Saturday, November 1, 2008

Praying the Psalms

Filed under: "I couldn't have said it better myself"
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Christianity Today has a good, brief article on Five Ways to Pray the Psalms.
1. Say them out loud.
2. Festoon them.
3. Paraphrase them.
4. Learn them by heart.
5. Marinate in them.
Enjoy the article. Put it into practice.

4 comments:

rich said...

How about sing them?

Also, what do you mean by "festoon" them?

John said...

The way the article explains 'festoon': "Think of a psalm as a Christmas tree. Read it and then festoon it with your own prayers, as you would decorate a tree. Your prayers are answers to what God says to you in the psalm. One way to understand a psalm's intent is to read it through the lens of the "three Rs": Rejoice: What do I find here that gives me cause to rejoice, to give praise and thanks? Repent: What do I read here that brings to light sin in my life? Request: What in this psalm can inform the way I pray for others and myself?"

rich said...

Thanks. Reading the article before asking would probably help. But don't you think the obvious way to pray the Psalms was missed by the article?

John said...

@ Rich: Absolutely, but thought it was helpful as well. Most just read by default.

I think one of the biggest challenges of the church today is enabling folks to sing the psalms. We (north americans) don't do well at chanting, and our normal way of singing doesn't lend itself to singing the psalms, but we must work towards this end, methinks.