A Prayer For
If the Lord’s Prayer from the lips of Jesus tells us what to pray, the book of Psalms shows us how to pray.
Look at the Psalms: almost every imaginable moment of human existence is recorded in one or more of the 150 Psalms:
There’s a prayer for the morning, a prayer for the evening.
A prayer for the Temple, a prayer for the dinner table.
A prayer for children, a prayer for creation.
A prayer for the hurting, a prayer for the happy.
A prayer for marriage, a prayer for the meal.
A prayer for those who mock, a prayer for those who mourn.
A prayer for the broken, a prayer for the blessed.
A prayer for God’s law, a prayer for God’s love.
A prayer for mercy, a prayer for justice.
A prayer for God’s people, a prayer for God’s enemies.
A prayer for the neighborhood, a prayer for the nation.
A prayer for the city, a prayer for the self.
The Psalms are the language of lament; they are the poems of praise and they are, as we will see for 6 weeks, they are also the songs of surprise. They show us a surprising amount about ourselves, our family, our faith community, our neighborhoods, our city and our nation.
Let’s lean into these “prayers for” together!