Current Series: Praying the Psalms
Jan 12: 21-Day Prayer Devotional begins - Click for the prayer guide
Some people think that you need to be eloquent or use special words to pray. They are afraid to be open with God about negative feelings, sin, depression, or pain. Others feel like they do not know how to put words to their thoughts of praise, honor and glory.
The Psalms demonstrate the only place in the Bible where much of the language is addressed directly to God. The Psalms show us that we can be unhappy in God’s presence. They show us that we can talk to God even when He feels distant. In Martin Luther's words: “As a teacher will compose letters or little speeches for his pupils to write to their parents, so by this book he prepares both the language and the mood in which we should address the heavenly Father.”
Through the blood of Christ, we have direct access to God in prayer and can express all things to Him. Jesus gave His disciples a model prayer. The language, as we will also see in Psalms, was not distant or complicated but intimate and basic... "Our Father who art in heaven..." If anything, we learn that we can be open and honest with God and approach him as our loving father... that "language" is learned as we pray the Psalms.
“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—so many more!” - Gerald H. Wilson