Praying Through Psalms Cindy Hamilton

I LOVE THIS PSALM There is so much joy in it. Make a joyful noise because God has done awesome things! Come and see what God has done among us! Bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard! This is what we do on a Sunday morning: we make a joyful noise and remember all the good things that God has done among us, and we celebrate!

Frequently in the Psalms the psalmist takes a moment amidst the declarations of praise in order to instruct the people. In verse 18 the Psalmist does just that when he reminds his listeners that "If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened." This is a call to purity and repentance. Is there anything we are treasuring in our hearts that God wants to remove, that in fact must be removed before the Lord will act?

Ask the Lord, listen and journal.

OFTEN WHILE READING or praying the Psalms, I am convicted. The source of that conviction is found in the first set of beads for this psalm, Psalm 63:3: "because your love is better than life." This is a glorious truth and I believe it to be true, but I do not always live in this truth. Being loved by the Father is better than life, better than anything--there is nothing greater to be desired. My desire is to meditate on this truth so that my faith grows in such a way that I live in this truth.

MY PRAYER FOR YOU is that this psalm will become a wonderful song of trust that you return to again and again. As you pray through it, rest in God's presence within and without. I pray that you know Jesus as your fortress and that your faith will not be shaken.

If, as you have prayed this psalm, the Lord has brought to your mind places or people or things that you have put your trust in that are not God, give those to him now. Repent where God brings conviction to do so.

Close by thanking God that he is strong and that he is loving.

SO OFTEN WE FORGET to cry to God for help. We agonize over our troubles or set out to solve them on our own. Emotions overcome us, and we have no peace because we forget we have a Father in heaven who cares about every detail of our lives. What troubles have you hesitated to offer to God or forgotten to cry out to God about? Cast your burdens on him and rest in his sustaining love.

THE FOURTH SET of beads says, "Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me; O Lord, make hast to help me." I have discovered that when the Lord delivers me from fear, or I have repented of a sin and feel much lighter, there is a sense of having "a new song put in my mouth by the Lord." Indeed, I walk with a new lightness that results in a hymn of praise in my heart.

It is good to recall the places where the Lord has helped and delivered us, to bring them to him in a song or prayer of praise. Revisiting the things God has done for us strengthens us. That is one of the reasons that remembrance is such a key theme of the Bible.

Take a moment to enter into the practice of gratitude for a place God has helped you. Journal.

DEAR FRIENDS, WE ARE IN HOLY WEEK. I can think of no finer Psalm than Psalm 51 to pray through during Holy Week. Whether you pray this Psalm first thing in the morning or last thing at night it is a Psalm to meet our Lord in and ask him for our greatest need, to be washed from iniquity and cleansed from sin.

I encourage you to attend Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and of course Resurrection Sunday services. Enter in to the beautiful and sorrowful narrative of our Salvation.