you know me through and through.
    Before a word is on my tongue,
    behold, it’s known to you.
    My going out and lying down
    are plain before your view.
    Before I speak a word, O LORD,
    it is well known to you.
  2. You hem me in behind, before;
    on me you lay your hand.
    Such knowledge is too wonderful,
    too high to understand.
    Where can I from your Spirit flee
    or from your presence go?
    In heav’n above, LORD, you are there,
    or deep in death below.
  3. If I should take the wings of dawn
    and dwell beyond the sea,
    e’en there your hand my guide would be,
    your right hand holding me.
    If I should say, “The dark will surely
    hide me from your sight,
    and all the light surrounding me
    become as dark as night.”
  4. Yet even darkness is not dark
    to you in any way;
    for darkness is as light to you,
    the night as bright as day.
    For you, O LORD, created me;
    you wove me on your loom.
    My inmost being you have formed
    within my mother’s womb.
  5. You made me, LORD, in awesome ways;
    your wondrous praise I tell;
    how great and wondrous are your works,
    my soul knows this full well.
    When I was made in secret, LORD,
    and woven with great skill,
    you saw my substance, yet unformed,
    in depths of earth concealed.
  6. And all the days that I should live,
    which you ordained for me,
    were written in your book, O LORD,
    before they came to be.
    Your perfect thoughts, O God, are very
    precious unto me—
    so wide and vast the sum of them
    in their infinity.
  7. Were I to count them, they would number
    more than grains of sand.
    I’m still with you when I awake,
    I’m safe within your hand.
    May God destroy all wicked men!
    You men of blood, away!
    They speak of you with hateful hearts,
    your foes abuse your name.
  8. Do I not hate all those, O LORD,
    who hate you and oppose?
    With perfect hatred I abhor
    and count them as my foes.
    O search me, God, and know my heart;
    my anxious thoughts survey,
    and lead me, if in sin I stray,
    in your eternal way.

Stanza Copyright

© 2018 Trinity Psalter Hymnal Joint Venture

 

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