Readings for the day: Psalms 26, 40, 41, 58, 61, 62, 64
What is prayer? Communion with God. On our knees. Folded hands. Eyes closed. Forming thoughts in our minds and sending them upwards like sparks from a fire? Is it a conversation or more of a monologue? A task we have to complete each day if we want to stay on God’s good side? Something we do before meals or before bed? Is it the recitation of memorized words learned as a child and carried through to adulthood? “Now I lay me down to sleep...” “Bless us, O Lord, and these, Thy gifts, which we are about to receive from Thy bounty. Through Christ, our Lord. Amen." “God is great. God is good. Let us thank Him for this food.” “Our Father, who art in heaven...” What is prayer?
The Psalms are the prayerbook of the Bible. 150 different prayers written by different people on different occasions as they wrestled with life. Readers of the Psalms are always struck by their raw honesty and transparency. The beautiful way they express the deepest emotions of the human heart. The vivid descriptions of God and His great faithfulness. They are marvelous and great teachers when it comes to prayer.
One of the biggest things I’ve learned in the years I’ve spent meditating on the Psalms is that prayer comes more from the heart than the head. Prayer is less about me forming thoughts or saying words or reciting texts and more about laying before God the deepest emotions of my heart. Deep prayer doesn’t require much in the way of words. Just letting the feelings flow and trusting God is hearing what’s behind them. This is what makes David such a great Psalmist. He doesn’t seem to stop to think about the “appropriateness” of his feelings. He doesn’t seem to “judge” his emotions. He just lets them fly up to God and trusts God is big enough and great enough to make sense out of the chaos.
It’s why he can express contradictory emotions all in the same prayer. “I hate the assembly of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked...O Lord, I love the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells.” (Psalms 26:5, 8) He feels no need to try to make sense of it all. He trusts God can sort it out.
He can express his anger and desire for vengeance against those who hurt him. “O God, break the teeth in their mouths; tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord! Let them vanish like water that runs away; when he aims his arrows, let them be blunted. Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime, like the stillborn child who never sees the sun...The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance; he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked. Mankind will say, "Surely there is a reward for the righteous; surely there is a God who judges on earth." (Psalms 58:6-8, 10-11) And almost in the same breath, be so tender. “Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.” (Psalms 62:8)
Ultimately, the Psalms give us permission to be real and authentic before God. To truly be ourselves. To put aside all pretense and performance and let drop the masks we so often wear.