Prayer and the PsalmsSample

We won’t have time or space to comment on every Psalm, so I have chosen selectively, and not necessarily in order.  Have your scriptures open to each Psalm we look at, as this will only enrich these reflections as you see things you haven’t seen before.

Psalm 22 - Why have you forsaken me?

With these words Jesus articulated his profound agony and despairing separation from his Father on the cross.  He was already familiar with this Psalm, and it gave true and profound expression to what he was experiencing on the cross.  This Psalm spoke prophetically to him in his death and the circumstances surrounding it, as much as by his faithful articulation of the scripture than in it being a strictly predictive prophetic word.  

God’s word gives voice to our voice – it gives permission in our pain to articulate the reality of our circumstance, and, as we shall see, hope for the future.

The writer goes on to remember and remind God of his deliverance of his historic people, Israel.  This is most likely referring to the nation defining Exodus from Egypt under Moses.  The writers of the Old Testament canon regularly referred to two great events – Creation and Exodus.  They both matter and were something the nation constantly looked back to and referred to, especially when they were oppressed or in captivity.  Nothing has changed.  We are to remind God, although it is more that we are reminding ourselves, that he did deliver his people and can/will do so again.  Remembering and reminding matters - to God and to us.

As the Psalm progresses the demand is made that we all make – ‘Look at how I’m treated.  I’m not being delivered.  You did it for others, why not me?  It’s just not fair.’  Everyone can relate to this.

The Psalmist went a step further by saying that even though he was taught to trust God by his mother, looking at his present circumstances was hardly cause for rejoicing.  In other words, is trust working - let alone worth it?  I doubt anybody worth their salt hasn’t at least thought the same as this person.  It is a rare breed that hasn’t doubted God’s existence, let alone his care.  

This is followed by a prayer for deliverance and help - a way forward.  The Psalmist isn’t incoherent or confused – simply, processing. God’s people are always forward-looking and hopeful, by orientation.  Our faith is teleological – it is always leading somewhere.  It is our hope that God is moving his creation to being summed up and fulfilled in Christ.  So, nothing is meaningless, even if it feels so at the time.  Time is our narrow and limiting focus, but not God’s.   

In conclusion, the Psalmist eventually leads to praise, and a call to praise, as he declares the mercies and wonders of God.  This shows how the process of the genuine expression of our fears and doubts leads to a climate of praise and thanksgiving - provided we don’t get bogged down in fears and doubts.  They are perfectly normal, but not the end (the telos) of the journey.  

I finish with two quotes, the first from Claus Westermann.  “There is no petition that did not move at least one step on the road to praise. But there is no praise that is fully separated from the experience of God’s wonderful intervention in time of need.”  And the second by Walter Brueggemann. “The praise has power to transform the pain.  But conversely the present pain also keeps the act of praise honest.”