* This sermon is adapted from the following articles:
“Why You Should Be Praying the Psalms,” by Don Whitney, September 10, 2015, published in The Center for Biblical Spirituality (https://biblicalspirituality.org/why-you-should-be-praying-the-psalms/)
“7 Reasons You Should Pray the Psalms,” by Christopher Ash, August 27, 2018, published in The Gospel Coalition (https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/7-reasons-pray-the-psalms/)
“7 Most Important Reasons Why You Should Pray the Psalms,” Author unknown, August 16, 2021, published in The Psalms for Protection (https://psalm91.com/2021/08/16/7-most-important-reasons-why-you-should-pray-the-psalms/)
***
Since the beginning of 2021, my daily devotions have been from the Book of Psalms. Over the past months, I have come to learn the importance of why we should pray the Psalms daily.
When we pray the Psalms, they shape our affections so that we love what God says is right and teach us to deeply desire the blessings he promises us in the gospel.
A little history:
The title is derived from the Greek translation, (psalmoi, Sal-Mo-EE), meaning “instrumental music” and, by extension, “the words accompanying the music.”
The Book of Psalms has 150 chapters with each being an individual psalm.
Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible with 176 verses.
The Psalms are filled with raw honesty, calm reflection, and deep wisdom.
The Psalms are words we can pray to God when we cannot find our own, and words God can speak through when we long to hear His voice.
Today I would like to show you why we should pray the Psalms and pray them daily.
1. Praying the Psalms teaches us to pray.
This is the most important reason by a long shot. Every Christian knows we need to pray, and most of us were taught to pray at a young age.
In our church there have been many people whom we refer to as prayer warriors.
Many of you might have said I wish I could pray like they do.
After a while, we realize we need to be taught to pray correctly we don’t just instinctively know how, even after we’re born again.
Luke 11:1; says, “Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’”
We know this as the Lord’s Prayer.
The pattern of the Lord’s Prayer is filled out by the Psalms, which expand on and echo its themes.
All through the life of Jesus even up to his death on the cross, he would pray the Psalms.
At his death when Jesus said, “Father, why have you forsaken me?” he is praying Psalm 22.
Not all the Psalms are prayers, but they will all shape our prayers in so many ways.
2. Praying the Psalms trains us to respond to the riches of Bible truth.
All the wonderful truth of the Bible is poured into the Psalms in such a way that we learn to delight in God: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
If we think of each Bible book as a garden with its particular fruit, the Psalms is the garden in which every kind of biblical fruit grows.
Perhaps that’s why early travelers in pre-digital days would sometimes carry a New Testament and Psalms where they couldn’t take a complete Bible.
In fact, for years our military was issued and New Testament and Psalms that they would carry in their uniform pockets.
It takes a while to learn from the Psalms how to respond to the whole of the Bible’s teaching. But it’s worth the effort.
If we learn to pray the Psalms, we will have learned to respond in prayer to every facet of biblical truth.
3. Praying the Psalms shapes well-rounded people to pray in all of human life.
Not only do the Psalms encapsulate all the Bible’s teaching, they also express every facet of human experience.
As I have studied this past year, the Psalms have given me a richer palette of emotional colors to describe, understand, and feel my own and others’ experience.
Just as a child graduates from painting in primary colors to using subtle tones in their art, so a Christian soaked in the Psalms moves from an emotionally childish experience toward a richer and more nuanced life of the heart.
John Calvin called the Psalms an “anatomy of all the parts of the soul” because “there is not an emotion of which any one can be conscious that is not here represented as in a mirror.
Or, rather, the Holy Spirit has here drawn to the life all the griefs, sorrows, fears, doubts, hopes, cares, perplexities, in short, all the distracting emotions with which the minds of men are wont to be agitated.”
This past week, I had an MRI. Before my appointment, I was an emotional train wreck.
I have claustrophobia and anxiety issues.
Before my test I prayed the Psalms and I asked other to do likewise on my behalf.
My test was a breeze and the results came back great.
4. Praying the Psalms reorients disordered affections into God’s good order.
You and I and most around us are a mass of disordered affections.
We desire what we ought to detest, and we care little for what we ought deeply to desire.
This is because our wills choose what we desire; we do what we want.
I call this the I-Me mentality. What do I get out of this? And What is in it for ME?
Perhaps the most necessary work of God in our hearts is to change our desires so that we want what God wants.
Only when this begins to happen, will our lives change at the deep level of our hearts.
The Psalms shape our affections so that we love what God says is right and deeply desire the blessings He promises us in the gospel.
5. Praying the Psalms can sweeten sour emotions.
With all that has been going on in the country and the world I have found that more and more people are angry and bitter.
People whom I have always felt to be happy and without cares are now bitter and confused.
The big thing is most don’t know who they are mad at – they just know they are mad.
When we are turned in on ourselves in resentment, bitterness, anger, or despair, these emotions become deeply destructive.
They give our whole lives a sour taste.
The Psalms can take these dark emotions and transform them into something life-giving.
Going back to Calvin, he writes, “The Psalms, will principally teach and train us to bear the cross so that the afflictions which are the bitterest and most severe to our nature, become sweet to us, because they proceed from Christ.”
6. Praying the Psalms guards us against dangerously individualistic piety.
In our Western culture, we think our Christianity is a “me and God” thing.
I want to submit that it is more fundamentally, a “we and God” thing.
With this idea, “we” means the church of Jesus Christ.
When we properly understand the Psalms, we know this makes sense only when we remember that we belong and pray, and praise with all Christ’s people.
My friends, whenever you read the Psalms, you are praying, singing, and reading alongside a huge crowd of faithful witnesses throughout the ages.
The words you speak have been spoken thousands even millions of times before.
As you read or sing or pray, off to your right stand Moses and Miriam, in front of you David and Solomon kneel down, while from behind come the voices of Jerome, St. Augustine, Luther, Calvin, and more read and sing with you!
To take that one step farther when you pray the Psalms, you are praying the same words that Jesus prayed his entire life.
7. Praying the Psalms arouses us to warmth in our relationship with God.
In closing, praying the Psalms is God’s antidote to coldness of heart in our walk with Christ.
We know that we ought to find the truths of the gospel and the person of Jesus Christ thrilling and heart-warming, but the reality is we sometimes feel so cold, dull, and empty of zeal and fervor.
Life sometimes leaves us cold. Cold of heart, cold of emotion, and cold of spirit.
How are we to be brought out of the spiritual refrigerator and into the oven of love for Christ?
The Psalms are a significant part of the provision God has given to us for just this purpose.
The Psalms kindle and rekindle the fire that helps to place us back in the warm embrace of Jesus.
The Psalms could be referred to as the Greenhouse of the Bible.
A place that no matter the climate or temperature on the outside, inside it is warm and a place to grow and flourish.
Have I persuaded you to take a closer look at the Book of Psalms?
I hope so!
In reading, you will find that in the 150 different Psalms, you will feel as if you are on a roller coaster.
This book is a series of ups and downs, but my friends so is life, and so is our daily journey.
Here is the important thing to remember.
No matter if you are up or down, on the hills or in the valleys.
God is there.
God is in control and God has a plan for each of us.
As the old saying goes, Our only job is to “Let Go and Let God be our source of direction.”
I’d be so pleased to draw you into the same passion for the Psalms that has long stirred my affections for God.
***
REMINDER:
* This sermon is adapted from the following articles:
“Why You Should Be Praying the Psalms,” by Don Whitney, September 10, 2015, published in The Center for Biblical Spirituality (https://biblicalspirituality.org/why-you-should-be-praying-the-psalms/)
“7 Reasons You Should Pray the Psalms,” by Christopher Ash, August 27, 2018, published in The Gospel Coalition (https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/7-reasons-pray-the-psalms/)
“7 Most Important Reasons Why You Should Pray the Psalms,” Author unknown, August 16, 2021, published in The Psalms for Protection (https://psalm91.com/2021/08/16/7-most-important-reasons-why-you-should-pray-the-psalms/)