Friday: Further Thought – Teach us to Pray
Daily Lesson for Friday 12th of January 2024
Read Psalms 42:8 and Ellen G. White, “Poetry and Song,” pp. 159–168, in Education. How are prayer and song related according to these inspired texts?
Ellen G. White describes David’s penitent psalms (e.g. Psalms 51:1-19) as the language of his soul and prayers that illustrate the nature of true sorrow for sin (see Steps to Christ, pp. 24, 25). She encourages believers to memorize texts from the Psalms as the means of fostering the sense of God’s presence in their lives and highlights Jesus’ practice of lifting His voice with psalms when met with temptation and oppressive fear. She also remarks: “How often by words of holy song are unsealed in the soul the springs of penitence and faith, of hope and love and joy! . . . Indeed, many a song is prayer.”—Education, pp. 162–168.
When we pray and sing the Psalms, we assume the persistence, boldness, courage, and hope of the psalmists. They encourage us to continue our spiritual journey and comfort us that we are not alone. Other people, like us, have gone through dark times and yet were triumphant by the grace of God. At the same time, the Psalms reveal to us the glimpses of Christ’s fervent intercession on our behalf, as He always lives to pray for us (Hebrews 7:25).
Engaging psalms in prayer and worship makes the believing community aware of the full range of human experience and teaches the worshipers to engage in the various facets of that experience in worship. The Psalms are divine-human prayers and songs. For that reason, including psalms consistently in worship brings the believing community to the center of God’s will and powerful healing grace.
Discussion Questions
- Why is spontaneous, unguided prayer not the only way to pray? How can our prayer life benefit from the Psalms, the biblical prayers?
- How can the Psalms enrich our communal prayer experience? Discuss some practical ways your local church can foster the use of the Psalms in its worship services.
- What do the Psalms reveal about the complexity of the human pilgrimage of faith and the power of God’s healing grace?
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I want to end this week of study on a different note (excuse the pun). The psalms were always meant to be sung and there is a long history of Psalmody. Even today some protestant churches use only the Psalms for their musical worship. (That would probably avoid some of the arguments we have about music in our worship.) Some folk have tried to reconstruct how the Hebrews would have sung the Psalms but there is not a lot of agreement on their interpretation. It's a pity that audio recording developed so late in human history. We can be sure of one thing: a psalm sung to the accompaniment of sackbuts and ram's horns is going to sound very different to a modern song service with guitars, drums, and keyboards. (Well maybe.)
I am going to link to a reconstruction of Psalm 19 here. I don't think it is definitive, a lot of people disagree with her interpretation, but at least it is an attempt to understand the musical component of early psalm singing.
Thank you Maurice for sharing this beautiful melody of Psalms 19.
It's a relaxing meditational and reading the Psalms whilst listening to it just resonates in your heart, soul and mind.
Blessed Sabbath when it arrive.
God bless. Lorraine
I like how the lesson reminds us that the psalms are a means of fostering God's presence in our lives.
I thank the Lord.
In references to worship, Instead of incorporating "worldy" standards into the Seventh-day Adventist church like praise dancing that exposes women's legs in a manner which is against the Biblical standards of how a woman dresses, we Should utilize the Psalms in a way that pleases God in HolinessS expressed by humility! We as a church has adopted many ways which are unbiblical into our Adventist churches!
If you sing the old praise songs (by that I mean the ones from the 70s and 80s) you will find that many of the psalms are reflected in the lyrics. So we don't necessarily have to write new songs to sing the psalms. The hymns are great for depth but the newer songs are often more worshipful in their simplicity. We need both.
I have never seen praise dancing that exposes womens' legs but I seem to remember David being criticized for dancing before the Ark. Also Psalm 150 talks about lots of noisy instruments and dancing. So maybe we should reserve our criticism. God knows who is truly worshipping.
Thank you
Of course God does know those who are Truly worshipping Him!! So,"if" it is within the guidelines of Godliness and Holiness, according to God's stamdards thru (Ellen G White) God's Messenger, as well as God's Word which says "They that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth! Not utilizing or adopting any of the Pagan styles that have been passed on through worldly traditions! Jesus spoke about false traditions and practices in these last days and how we need to be aware of satans moves for he seeks to kill, steal and destroy and he doesn't care how to manipulate the masses as long as he (satan) sweeps them under his umbrella! Do not be deceived are the words of Jesus! Watch and pray for your adversary the devil seeks to destroy as a roaring lion!
Sometimes we are so concerned about the purity bit that we forget the practical application of getting our hands dirty by caring for those in need. Instead of preaching the pagan origins of Christmas this last year, our local churches donated and packed 100s of food hampers to be distributed by local welfare agencies.